Illinois is one of those few states to have both a PGA Tour and a LIV Tour tournament this year.  The friction between the two circuits is still there, but Sepp Straka downplayed it during the John Deere Classic’s annual Champions Day in Rock Island last week.

Straka will defend his title in Illinois’ only annual PGA Tour stop at TPC Deere Run in downstate Silvis July 1-7.

Elevated tournaments are trending on the PGA Tour as a response to the bigger purses, smaller fields and no-cut events on the Saudi-backed LIV circuit.  The JDC isn’t one of the elevated PGA stops. It remains a 156-player shootout with a cut after 36 holes and $8 million in prize money, a big drop from the PGA’s elevated events that offer purses in the $20 million range.

The LIV Tour, which also has prize funds in the $20 million range, returns for its third straight year on Sept. 13-15 but at a new site, Bolingbrook Golf Club replacing Rich Harvest Farms.  This year’s event will be the LIV’s season individual championship.

Negotiations between the PGA and LIV meanwhile remain in limbo and an agreement seems even more distant now that two members of the PGA’s negotiating group quit the board in frustration recently.

“It’s more sad for the golf fans than for us (players),’’ said Straka. “Hopefully things get moved a little bit, but it is a pretty slow process and I wouldn’t expect anything to happen in the next few months.’’

Don’t feel sorry for the JDC, however. In fact, Straka believes there should be more tournaments like it.

“The Tour needs more than elevated events,’’ he said.  “None of the stars ever started playing in elevated events when they first came out.  Very few of them had that status.  Stars are created by playing well in these tournaments (like the JDC) and moving up through the ranks. That’s why a lot of  guys still come to this one.  It’s a special place.’’

Straka was the star of last year’s JDC.  He had the gallery on 59-watch until he hit his approach to the final green into the water, leading to a double bogey.  He still won by two shots for his second PGA victory.  He won the last Honda Classic in Florida in 2022 before that tourney changed sponsors.

Last year Straka was runner-up in the British Open behind another former JDC winner, Brian Harman, and he also played on Europe’s winning Ryder Cup team. One of his Euro teammates, Sweden’s Ludvig Aberg, finished fourth in last year’s JDC.

Straka, who grew up in Austria before playing collegiately at Georgia, plans to play for Austria again in the Paris Olympics this summer. This year he tied for 16^th in both The Players and Masters before missing the cut at the PGA Championship.

U.S. WOMEN’S OPEN: Red hot Nelly Korda, the LPGA’s No. 1-ranked player with six wins in her last seven starts,  will have challenges from two Chicago-connected players when Pennyslvania’s Lancaster Country Club hosts the 72-hole event beginning tomorrow (THURSDAY, MAY 30).

Both Elizabeth Szokol, of Winnetka, and Caroline Smith, of Inverness, survived qualifying tournaments to earn spots in the field.   Szokol is a regular on the LPGA Tour and teamed with Cheyenne Knight to win the circuit’s Dow Great Lakes Invitational last year.

Smith, an amateur, qualified at Briarwood, in Deerfield.  She started her collegiate career at Wake Forest, then transferred to Indiana and helped the Hoosiers to their first Big Ten title in 26 years with a tie for fourth finish as an individual.

HERE AND THERE: Two Chicago area teaching professionals – Jamie Fischer of Conway Farms and Nicole Jeray of Mistwood – finished tied for 11^th and tied for 28^th respectively in the LPGA Senior Championship in Utah.

Mt. Prospect’s Joe Cermak won the ninth Chicago District Mid-Amateur title at Elgin Country Club last week.  Cermak is director of admissions and assistant golf coach at St. Patrick’s, his high school alma mater.

Ground-breaking for a multi-year renovation of the 27 holes at Cantigny, in Wheaton, will be held at 9 a.m. tomorrow (THURSDAY, MAY 30).

Nancy Towers, of Downers Grove, was an early qualifier for the U.S. Adaptive Open, a championship for the world’s best golfers with disabilities.  She advanced through an Indiana qualifying event.  The main event is July 8-10 in Kansas.

 

 

Mike Small has had better teams than his current one at the University of Illinois.  Several of them, including last year’s veteran squad, even came close to winning the NCAA title but couldn’t finish the job.

The current Illini did make it to the NCAA finals, which begin a week-long run on Friday (MAY 24) at LaCosta in Carlsbad, Calif., despite being dethroned as Big Ten champions by Northwestern  two weeks ago.  That ended a record eight-year conference  title run by the Illini, but they bounced back in a hurry.

Last week Small’s 17^th Illini team won the NCAA’s Stanford Regional, the sixth such title under Small’ direction.

Northwestern, meanwhile, saw its season come to an end with the Wildcats finishing 12^th in the 13-team North Carolina Regional, but Notre Dame will join Illinois at LaCosta after finishing third in the Texas Regional.

Illinois, though ranked No. 18 nationally and seeded third in its regional,  dominated the field at Stanford, winning by eight strokes over top-seeded Florida State. The Illini qualified for the NCAA finals for the 15^th time in the last 16 years.

“This is just another step and progression in our yearly goals,’’ said Small. “We’ll enjoy it as a team, then get ready for the next piece of the puzzle.’’

Max Herendeen, a freshman, won his first collegiate tournament by leading wire-to-wire at Stanford.  He finished the 54-hole regional at 13-under-par 197 and became the fifth Illinois golfer to claim medalist honors at a regional.  Brian Campbell, now on the Korn Ferry Tour, won twice and Nick Hardy, Michael Feagles and Luke Guthrie also took titles.

“Max keeps improving and growing,’’ said Small. “He handled himself like a champion.  He hit it really solid, but the way he handled his emotions and focus is what made it fun to watch,’’

Illinois had three players in the top 10 at Stanford, and that balance bodes well for the team’s chances for another run at the national title.

“We had a total team effort from top to bottom (at the regional),’’ said Small. “Illinois golf has always prided itself on each man doing his job and this was a perfect example of that. This shows what’s possible when we play from strength and play solid, fundamental golf.’’

IN MEMORIAM: The Chicago golf community  lost two of its most popular members recently with the passing of Ed Posh and Bill Berger.

Posh, from West Chicago, was the first head professional at Village Links of Glen Ellyn and served in that post until 1995 when he assumed emeritus status.   Upon his retirement a scholarship fund was established in his honor and 118 students have benefitted from $1,240,000 in grants over the years.

Berger, from Franklin Park, was a lifetime member of the PGA and former touring professional.  He had been a co-host on the Golfers on Golf Radio show for the past 16 years. Posh was 94 and Berger 87.

HERE AND THERE:  Thomas Detry, the Belgian golfer who played for Illinois from 2012-16, tied for fourth in the PGA Championship at Kentucky’s Valhalla on Sunday. Andy Svoboda, the new head professional at Butler National in Oak Brook, couldn’t keep his early-season hot streak going at the PGA.  He missed the 36-hole cut there but was named to the PGA Cup team.

The first championship of the Chicago District Golf Association’s 111^th season concludes today (WEDNESDAY) when the ninth CDGA Mid-Amateur’s title match is played at Elgin Country Club.

Long-time Chicago area club professional Tim Govern has been named the new head pro at Rolling Green in Arlington Heights.

Chicago-connected tour players Luke Donald and Doug Ghim survived the PGA’s 36-hole cut.  Former Northwestern and European Ryder Cup captain Donald had missed the cut in all four of his starts this season until finishing tied for 68^th  at Valhalla.  Ghim, from Arlington Heights, tied for 35^th – his best finish in a major championship since turning pro in 2018.

 

 

 

Next week’s PGA Championship is the second of golf’s four major tournaments of 2024, and it’ll be extremely significant from a Chicago perspective.

Two present Chicago area club professionals – Andy Svoboda of Butler National and Jeff Kellen of North Shore – earned spots in the field by finishing in the top 20 at last week’s PGA Professionals Championship in Texas.

And that’s not all.  A third player with strong Illinois ties, Brad Marek, also cracked the top 20 and earned his second appearance in the PGA.  Marek grew up in Arlington Heights, attended Hersey High School and won the Illinois State Junior in 2002 and the Illinois State Amateur in 2005. He turned pro in 2008 after playing collegiately at Indiana.

Svoboda tied for second in the PGA Professionals Championship at Fields Ranch, in Frisco,  TX,  Marek tied for sixth and Kellen tied for eighth.  That tourney had a 312-player field, with all the participants having survived PGA sectional qualifiers. Now they’ll match skills with the world’s best touring professionals.

The experience is nothing new for Marek, who has been working in  since California since 2015.  In 2021 he qualified after a top-20 finish in the PGA Professionals event, then he made the cut in the PGA Championship at Kiawah, in South Carolina.

At Kiawah Marek finished 78^th, beating two-time Masters champion Bubba Watson, who finished 80^th, in a year when such luminaries as Sergio Garcia, Dustin Johnson, Xander Schauffele, Adam Scott and Justin Thomas didn’t survive the 36-hole cut.

The Svoboda-Kellen scenario is interesting as well.  Kellen switched head professional jobs, moving from Butler, in Oak Brook, to North Shore, in Glenview, during the winter.  Svoboda, who had been the Connecticut PGA Player of the Year in 2023, was hired at Butler in March.

While a Chicago newcomer, Svoboda is a seasoned tournament player.  Now 44, he topped $1 million in winnings on both the Korn Ferry and PGA Tours. He was a three-time winner on the Korn Ferry and runner-up at the PGA Tour stop in New Orleans. Like Kellen, he’ll be playing in the PGA Championship for the first time.

“It’s a dream come true,’’ said Svoboda.  “(The Professionals Championship) was a great week on an amazing golf course with amazing competition.  It was fun to play at the new home of the PGA of America.’’

Svoboda will be in the field for the Illinois PGA’s first of four majors this week.  The IPGA Match Play began its three-day run on Tuesday at Bull Valley, in Woodstock.

For Kellen making it to Valhalla was even more special.  He did it with his father serving as his caddie in Texas.

“I’m so proud to be a PGA member,’’ said Kellen.  “This was a wild week with all the weather delays, but I was able to buckle down and play some good golf.’’

Getting two Illinois Section members into the PGA Championship is a rarity.  The last time it happened was in 2004 when Roy Biancalana and Mike Small made it.

HERE AND THERE —  Illinois’ Jackson Buchanan has been named joint winner of the Big Ten Player of the Year honor after a ballot review.  He shares the honor with Purdue’s Herman Sekne. The Illini have had a Big Ten Player of the Year for four straight years.

NCAA men’s regional play begins on Monday (MAY 13) with Illinois in the Stanford Regional.  Big Ten champion Northwestern will be in the North Carolina Regional and Notre Dame in the Texas Regional.  Two Illinois State golfers, Valentin Peugnet and Alex McCulla, will compete as individuals in the Purdue Regional.

Jason Day has entered July’s John Deere Classic.  He started his PGA Tour career there in 2006 but hasn’t played in Illinois’ only annual PGA Tour event since 2011.

Illinois third, and last, U.S. Open local qualifier will be held Monday (MAY 13) at Illini Country Club in Springfield.  It’ll have 84 players competing for five spots in the final qualifying stage.  Illini CC will be hosting a local for the 45^th consecutive year, or every year since the U.S. Golf Assn. has held such qualifiers.  No other club in the country can make that claim.

The Golfers on Golf Radio show kicked off its 34^th season last week on WNDZ (750-AM).  The longest-running golf radio show in Chicago history has a new starting time – 9 a.m., on Saturdays.  It has three co-hosts at the moment – Rory Spears, Ed Stevenson and Len Ziehm —  with Bill Berger fighting a battle with cancer.

 

 

Illinois’ record eight-year run as the Big Ten champion in men’s golf is over.  Northwestern, led by medalist Daniel Svard, was a winner by 15 strokes at Ohio’s Scioto Country Club on Sunday with the Illini second.

Both schools will get their regional assignments in the NCAA tournament today on The Golf Channel’s Selection Show.

“Hats off to Northwestern,’’ said Illini coach Mike Small.  “They controlled the narrative from Day 1. Nobody else played to that level. They had four guys in the top 10.  We didn’t have much answer for that.’’

Svard, a sophomore, won the individual title for the second straight year and was NU’s third multiple winner following Sid Richardson (1937-38) and Luke Donald (2000-01). It was the Wildcats’ first team title since 2006.

Illinois junior Jackson Buchanan was second individually, finishing one stroke behind Svard’s 1-over par 211 in the 54-hole test.

OPEN LOCALS: The two Chicago area local qualifiers for June’s U.S. Open at Pinehurst, N.C., are now official.

Northern Illinois alum Bryce Emory, the 2020 Illinois Open champion from Aurora, and new Butler National head professional Andrew Svoboda shared medalist honors last week at Stonewall Orchard in Gurnee and Hinsdale’s Mac McClear dominated Monday’s session at Cantigny in Wheaton.

David Nyfjall, a Northwestern alum from Sweden, and Charlie Nikitas, of Glenview, survived a four-man playoff for the final two berths in the final qualifying stage at Stonewall and Libertyville’s Graham O’Connor Brooks and Bloomington’s T.J. Barger were among five players sharing second place at Cantigny.

McClear, a Big Ten medalist twice at Iowa, shot a five-under-par 67 in his Open qualifier, was five strokes better than his nearest rivals.

Final qualifiers begin on May 20 to decide the 156 finalists for the Open proper at Pinehurst, N.C. on June 13-16.

HERE AND THERE:  Nick Hardy’s title defense with partner Davis Riley in the Zurich Classic of New Orleans ended with the pair finishing in a tie for 28^th place on Sunday.  Hardy, from Northbrook, had local company at that spot.  Arlington Heights’ Doug Ghim, paired with Chan Kim, and Northwestern alum Dylan Wu, playing with Justin Lower, also were in the group tied for 28^th.  Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry won the PGA Tour’s lone annual two-man team event.

Winnetka’s Elizabeth Szokol, Illinois only LPGA Tour player, tied for 61^st in the Jim Eagle LA Championship.  Szokol has survived the 36-hole cut in six of her eight starts in 2024 with a best finish of a tie for 30^th in the season-opening Tournament of Champions.

Northwestern has earned a spot in the women’s NCAA tourney, which begins its three-day regional run on Monday in East Lansing, Mich.  Illinois didn’t qualify as a team but senior Isabel Sy will compete there as an individual.

The first of the Illinois PGA’s four major tournaments – the Match Play Championship – tees off on Monday at Bull Valley, in Woodstock. Chris French, of Aldeen in Rockford, is the defending champion.

Twelve IPGA members, among them French and Svoboda, are competing in the PGA Professional Championship this week in Texas.  Illinois has the fifth-most  players in the 312-man field among the PGA’s 41 sections.  The tourney ends today and the top 20 qualify for the PGA Championship May 13-19 at Valhalla, in Kentucky.

The Chicago District Golf Assn. will hold a qualifier for its Senior Mid Amateur on Wednesday at Bloomingdale and the first qualifier for its Mid Am Thursday  at Kankakee Elks.

 

 

 

 

 

The Illinois PGA informally opened its tournament season this week, but it won’t be long until the section’s newest feature in the schedule kicks in. Team play will make its debut on May 13 at the first stroke play event at Schaumburg Golf Club.

This is real team play, not best ball or foursome competitions.  With nine six-player teams and a seven-tournament schedule, it more closely resembles what the LIV Golf League started doing three years ago at its tournaments.

The 10-man IPGA tournament committee invited interest from section members, then named captains based largely on last year’s Bernardi Point Standings. Those who signed up were placed in pods based on past performance and the captains drew  from each one to create nine teams of six players each.

Each player who signed up contributed to the season’s prize fund, and a few details will be finalized when they gather at Schaumburg.

“It should be pretty cool,’’ said tournament committee chairman Andy Mickelson, of Mistwood in Romeoville, “and it should be pretty lucrative for the top three teams.’’

The competitive format will be two gross best ball and the season-long competition will be held at the six stroke play events – at Schaumburg, Merit Club in Libertyville, Glen Flora in Waukegan, Oak Park in River Grove, Crystal Lake Country Club and Mt. Hawley in Peoria –and conclude at the IPGA Players Championship Sept. 30-Oct. 1 at Glen View Club.

Team captains are Roy Biancalana and Brian Carroll, both from The Hawk in St. Charles: Jim Billiter, Ivanhoe; Kyle Donovan, Oak Park; Kevin Flack, Mauh-Nah-Tee-See in Rockford; Chris French, Aldeen in Rockford; Jeff Kellen, North Shore in Glenview; Matthew Rion from Briarwood in Deerfield; and Mickelson.

The IPGA’s schedule also has two new events – the Pro-Junior at Mount Prospect on June 19 and the Pro-Veterans at Cantigny, in Wheaton, on Oct. 10. The Illinois Open, the section’s premier championship, will return to Flossmoor Country Club on Aug. 5-7.

HERE AND THERE: The University of Illinois men’s goes after its ninth straight Big Ten championship when the conference teams gather for a three-day competition at Scioto, in Columbus, Ohio, on Friday. The Illini won their last regular season tournament, the Fighting Illini Spring Collegiate at Atkins Golf Club in Urbana last week.  Sophomore Ryan Voris was the individual winner.

The Chicago area’s two local qualifiers for the U.S. Open are today (APRIL 24) at Stonewall Orchard, in Grayslake, and Monday (APRIL 29) at Cantigny. There’ll be 73 players competing for four spots in the final qualifying stage at Stonewall and 84 battling for five spots at Cantigny.

The U.S. Golf Assn. has announced 10,052 players have entered this year’s U.S. Open that concludes June 13-16 at Pinehurst, N.C. It’s the third largest turnout in the tourney’s 124-year history.

Recently announced professional changes have Jeff Kellen moving from Butler National to North Shore and Andrew Svoboda taking over at Butler.

Gene Hiser, who played for both the Cubs and White Sox, has announced the dates for two golf charity events that he’s running.  The Bill “Soup’’ Campbell Memorial Open is June 21 at Bridges at Poplar Creek, in Hoffman Estates, and the 53^rd Chicago Baseball Cancer Charities All-Star Invitational is July 18 at Twin Orchard, in Long Grove.

Tickets are on sale for the John Deere Classic, Illinois’ only annual PGA Tour event.  Two post-round concerts are also scheduled – Counting Crows on Saturday, July 6, and Lainey Wilson on Sunday, July 7.

Mistwood will host the College Learning Experience’s Dill Midwest Exposure Camp on June 18-19.  It’ll bring together 28 girls and boys who want to connect with 10 college coaches, five heading girls teams and five guiding boys teams.

 

 

 

The year’s major golf championship ended on Sunday, when Scottie Scheffler’s  last putt dropped, giving hims his second title in three years at  the Masters. Though the second of the four majors, the PGA Championship, will be played in May the third major actually begins next Monday (APRIL 22) and the Chicago area gets a taste of it just two days later.

Sound confusing? It is, until you comprehend just how big the U.S. Open is. The deadline for online registration passed last week, the day before the Masters started.

The finals of the Open will be June 13-16 on Pinehurst’s No. 2 Course in North Carolina, but a long lead-in period is needed to determine the 156 players who will compete there. Getting to the 72-hole climax is a huge accomplishment based on sheer numbers, and the final site is significant.

Pinehurst long held the record for most entries – 10,127 in 2014.  That record was broken last year when 10,187 registered for the event that concluded at Los Angeles Country Club. Numbers like that make the U.S. Open the biggest golf tournament and one of the world’s biggest sporting events in terms of participants.

No entry figure has been announced for this year yet, but it’ll be filled with very qualified competitors.  Amateurs who want to play must have a handicap index that doesn’t exceed 0.4.  Otherwise a player must be designated as a professional to get in.

Pinehurst is the new home of the U.S. Golf Association, which conducts the championship.   Pinehurst also hosted the championship in 1999 and 2005 and has more recently been declared an anchor site.  That means the Open will be back to Pinehurst in 2029, 2035, 2041 and 2047.

Staging a U.S. Open is a massive project for the USGA. This year’s tourney requires 109 local qualifying sessions, all over 18 holes. The survivors and players exempt from locals will go through 36-hole final eliminations that begin May 20 in England, Japan and one U.S. site.  Nine other U.S. sites will host the final stage of qualifying on June 3 and another will be held in Canada that day. None will be played in Illinois, but three first-stage qualifiers will.

One of the early local qualifiers is next Wednesday (APRIL 24) at Stonewall Orchard, in Grayslake.  A former Illinois PGA Championship site, Stonewall will have 73 players battling for four spots in the second stage qualifiers.

A bigger local will be held April 29, when 84 players compete over the Woodside and Lakeside nines at Cantigny in Wheaton with five berths in the second stage on the line.

Still a third Illinois local will be played on the busiest day of the first stage.  On May 13 there’ll be 24 locals nation-wide, with one at Illini Country Club in Springfield. Illini CC, which will also have 84 players competing for five second stage spots, is hosting a local for the 45^th consecutive year. That encompasses every year since qualifying has been conducted, and no other club in the country can make that claim.

With about 10,000 registered entries  the chances of any hopefuls going on to win the Open proper are remote, but it has been done – by Ken Venturi in 1964 and Orville Moody in 1969.

Only six players won the Open after surviving the finals stage – Gene Littler (1961), Julius Boros (1963), Jerry Pate (1976), Steve Jones (1996), Michael Campbell (2005) and Lucas Glover (2009).

A few other U.S. Open winners have survived both local and final qualifiers at some point in their careers.  They include Lou Graham and Hale Irwin, both champions when the Open was played at Medinah; Curtis Strange, Lee Trevino, Gary Woodland and Fuzzy Zoeller.

 

 

The  88^th playing of the Masters tees off on  Thursday, and like every other staging, it’ll trigger golf enthusiasm throughout the world.  The year’s first major championship is traditionally a sign of spring. The tour players are ready for a serious test after three months of tournaments of much lesser importance. That’s just the way it is —  every year.

This Masters, though, is an unusual one from an Illinois perspective.  The local highlight of tournament week at Georgia’s Augusta National Golf Club has already taken place – and it was provided by a pair of 9-year olds.

Emory Munoz, of Lockport, and Lucy Wiertel, of Oswego, were among the very select group of youngsters nation-wide who participated in Sunday’s Drive, Chip & Putt finals. Emory was one of seven participants to earn a return trip after making the finals in 2023.

There were 10 finalists in each age group at Sunday’s nationally-televised competition, and neither Emory or Lucy could match the feat of Northbrook’s Martha Kuwahara a year ago.  She was one of the champions.  This time Emory improved from ninth in 2023 to seventh this time, and Lucy was ninth in her age group. The chance to compete at Augusta National, though, gave both the thrill of a lifetime.

This was a special year for Drive, Chip & Putt, too.  The Masters field will include the first ever Drive, Chip and Putt participant.  Akshay Bhatia, who won the PGA Tour’s Valero Texas Open in a playoff last Sunday, was in the youth event in 2014.

Local tour players couldn’t wangle a Masters invite. Northbrook’s Nick Hardy was a winner on the PGA tour last season, and that usually merits an invite.  Hardy’s win came in a two-man team competition in New Orleans, however, and that didn’t merit his first spot in the Masters. Hardy, though, had his best finish of the season – a tie for 25^th at the Valero Texas Open.

Wheaton’s Kevin  Streelman, a 45-year old tour veteran, didn’t make it, either.  He’s been slowed by a back injury suffered in February’s Pebble Beach Pro-Am and that’s hampered his play. His game may be be on the way back up, however, as he’s made three of five cuts since the injury, including the last two tour stops.

Streelman was in the news, too.  His first-round 64 at the Valspar Championship in Florida got him media attention, and the national media were intrigued by a new revolving ball marker that he introduced there.

The Masters has produced some Masters memories already for Streelman.  He won the colorful Par-3 Championship there in 2015 and played in five Masters. He made the cut in the last three appearances, from 2014-16,  with his best finish a tie for 12^th in 2015.

Arlington Heights’ Doug Ghim and Northwestern alum Dylan Wu are also PGA Tour regulars still hoping for the opportunity to make a Masters debut.

HERE AND THERE:  Tickets are already on sale for the John Deere Classic, Illinois’ only annual PGA Tour stop.  It’ll be held July 3-7 at TPC Deere Run in downstate Silvis.  The tourney’s Birdies for Charities program started this week.  Since its debut in 1971 it has raised $174 million for local charities.

The Illinois PGA will hold its first Chicago area competition on Monday (APRIL 15).  It’s the Pro-Pro-Pro Scramble, a three-man team event at Mistwood, in Romeoville.

The Chicago District Golf Assn. season opens with qualifiers for the CDGA Mid-Amateur at Maple Meadows, in Wood Dale, on April 22 and Sunset Valley, in Highland Park, on April 23.