Only three events remain in the PGA Tour’s 2015-16 season, and all will have very select fields.

This week’s BMW Championship, at Crooked Stick in Carmel, Ind., will feature the 70 survivors in the FedEx Cup Playoffs. The top 30 after it’s over advance to The Tour Championship Sept. 22-25 at East Lake in Atlanta and then the season concludes with the Ryder Cup – the high-profile competition between 12-player teams from the U.S. and Europe – Sept. 29 through Oct. 2 at Hazeltine National in Minnesota.

The BMW could well be the season-ender for both Wheaton’s Kevin Streelman and Luke Donald, the former Northwestern star. They remained in the top 70 in the FedEx Cup standings after the Deutsche Bank Championship in Boston concluded on Monday but need great weeks at Crooked Stick to be among the 30 who will tee it up at East Lake, where a $10 million bonus awaits the playoff champion.

Donald was bypassed in the selections for Europe’s Ryder Cup team and Streelman is a highly unlikely candidate for the four wild card spots available on the U.S. squad. Captain Davis Love III will announce three after the BMW Championship and his final one after The Tour Championship.

Both Streelman and Donald survived the final 36-hole of the season at the Deutsche Bank Championship, but that was about all. Streelman tied for 57th place and Donald tied for 65th. Both dropped in the FedEx standings because of those finishes, Donald from 53rd at the start of the week to No. 60 and Streelman from 57th to No. 63.

Still, both are assured big paydays this week, as there’s no 36-hole cut in the BMW Championship. The 70 qualifiers will share the hefty $8 million prize fund — the purse at all four of the playoff events.

The BMW Championship, conducted by the Chicago-based Western Golf Association, rotates in and out of Chicago every other year. Last year it was played at Conway Farms, in Lake Forest, with Jason Day winning the title. It’ll be back at Conway in 2017 and the only other future sites that have been determined are Aronimink in Pennsylvania in 2018 and Medinah in 2019.

Crooked Stick, a Pete Dye design in the Indianapolis suburbs, hosted the BMW Championship in 2012 with Rory McIlroy winning. A suddenly revived McIlroy also won the Deutsche Bank title on Monday after putting a new putter in his bag and hiring a new putting coach. Going 19-under-par in his final 69 holes he overcame a six-stroke deficit in the final round to climb to No. 4 in the FedEx standings.

Any player ranked in the top five who wins at East Lake will also pocket the $10 million bonus. The top three going in are Patrick Reed, Day and Dustin Johnson while Adam Scott is No. 5. If none of the top five win The Tour Championship the top prize will be up for grabs.

As for Streelman and Donald, both will have to play their best at Crooked Stick and hope that’ll be good enough to get into the top 30. Dramatic climbs in the standings are possible in the volatile scoring system, however. Billy Hurley, for instance, improved from 77th to 51st with a strong showing at Boston and Hudson Swafford climbed from 82nd to 61st.

Here and there

The start of the Web.com Tour Playoffs will coincide with the BMW Championship. First of the four events, which bring together the top 75 from the Web.com circuit and those ranked between 125 and 200 on the PGA Tour, is the DAP Championship at Canterbury in Cleveland. The field includes Elmhurst’s PGA veteran, Mark Wilson, and former University of Illinois golfers Luke Guthrie and D.A. Points.

Bloomington’s Todd Mitchell won the 24th Illinois State Mid-Amateur for the fifth time last week at Flossmoor Country Club. The fifth title pulled Mitchell into a tie with Jim Frisina for most wins in a single state amateur championship. Frisina won the Illinois State Amateur five times between 1942 and 1958.

Next big event on the state calendar is the 30th Illinois State Senior Amateur, which runs Monday through Wednesday (SEPT 12-14) at Bloomington Country Club. Mistwood’s McWethy Cup is also on tap for Monday in Romeoville.

Mike Small considers himself a coach first and a still-competitive player second. Next week, however, those roles may be blurred a bit.

The University of Illinois men’s coach goes after his 12th title in the 94th Illinois PGA Championship. The event begins its three-day run on Monday on the South Course at Olympia Fields Country Club.

Next month Small returns to Olympic Fields as a coach, as his Illini host the 11th playing of the OFCC/Fighting Illini Invitational. It’ll be a highlight of the fall season for the Illini, who will also make another Chicago appearance on Oct. 9-10 in the Northern Intercollegiate event at Beverly Country Club.

First things first, though. Small has won his 11 IPGA titles since 2001 and he captured the crown both times during that stretch when it was played at Olympia Fields, of which he is a member. He is in the rare position of not being the defending champion this time, however. Small tied for seventh in last year’s IPGA Championship at Medinah’s No. 1 Course. Jim Billiter, assistant pro at Merit Club in Libertyville, won the title there.

Small, who won his last two IPGA Championships back-to-back in 2013 and 2014, goes into this one standing second to Glen View’s Kyle Bauer in the section’s player-of-the-year race. Small has been player-of-the-year three times, but a limited tournament schedule related to his coaching duties has hampered his chances in recent years.

Bauer leads the standings, largely off his win in the first of the section’s four major events – May’s IPGA Match Play Championship — while Small’s tournament season has featured a tie for ninth in the Illinois Open and a tie for 43rd on the national level at the U.S. Senior Open.

Two former players of the year, Medinah’s Travis Johns and White Eagle’s Curtis Malm, are third and fourth in the standings behind Bauer and Small. Maximum points are on the line in the IPGA Championship, so next week’s results will go a long way to determining this year’s player of the year.

Donald got hot at the right time

Luke Donald, the former Northwestern star and world’s No. 1-ranked golfer, couldn’t have picked a better time to play his best tournament of this PGA Tour season. He finished solo second, behind 21-year old South Korean Si Woo Kim, in the Wyndham Championship in Greensboro, N.C., on Sunday.

The Wyndham was the last tournament offering FedEx Cup points. The lucrative four-tournament FedEx Cup Playoffs begin on Thursday with The Barclays at Bethpage Black in New York.

In finishing second Donald improved his place in the FedEx Cup standings from No. 99 to No. 48. No player made a bigger climb in the Wyndham, which had a field full of players hoping to position themselves for a playoff run.

By getting to No. 48 Donald seems assured of spots in the first three FedEx events – the Barclays, the Deutsche Bank Championship in Boston and the BMW Championship — played this year at Crooked Stick in Indianapolis. All three are $8 million tournaments. Only the top 125 on the FedEx list qualified for The Barclays. The top 100 after Sunday’s finish advance to the Deutsche Bank and the top 70 after that compete in the BMW Championship.

Not only did Donald climb in the standings last week, he also made a hole-in-one during the event. That earned him a lifetime of Wyndham vacations as well as a one-week vacation for his caddie.

Here and there

Eagle Brook, in Geneva, has announced the completion of a $2.5 million improvement project that started in January. The clubhouse underwent an extensive renovation, changes were made to the golf course and a new fitness center and wellness studio were created.

Baltimore Country Club has been named the site for the 2017 and 2018 Big Ten men’s championships. A site for 2017 has not been determined.

The Arlington Amateur has been scheduled for Sept. 10-11 on Arlington Lakes’ recently-renovated course.

Deerpath, in Lake Forest, celebrated its 90th anniversary on Sunday with the event also marking the start of a master plan renovation.

John Blumenshine, playing out of Cantigny in Wheaton, was the only player under par in the 4th Chicago District Super Senior Amateur. He posted a 2-under 69 at Biltmore, in Barrington.

Next event on the CDGA schedule is the 24th Illinois State Mid-Amateur, which begins a two-day run at Flossmoor Country Club next Tuesday.

University of Illinois product Thomas Pieters is in, and former Northwestern star and world No. 1 Luke Donald is out.

That summed up Tuesday’s announcement of the European team’s three captain’s picks for the 41st Ryder Cup, coming up Sept. 27 through Oct. 2 at Hazeltine National in Minnesota. Darren Clarke, captain of Team Europe, revealed his picks in England and two of the selections – Lee Westwood and Martin Kaymer – were obvious. On a team loaded with six Ryder Cup rookies, those two provide much-needed experience.

Then it came down to Pieters, Scotland’s Russell Knox (ranked No. 20 in the world), Donald and Graham McDowell – another veteran Ryder Cupper.

Clarke ruled out Donald and McDowell, saying on The Golf Channel that “Neither is firing on all cylinders.’’ Then it came down to Pieters, from Belgium, and Knox.

“I had to go with my gut feeling,’’ Clarke said. “When I told (Pieters) he was over the moon. He’ll be a world No. 1 at some stage.’’

Pieters, 24, is one of the many budding professional stars to come through coach Mike Small’s powerhouse program at Illinois. After starring for the Illini Pieters opted to play predominantly on the European PGA Tour where he has won three times, the most recent win coming on Sunday in Denmark.

Donald, who last played the Ryder Cup at Medinah in 2012, jumped into contention with a solo second place finish two weeks ago in the Wyndham Classic. He had a dismal final round on Sunday, shooting 75 to drop 26 places into a tie for 53rd place at The Barclays – first of the four FedEx Cup Playoff events in New York.

The last day at The Barclays was also difficult for Wheaton’s Kevin Streelman. He also shot 75 after being in contention for three rounds and wound up tied for 22nd place. Both, though, remained well into the top 100 in the FedEx overall standings and are in the field for the Deutsche Bank Championship, which tees off on Friday in Boston.

Donald is No. 53 and Streelman No. 57 entering the second $8 million playoff event and they must remain in the top 70 to play in the third – the BMW Championship, which will be played Sept. 8-11 at Crooked Stick in Indianapolis.

Pieters’ Ryder Cup selection culminates a big week for ex-Illini golfers. Brian Campbell clinched his PGA Tour card for the 2016-17 season by finishing 15th on this season’s Web.com Tour money list. Thomas Detry, another Belgian, won the European Challenge Tour’s Bridgestone event in England on Sunday by a whopping 12 strokes. He opened that event with a 60 en route to claiming his first professional victory.

Ryder Cup visits Cog Hill, Wrigley

The first-ever Ryder Cup Trophy Tour, a month-long 5,000-mile journey to promote the team matches between the U.S. and European stars, will include stops at both Cog Hill, in Lemont, and Wrigley Field.

Cog Hill’s PGA Junior League will welcome the trophy on Sept. 7 and it will be at Wrigley Field Sept. 16 during the Cubs-Brewers game. A day later the trophy will be in South Bend, Ind., during the Notre Dame-Michigan State football game. Those represent three of the 20 appearances the Cup will make in 13 American cities.

IPGA, Mid-Am wrap up

The final rounds of both the 94th Illinois PGA Championship and the 24th Illinois State Mid-Amateur Championship are on tap for today (WEDNESDAY).

The IPGA Championship ends its 54-hole run on Olympia Fields’ South Course while the final 18 of the 36-hole Mid-Am concludes at Flossmoor Country Club, the tourney site for the sixth straight year.

Here and there

Emily Fletcher, the very successful coach of the Northwestern women’s team, will receive the coveted Woman of Distinction Award from the Women’s Western Golf Association at the organization’s annual meeting Oct. 6 at Indian Hill in Winnetka

Brian Payne and his wife Elizabeth, both former Northwestern golfers from Flossmoor, qualified for their respective U.S. Mid-Amateur national championships. The men’s and women’s finals will be played Sept. 10-15 at courses in Pennsylvania.

Batavia club manufacturer Tour Edge has named Australian John Craig as its executive vice president effective Jan. 1.

The American Junior Golf Association named Megan Furtney, of South Elgin, as one of 20 players in the 12-15 age group to its 15th Junior All-Star team. The team consists of players from nine states and three countries.

Nicole Jeray has long been the only Chicago area woman playing on the pro golf tours, and it hasn’t been easy for her.

Jeray, from Berywn, turned pro after a great collegiate career at Northern Illinois in 1993 and has been in the qualifying tournament for the Ladies PGA Tour on an almost annual basis. Sometimes she’s made it, sometimes not, but this week could be her biggest week of the season.

At 45 she’s already cashed checks on all three women’s tours this year and her biggest could be coming at the fourth annual Legends Championship on the Pete Dye Course in French Lick, Ind., — that circuit’s lone major championship until the U.S. Women’s Senior Open finally makes its debut at Chicago Golf Club in 2018.

Jeray has made one cut on the LPGA circuit in seven starts, cashing in for a tie for 70th place at the Marathon Classic in her last start, and she’s made two cuts in six tournaments on the Symetra Tour after making 18 in 21 starts in 2015. The Symetra — the LPGA’s version of the men’s Web.com Tour — is filled with up and coming young players, most just out of the college ranks.

In her lone Legends start of the year Jeray had a tie for 11th at the Walgreen’s Charity Classic in Phoenix in March. Cashing on all three tours is an accomplishment in itself. Rosie Jones is the only other player to do it.

The Legends circuit was kind to Jeray from the moment she turned eligible at her 45th birthday last November. She entered the Monday qualifier for a tournament in Delray Beach, FL., and got into the starting field by making a birdie on the first playoff hole, eliminating three other rivals for that spot.

In the 36-hole tournament she shot 73-66, posting five birdies in the first eight holes of her second round, to finish runner-up to Liselotte Neumann. Neumann’s 68-68 performance was 8 under par and good for a three-shot win over Jeray, who was happy to pocket $18,000 as the runner-up.

This week the stakes are much bigger. The Legends Championship offers a $325,000 purse with $37,700 going to the champion. Juli Inkster will defend her title and the field also includes such prominent players as JoAnne Carner, Jane Blalock, Patty Sheehan, Donna Caponi, Michelle McGann, Nancy Scranton, Pat Bradley and Val Skinner. In addition to Inkster past champions in the field include Lori Kane (2013) and Laurie Rinker (2014).

The schedule calls for practice rounds and a qualifying tournament on Thursday, a pro-am and the Legends Hall of Fame inductions on Friday and tournament rounds Saturday and Sunday starting at 8 a.m. Sandra Haynie and Elaine Crosby will be the inductees into the Hall, based at the West Baden Springs Hotel near the Pete Dye Course.

Banner week for the Illini

University of Illinois golfers had their moments all over the globe the last few days. Thomas Pieters was the most notable. Playing for Belgium, he finished fourth in the Olympics in Brazil on Sunday, the same day recently-turned-pro Charlie Danielson tied for 22nd in the PGA Tour’s John Deere Classic, an event that had five Illini products in the starting field.

Illini success continued on Monday. Coach Mike Small, who made the cut in the U.S. Senior Open at Scioto, in Columbus, Ohio, finished with a 70 in the rain-delayed event to finish in a tie for 43rd place and junior-to-be Nick Hardy moved into an excellent position on the first day of the U.S. Amateur at Oakland Hills in Michigan, shooting a 68 to stand tied for 14th after the first day of stroke play qualifying.

Here and there

Vince Antoniou used his home course advantage to win the 15th Chicago District Senior Amateur over Pekin’s Tim Sheppard at Wynstone, in North Barrington. They have more battles coming up, in the 24th Illinois State Mid-Amateur at Flossmoor Aug. 30-31 and the 30th Illinois State Senior Amateur at Bloomington Country Club Sept. 12-14.

Ivanhoe’s Jim Sobb captured the Illinois PGA Senior Championship, posting a 4-under-par 140 total for 54 holes at Whisper Creek, in Huntley.

A few spots are still available in the KemperClub Championship, a two-man team event that will be played Sept. 26-28 at Hawthorn Woods, The Glen Club in Glenview and Royal Melbourne in Long Grove.

The Fore the Bees outing has been scheduled for Sept. 21 at Cantigny, in Wheaton. It’ll benefit the Bayer Bee Care program and the Children’s Discovery Museum.

The fourth Chicago District Super Senior Amateur is Thursday (AUG 18) at Biltmore, in North Barrington.

Golf will be contested at the Olympic Games for the first time since 1904 beginning on Thursday. That’s also the same day the John Deere Classic – the PGA Tour’s only annual event in Illinois – tees off at TPC Deere Run in Silvis, on the outskirts of the Quad Cities.

The Olympics didn’t get the respect anticipated from the game’s top players. Six of the top 10 in the world rankings decided against going to Brazil, many citing concerns over the Zika virus. They included Jordan Spieth, who would be defending this JDC title if he hadn’t decided to take the week off altogether.

Of the four American players competing in Rio three just arrived on Monday. Bubba Watson, Matt Kuchar and Patrick Reed all played in the PGA Tour’s Travelers Championship in Hartford, Ct., which ended on Sunday. Only Rickie Fowler was in Rio for the Opening Ceremonies.

So where does that leave the JDC, which was moved from July to accommodate the Olympics?

“The Olympics has put a wedge in our schedule. It’s affected every tournament post-U.S. Open,’’ said Zach Johnson, a PGA Tour mainstay and JDC board member. “I don’t know if there’s a positive for anybody. There may not be many negatives either. It’s just different.’’

Johnson, leading off the pre-tourney media sessions on Tuesday, called the scheduling opposite the Olympics “unfortunate.’’ Normally the JDC is in July, the week before the British Open.

“You can look at it a number of ways,’’ said Johnson. “There are only two weeks left before the (FedEx Cup) Playoffs. There are only so many weeks left of Ryder Cup points. There are a lot of things at stake, so guys want to play and get some points here and there. But the Olympics touched the majors, too. It made you think about when to play and when to rest, which is more important this time of year.’’

Johnson is making his 15th straight JDC appearance and he’s been a major contender the last seven stagings that included a victory (in 2012), a playoff loss, two runner-up finishes and two ties for third.

Last week Johnson was paired the first two rounds with Jim Furyk at the Travelers Championship in Hartford, Ct. Furyk barely survived the 36-hole cut before shocking the golf world with a record 58 on Sunday. TPC Deere Run was the site of Paul Goydos’ 59 in 2010, on the same day that three-time champion Steve Stricker shot 60.

“(Low scores) are much more attainable here,’’ said Johnson. “You have three par-5s and a drivable par-4. TPC River Highlands (in Hartford) is harder top to bottom.’’

So, that could mean another low-scoring JDC. Johnson and Stricker head the field, which was supplemented by more college stars who have just entered the professional ranks than usual. They include Aaron Wise, of Oregon; Charlie Danielson, Illinois; Jordan Niebrugge, Oklahoma State; Jon Rahm, Arizona State; and Lee McCoy, Georgia. Also getting in via a sponsor’s exemption was Frankfort’s Brian Bullington, who will make his PGA Tour debut.

The 156 starters will be playing for an $4.8 million purse with Sunday’s champion receiving $864,000. The starters also include former major championship winners Angel Cabrera, Trevor Immelman, Lucas Glover, Stewart Cink and David Toms plus former JDC champions John Senden and Jonathan Byrd.

Here and there

Marty Schiene, the former Illinois Open champion and PGA Tour player, has taken on another coaching challenge. Former head coach at Chicago State and associate coach at Loyola, Schiene is now the assistant to veteran DePaul men’s coach Betty Kaufmann.

Luke Donald, who threw out the first pitch at the Cubs’ game on Tuesday, will have a celebrity partner at his annual Taste of the First Tee event. Rory McIlroy will join him for the Sept. 12 benefit for the First Tee of Greater Chicago at Medinah Country Club.

Bing Singhsumalee, a University of Illinois sophomore from Naperville, made it to the round of 32 at last week’s U.S. Women’s Amateur. Her Illini team has scheduled its second annual pro-am event Oct. 6-7 at Lincolnshire Fields, in Champaign.

Michael Natale and Steve Sawtell combined to win the inaugural Chicago District Golf Association Amateur Four-Ball Championship last week at Eagle Brook, in Geneva. The CDGA’s 15th annual Senior Amateur Championship will conclude its four-day run on Thursday at Wynstone, in North Barrington.

The Dave Pelz Scoring Schools will start at Cog Hill, in Lemont, on Aug. 24. Single day and three-day sessions are available.

Ten straight days of major tournament action in the Chicago area comes to an end on Wednesday with the conclusion of the Illinois Open at Royal Fox in St. Charles, but the break won’t be a long one.

The 114th Western Amateur tees off next week, starting with practice rounds on Monday at Knollwood Club in Lake Forest. No tournament is as physically demanding as the Western Am. There will be 18-hole rounds Tuesday and Wednesday, Aug. 2-3, before the 156-man starting field is whittled to the low 44 and ties.

Those players will go 36 holes on Thursday Aug. 4, and the top 16 will advance to match play to decide the champion. There will be two rounds of matches on Friday, Aug. 5, with the semifinals and final on Saturday, Aug. 6.

Few non-professional tournaments carry the prestige of the Western Am, and only two are older – the British Amateur, which dates to 1885, and the U.S. Amateur, which was first played in 1895. Past Western champions include Jack Nicklaus, Ben Crenshaw, Curtis Strange, Phil Mickelson, Justin Leonard and Tiger Woods.

This year’s elite invitational field has representatives from 20 countries. The defending champion is Dawson Armstrong of Brentwood, Tenn., a sophomore at Lipscomb University. Armstrong emerged the surprise champion at Rich Harvest Farms, in Sugar Grove, when he overcame Aaron Wise in a playoff that went 20 holes.

Wise went on to become the NCAA medalist and lead Oregon to the team title. He recently turned professional and will play in next month’s John Deere Classic on a sponsor’s exemption.

Six members of this year’s Western Amateur field played in the U.S. Open at Oakmont in June and nine qualified for at least one of golf’s major championships played over the last two years.

“The depth of our field is what has made the Western Amateur one of the most prestigious amateur golf championships in the world for more than a century,’’ said Vince Pellegrino, senior vice president of tournaments for the Western Golf Association.

The WGA also conducts the Western Junior and BMW Championship, a PGA Tour event coming up at Crooked Stick in Indiana in September. The Western Am, though, provides more golf than either of those. The finalists will play the equivalent of two 72-hole tournaments plus a practice round in a five-day period.

That’s what makes it special, according to Adam Wood, a junior-to-be at Duke from Zionsville, Ind. He won the Western Junior in 2012 and was a Sweet 16 qualifier in last year’s Western Am.

“We love to have longer tournaments,’’ said Wood. “The players love a format like this one. The more golf you can play, the better.’’

Local entries are headed by Northbrook’s Nick Hardy, who played in the last two U.S. Opens, was a Western semifinalist last year and won the Illinois State Amateur with a stunning 28-under-par performance last week. Also likely to contend are Arlington Heights’ Doug Ghim, a junior at Texas; Wheaton’s Tee-K Kelly, the State Am runner-up and a two-time winner of that title; and Bolingbrook’s David Cooke, the 2015 Illinois Open winner..

Here and there

Wheaton’s Kevin Streelman has the last tee time (2:15 p.m, EDT) off the first tee in the PGA Championship’s first round Thursday at Baltusrol, in New Jersey. Luke Donald, the only other player with local ties in the field, has a more attractive pairing. He’ll go off with Matt Kuchar and Danny Lee at 1:05 p.m.

Dennis Johnsen, general manager and head professional at Pine Meadow in Mundelein, has been named the recipient of the PGA of America’s National Youth Player Development Award.

Medinah will host the second playing of the Bush Cup, a Walker Cup-style match between Army West Point and Northwestern, on Oct. 14. In last year’s first Bush Cup West Point and Yale played to a tie at Winged Foot, in New York. David Feherty will receive the Bush Foundation’s Humanitarian Award at the event’s dinner.

The Illinois PGA seniors and assistants will hold stroke play events on Monday (AUG 1) at Flossmoor Country Club.

The Chicago District Golf Association will conduct qualifiers for the U.S. Mid-Amateur at Willow Crest in Oak Brook on Thursday and Cantigny, in Wheaton, on Monday. The CDGA Amateur Four-Ball Championship will also begin a four-day run at Eagle Brook in Geneva on Monday.

At first glance it appeared the John Deere Classic got a bad deal when the PGA Tour moved the tournament off its usual July dates and scheduled the tourney opposite next week’s Olympics’ golf competition in Brazil.

Subsequently, though, a large contingent of top players – among them JDC defending champion Jordan Spieth and world No. 1 Jason Day – pulled out of the Olympics citing concerns over the Zika virus. That diminished the quality of the field in Brazil and opened the door for at least some of the potential Olympians to play at the JDC instead.

None have entered as yet, but – with the four tourney rounds beginning next Thursday, Aug. 11 — they still have until Friday afternoon to do it. Even without any of the players opting to skip the Olympics, the JDC won’t be suffering with its new, temporary dates. Next year the tourney will return to its familiar place on the schedule, the week before the British Open.

“This year has been a little different,’’ said JDC director Clair Peterson. “It’s given us a little extra time for setup and sponsors and volunteers have stuck with us. Plus, ticket sales are about the same as they were last year at this time.’’

In a normal year the JDC, played at TPC Deere Run in Silvis on the outskirts of Moline, would fall in the middle of the four major championships. Because of the compressed schedule the last of the four majors for this year ended on Sunday with Jimmy Walker’s victory in the PGA Championship.

JDC mainstays Zach Johnson and Steve Stricker will be in next week’s field and more big name players might consider entering with FedEx Cup Playoff and Ryder Cup points still on the line. Those events fall after the last putt drops in the first Olympics’ golf competition since 1904.

To compensate in part for the date change Peterson was given more sponsor exemptions this year. He’s always used them wisely, and this time he invited five college stars who just turned professional – NCAA medalist Aaron Wise (Oregon), Big Ten player of the year Charlie Danielson (Illinois), Jon Rahm (Arizona State), Lee McCoy (Georgia) and Jordan Niebrugge (Oklahoma State).

On Monday Peterson added a promising Chicago area player, Frankfort’s Brian Bullington, to the list. He played at Lincoln-Way East High School and the University of Iowa before joining the PGA’s Latinoamerica Tour after turning pro a year ago.

Bullington, who finished 25th in last week’s Illinois Open, has lots of experience at TPC Deere Run. He played in four tournaments there – but all came before he even entered high school. The Plantation Junior Golf Tour held an annual event there.

“I played for the first time there when I was 9 years old, so I’ve come pretty much full circle to play my first PGA Tour event there,’’ said Bullington.

“We’ve been the launching point for the careers of players coming out of college, and we like that,’’ said Peterson, mentioning Johnson, Day, Spieth, Justin Thomas, Camilo Villegas, Tiger Woods, Matt Kuchar, Bryson DeChambeau, Lucas Glover, Webb Simpson and Bill Haas among the players who were given kick-starts to the pro careers via JDC sponsor exemptions.

This year’s commitment list includes five players (in addition to Johnson) who have won major titles: Argentina’s Angel Cabrera (2007 U.S. Open and 2009 Masters), South African Trevor Immelman (2008 Masters), Lucas Glover (2009 U.S. Open), Stewart Cink (2009 British Open) and David Toms (2001 PGA).

The JDC – now in its 46th year and the only PGA Tour event played annually in Illinois – offers $4.8 million in prize money with the champion getting $864,000. There’ll be free admission to the Monday and Tuesday practice rounds. A pro-am on Wednesday, Aug. 10, will precede the four days of tournament play.

Here and there

The Western Amateur field will shrink from the 156 starters on Tuesday to the low 44 and ties after Wednesday’s round at Knollwood, in Lake Forest. The 16 qualifiers for the match play portion of the tourney will be decided after Thursday’s 36-hole session and two rounds of matches are on tap for both Friday and Saturday.

David Impastato, owner of Studio 59 Golf Learning Center in Batavia and former director of golf operations at Cog Hill and head professional at St. Charles Country Club, has been named an instructor for Golf Channel Academy.

The 15th Chicago District Senior Amateur begins its three-day run on Monday at Wynstone, in North Barrington, and the Illinois PGA Senior Championship will be conducted Monday and Tuesday at Whisper Creek, in Huntley.

The SpeedGolf World Championship will return to The Glen Club in Glenview on Oct. 17-18.

Finally the biggest event of this Chicago golf season has arrived. The four players on Team U.S. for the second UL International Crown were the first on the course for Tuesday’s practice rounds at the Merit Club and they admitted their task in the eight-team event that tees off on Thursday will be a difficult one.

The U.S. is seeded second to the Republic of Korea, which has all four of its players listed in the top 12 of the Rolex World Rankings. Those rankings determined both the teams and players in the match play event, so Korea would seem a shoo-in to win the title on Sunday.

“It’s a hard format to really predict who’s favored,’’ insisted a still hopeful Cristie Kerr, the veteran member of the U.S. team. “Match play is very unpredictable, but there were a lot of USA fans following us in the practice rounds, and it’s great to be the home team.’’

The U.S. was the top-seeded team in the first Crown event, staged two years ago in Maryland, but didn’t even survive the first three days of best ball competition. Korea, seeded second in 2014, did – by beating the U.S. in a playoff for the fifth and final berth in the concluding singles portion of the competition.

Neither the U.S. nor Korea did well in the first Crown, despite their lofty seedings. Spain and Sweden, countries that didn’t qualify for the second Crown, finished one-two with Korea third.

Both the U.S. and Korea have altered lineups for the second Crown. The U.S. returns Lexi Thompson, Stacy Lewis and Kerr with Gerina Piller replacing Paula Creamer. Thompson, the top-ranked player in this week’s competition, is No. 4 in the world and only Lewis (8) is also in the top 10.

Korea’s lowest-ranked player, So Yeon Ryu at No. 12, is the only returnee from its team that played in Maryland. Her new teammates are Sei Young Kim (5), Amy Yang (7) and In Gee Chun (9). Inbee Park, ranked No. 3, dropped out with a hand injury.

“What they’re doing is pretty amazing,’’ said Lewis of the Korean contingent. “To have so many players in the top 15 in the world, it’s amazing how well they play. Inbee is out, but the next option is really pretty good.’’

“It’s not a rivalry that we have with them,’’ said Kerr. “We’re just trying to keep up. They have the numbers versus us.’’

At least the U.S. and Korea will understand the unique competitive format better this time. The first three days calls for best ball matches against the teams in their group. The U.S. opens against England on Thursday and also squares off with Thailand on Friday and Japan on Saturday.

Korea faces China first, then has Chinese Taipei on Friday and Australia on Saturday. Teams get two points for a match win and one for a tie, and the top five in the point standings after Saturday go into singles play on Sunday to determine the champion.

“The format was just a little difficult to understand,’’ said Thompson of the first Crown. “I felt like nobody really should have been eliminated.’’

“In this format so many teams are dangerous,’’ said Lewis. “I don’t think you can always go off the rankings in a best ball format. It’s who can make the most birdies in a day.’’

There will be plenty of those, as the Merit Club setup is much different than it was for its only other big event – the 2000 U.S. Women’s Open.

“It’s not even close to what they played for the Open,’’ said Lewis. “There’s reachable par-5s and drivable par-4s and a lot of tee options, so it’s going to make for great golf. You’re going to see a lot of birdies. You’re going to probably see a bunch of eagles on some par-5s. We’re not going to be struggling to make pars, and it’s going to look great on TV.’’

Here and there

The Illinois Women’s Open concludes on Wednesday at Mistwood, in Romeoville, and the Illinois State Amateur wraps up on Thursday at St. Charles Country Club.

Panther Creek, the Springfield course that hosted last year’s Illinois State Amateur, was easy pickings for the Web.com Tour players at their new Lincoln Land Charity Championship. Deerfield’s Vince India posted four rounds in the 60s and could do no better than a tie for 33rd, 10 shots behind champion Martin Flores who posted a 22-under-par 262 total.

Kate Lillie, of St. Charles, was a 3 and 1 winner over Penelope Tir, of Winnetka, in an all-Chicago area final at the Women’s Western Golf Association Junior championship at Blackhawk in Madison, Wis.

Dick Wagley, retired head professional at Indian Hill in Winnetka, was the only player under par at the Illinois PGA Senior Masters on Monday. He shot a 1-under-70.

Rarely have a series of big Chicago area tournaments been condensed into such a short time frame. Beginning on Monday there will be four such events crammed into a 10-day period.

First up is the 22nd Illinois Women’s Open, at Mistwood in Romeoville. The tourney’s pro-am is on Sunday and will conclude with a gala dinner in Mistwood’s new clubhouse, marking the first time the Great Hall will be in operation at the course’s showcase tournament. The three competitive rounds tee off on Monday with the field cut to the low 30 and ties after 36 holes.

Mistwood director of golf Andy Mickelson extended the entry deadline after about 50 players – 10 of them professionals – met the original signup requirement.

The tourney won’t have a defending champion, as Rockford teen-age sensation Madasyn Pettersen is focusing on the national junior tournaments instead.

“A few conflicting things drew down the size of the field,’’ said Mickelson. Perennial contender Jenna Pearson of Wheaton heads the competitors. The Symetra Tour player won the IWO as an amateur in 2006, lost the title the following year in a 10-hole playoff and then won it again as a professional in 2011.

Meanwhile, the 86th Illinois State Amateur starts its three-day run on Tuesday at St. Charles Country Club and the biggest tournament of this season – the LPGA’s UL International Crown – begins four days of competition next Thursday, July 21.

Then the 67th Illinois Open, at two St. Charles courses – Royal Fox and Royal Hawk — begins day after the Crown ends. Last of the 258 players advancing to the Illinois Open will be determined at the Last Chance Qualifier next Wednesday at The Grove, in Long Grove. It’s open to players who missed the entry deadline for the seven state-wide qualifying events, and those who didn’t advance through one of those qualifiers can also bid again for one of the last three spots in the starting field at St. Charles.

Ruffled Feathers unveils renovation

Dallas-based Arcis Golf has unveiled its $2 million renovation of Ruffled Feathers, the Lemont course boasting the only Pete Dye-designed layout in the Chicago area. Both the course and clubhouse underwent extensive upgrades. Arcis has announced it will spend $50 million in major capital improvements at its 66 public and private facilities nation-wide.

As for the Ruffled Feathers work, general manager Victor Rodarte described it as “a true revival of the entire property.’’

Arcis also operates five other Chicago area courses – Fresh Meadow, in Hillside; Mill Creek and Eagle Brook, in Geneva; Tamarack, in Naperville; and Whitetail Ridge, in Yorkville.

Lewis looks forward to Crown

Sandwiched between last week’s U.S. Women’s Open and the Olympics, the UL International Crown has plenty of competition for the women’s golf spotlight but America star Stacy Lewis is already looking forward to the second playing of the global team event.

“It was interesting to be part of the first one,’’ Lewis said during the U.S. Women’s Open in California. “Nobody knew how the format would play out as far as the team aspect. It was like the Solheim Cup on a smaller scale.’’

That’s a good thing, she said.

“There were only four of us (on the U.S. team), so we could have our families around a little more,’’ said Lewis. “It was more of a relaxing week. We could hang out as a group, and it was fun playing the other countries.’’

Here and there

Sabrina Bonanno, of Norridge, and Bing Singhsumalee, of Naperville, earned berths in the Aug. 1-7 U.S. Women’s Amateur in Springfield, Mass.. Both collegiate stars shot 1-under-par 70s and tied for fifth in the sectional qualifier at Sportsman’s, in Northbrook. Bonanno attends Arkansas-Little Rock and Singhsumalee goes to Illinois.

The Chicago golf community lost two giants from the club professional ranks last week with the passing Leon McNair and Hubby Habjan. McNair, 75, led in the development of Fox Bend, in Oswego, and Habjan, 84, was a long-time head man at Onwentsia, in Lake Forest. Both are members of the Illinois Golf Hall of Fame.

Illinois coach Mike Small, already in this week’s new Lincoln Land Championship on the Web.com Tour, will also be in the field for the U.S. Senior Open next month. He was medalist at a qualifying tournament last week in Indianapolis.

KemperSports has taken over the management of Boughton Ridge, the nine-hole executive length course that has served Bolingbrook residents for over 35 years. KemperSports will also manage its Ashbury’s restaurant.

The Illinois PGA’s senior members have a busy competitive stretch. The Thompson Cup matches against the Chicago District Golf Association’s top amateurs is Wednesday on Olympia Fields’ South course and the IPGA Senior Masters follows on Monday at Onwentsia.

The Schaumburg Park District’s ninth annual Links Technology Cup has been scheduled for Aug. 10 at Schaumburg Golf Club. It includes a Taste on the Tee showcase of food and beverages on most every hole. Proceeds benefit the district’s recreation scholarship program.

The UL International Crown, the biggest golf event to be played in the Chicago area this season, took a hit this week with the announcement that Korean star Inbee Park will be unable to compete.

Park, with a No. 3 standing in the Rolex World Ranking, was the highest-ranked player among the 32 women who will compete in the global team event at the Merit Club from July 21-24. She pulled out after meeting with doctors following the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship – the last qualifying event for the Crown. She cited a left thumb injury for her withdrawal.

“I met with my doctors and they strongly recommended rest for my left thumb injury to heal,’’ said Park. “The International Crown is a month away, and I’m uncertain my injury would heal within that time frame.’’

The Republic of Korea, the top-seeded team in the competition, will still be the favorite even without Park. She’ll be replaced by So Yeon Ryu, who played for Korea in the inaugural Crown two years ago in Maryland.

So Yeon Ryu has the longest active cut streak on the LPGA Tour but hasn’t won since the Canadian Pacific Women’s Open in 2014. When she dropped out of the top 10 in the world rankings she began working with Cameron McCormick, who is also the swing instructor for Jordan Spieth.

Ryu is still ranked No. 11 and would not have made the Korean team had first alternate Ha Na Jang – ranked No. 10 – also been unable to compete. She is battling anemia. Still, all four Korea players in the Crown are ranked in the top 11 in the world.

Two of the other eight team qualifiers for the Crown also announced roster adjustments. Japan replaced Shiho Oyama (back injury) with Ai Suzuki and China called in Simin Feng after Shi Yuting pulled out with a schedule conflict.

With Park out the top ranked player coming to the Crown is No. 4-ranked Lexi Thompson of the U.S. Lydia Ko and Brooke Henderson, one-two in the rankings, can’t play in the Crown because their countries didn’t qualify.

Park’s injury also leaves her status for August’s Olympics in Brazil in doubt. Fifteen of the 32 players in the Crown would be playing in the Olympics if the Games started today. Qualifiers are based largely on the world rankings.

The Olympics are suffering much worse than the Crown from player withdrawals. None of the women currently qualified for the Games have pulled out yet. On the men’s side, though, eight have already decided not to play – Jason Day, Adam Scott, Rory McIlroy, Branden Grace, Vijay Singh, Graham McDowell, Louis Oosthuizen, Charl Schwartzel and Marc Leishman. Most cited concerns about the Zika virus.

Here and there

The 97th Chicago District Amateur concludes its four-day run on Thursday with a scheduled 36-hole title match at Calumet Country Club in Homewood.

The Illinois PGA will soon lose another key staffer. Bill Ibrahim, a 16-year veteran as the IPGA’s director of operations and public relations, has announced his resignation to join former IPGA section colleagues Michael Miller and Mike Schoaf at the PGA’s Southwest Section, based in Arizona.

Madasyn Pettersen, surprise winner of the Illinois Women’s Open as a 15-year old last season, won’t defend her title at Mistwood, in Romeoville, next month. She’s focusing her tournament schedule on national junior events and previously skipped the Illinois Women’s Amateur, which was played in her hometown of Rockford.

Mistwood continued its strong showing in local tournament play when pros Andy Mickelson and Brian Brodell combined to claim a five-stroke victory in the IPGA Centennial Celebration team event at Ruth Lake in Hinsdale.

Clara Rattana, of Western Springs, won the third flight at the 116th playing of the Women’s Western Amateur in Dayton, Ohio. Jillian Hollis, a University of Georgia sophomore, ruled the championship flight. The event returns to the Chicago next June at River Forest, in Elmhurst.

Sean Maruyama, of Los Angeles, won the 99th Western Golf Association Junior title at Red Run, in Michigan. Brendan O’Reilly, of Hinsdale, finished ninth.