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.

The Chicago District Golf Association has conducted tournaments since 1914 and none have quite the history as its oldest one – the CDGA Amateur. The 97th playing of that tournament starts on Monday (JUNE 27) at Calumet Country Club, in Homewood.

Calumet hasn’t hosted the tournament since 1947, and the last staging there created one of the most memorable results because its champion, Frank Stranahan, continued on to tie for second in that year’s Masters.

The CDGA Amateur has an interesting history. Its first winner was the legendary life-long amateur Chick Evans. In 1935 the organization decided to issue invitations nationally and call the event the Great Lakes Amateur. That’s how Stranahan, a member of a wealthy Ohio family who competed in most of the professional tournaments as well, got into the field.

Stranahan had won the CDGA Amateur the year before at Knollwood, in Lake Forest, and pulled off the rare repeat at Calumet. That year he also won the Canadian Amateur and shared runner-up honors at the Masters with Byron Nelson, both of them edged out for the title by Jimmy Demaret.

Since Stranahan, who was also a top-ranked powerlifter and a competitor in 102 marathons, the CDGA Amateur has had but seven repeat champions in the last 68 years. The last to win back-to-back was present day tour player Joe Affrunti of Crystal Lake in 2000 and 2001.

By 1954 Stranahan opted to turn professional and a year later the CDGA reverted back to the original tournament name and limited entries to members of CDGA clubs. The field is now determined largely through area-wide qualifying rounds, four of which were held for this year’s tournament.

Low man in those four qualifiers was Mistwood’s Paul Sclimm, who shot 4-under-par 66 at Innsbruck, in Merrillville, Ind.

The finals offer a stern physical test. There’ll be 36 holes of stroke play on Monday to determine 16 qualifiers for the match play conclusion to the tournament. Two rounds of match play will be held on Tuesday (JUNE 28) with the semifinals next Wednesday (JUNE 29) and the 36-hole championship match on June 30.

Most likely contenders for the title are three promising young players – Jordan Fahel, of Mt. Hawley, in Peoria; Brendan O’Reilly, of Butterfield, in Oak Brook; and Michigan State golfer Charlie Netzel, of LaGrange. Fahel won the title in 2014. O’Reilly was the Illinois State Junior champion in 2013 and 2014 and Netzel reached the match play portion of the 2013 and 2015 CDGA Amateurs.

Veteran contenders are headed by Exmoor’s Kyle Nathan, who won the CDGA Mid-Amateur at match play this year; two-time Illinois State Amateur champion Todd Mitchell, of Bloomington; and Glen View’s Blake Johnson, the tourney runner-up in 2013 and 2014.

Chappell wins Women’s State Am

Lauren Chappell, of Charleston, defeated Northwestern-bound Louise McCulloch of Wilmette 3 and 2 in a battle of 17-years olds in the title match of last week’s 83rd Illinois Women’s State Amateur at Forest Hills, in Rockford.

McCullouch eliminated Sabrina Bonanno, of Norridge, 1-up in the semifinals while Chappell defeated Schaumburg’s Kris Yoo 2 and 1. Bonanno was the tourney medalist, shooting a 74.

Arlington Lakes to re-open

Closed for 13 months, Arlington Lakes — the Arlington Heights Park District’s 18-hole course – has scheduled a July 1 grand opening.

The original course, designed by David Gill, opened in 1979. The renovated version called for a re-routing, in which the two nines were reversed to allow for the playing of three- and six-hole loops at certain times. The number of bunkers was also reduced from 106 to 37 and nine greens were rebuilt under the direction of architect Mike Benkusky.

Arlington Lakes will be a par-68 course built on 90 acres. The renovation was a $2.4 million project that included re-modeling of the clubhouse.

Enter Golf360TV

Dave Lockhart, creator of The Golf Scene and GolfChicagoTV in previous years, will unveil a new TV show on July 3. Called Golf360TV, it’ll be carried on Comcast SportsNet Chicago

Jill Carlson will host the show, which will run four times in July, and Chris DeLira will share producer duties with Lockhart.

Brian Campbell, the top player on Illinois’ golf team in 2015, was on hand to help former teammates Nick Hardy and Charlie Danielson celebrate after both qualified for the U.S. Open at last week’s sectional qualifier in Ohio.

Campbell didn’t make it into this year’s Open, which tees off on Thursday at Oakmont in suburban Pittsburgh, but he knows what America’s biggest championship is all about. Last year Campbell finished as low amateur (in a tie for 27th place) when the Open was played at Chambers Bay in Oregon.

Hardy, a Northbrook resident who just completed his sophomore season at Illinois, also qualified for the finals at Chambers Bay and survived the 36-hole cut before finishing in a tie for 52nd. This week he’ll try to duplicate that feat – and finish even higher — after being the medalist in his sectional qualifier.

Campbell and Hardy both played in last week’s Rust-Oleum Championship at Ivanhoe. Rookie pro Campbell tied for ninth place while Hardy, the only amateur in the field for the Web.com Tour stop, didn’t survive the 36-hole cut. Hardy’s shortcoming aat Ivanhoe might be understandable, what with the tourney falling between the emotion-packed sectional qualifying and the U.S. Open proper.

“It was definitely a quick turn-around,’’ said Hardy. “It was hard to not look ahead to the U.S. Open, but I told myself I had to focus. I prepared fine for that tournament, but I just didn’t bring it.’’

He hopes for a better performance at Oakmont, which Hardy described as “the hardest course anyone’s ever played’’ before making the trip to Pennslyvania.

“I’ll just try to not be intimidated,’’ said Hardy. “Everyone’s got to deal with the same things.’’

Hardy and Danielson are amateurs going against the world’s best professionals, that group including defending champion Jordan Spieth and veteran Chicago area touring pros Kevin Streelman and Luke Donald. Streelman and Donald also survived sectional qualifiers.

Campbell, improving steadily as a touring pro, thinks Hardy will hold his own again though – at 20 – he’ll be one of the youngest in the field.

“To qualify two years in a row shows how special he is,’’ said Campbell. “It’s all about getting down and dirty, and that’s how we do it at Illinois. My advice to Nick Hardy would just `be who you are.’ He was a great player coming to Illinois and he’ll only get better. I’d just tell him to relax a little. He can get a little hyper and get a little crazy.’’

Hardy will retain his caddie of last year’s Open, former Glenbrook North teammate Eric Markus, for bag-toting needs at Oakmont.

Senior moments

Exmoor, in Highland Park, has been named the site for the Constellation Senior Players Championship in 2018. It’ll be the first time a Champions Tour major has been played in the Chicago area since 1997, when Olympia Fields hosted the U.S. Senior Open with Australian Graham Marsh emerging as the champion.

The Western Golf Association will add managerial duties for that event to its usual role with the BMW Championship, Western Amateur and Western Junior events. The Western Amateur was to be played at Exmoor in 2018, but it’ll now be moved to another, so far undisclosed, date.

Another senior major might be looking for a new course as well. Kitchen-
Aid, the Michigan-based sponsor of the Senior PGA Championship, has been under pressure from political activists to move the tournament from Trump National in Washington D.C. That’s the scheduled tourney site for 2017.

In the last five years the Senior PGA has been Midwest based, with three stagings at Harbor Shores in Michigan and others at Bellerive in St. Louis and French Lick in Indiana. The tourney is to return to Harbor Shores in 2018, 2020, 2022 and 2024.

Here and there

Last year the Illinois Women’s State Amateur was rained out for the first time in its 82-year history. The IWGA hope for better luck this week at Forest Hills in Rockford. The 18-hole stroke play portion was Tuesday and the low 32 advanced to the championship flight for matches that run through Friday.

The UL International Crown, the LPGA global team competition to be played at Merit Club from July 20-24, is in need of volunteers. “We had hoped to get to 800; now we’re hoping to get to 650,’’ said tournament director Drew Blass. Blass also has opening for two teams in the 32-team tourney pro-am.

The Western Golf Association Junior Championship will begin a four-day run on Monday at Red Run in Royal Oak, Mich. First held in 1914, it’s the oldest national junior tournament.

This week’s qualifying rounds for the U.S. Open couldn’t have worked out much better for Chicago’s new Web.com Tour event, which begins its 72-hole run on Thursday at Ivanhoe Club.

Tournament director Scott Cassin made Nick Hardy, the University of Illinois sophomore from Northbrook, the last of his four sponsor exemptions into the Rust-Oleum Championship. Hardy then responded with another strong showing in U.S. Open sectional qualifying.

Hardy, as an Illini freshman, not only survived Open qualifying last year, but he also survived the 36-hole cut at Chambers Bay, in Washington. On Monday he was medalist in a sectional Springfield, Ohio, shooting 6-under-par 134 for his 36 holes. He’ll use the Rust-Oleum Championship as a strong tuneup for next week’s U.S. Open at Oakmont, in Pennsylvania.

“He’ll be the only amateur in our field, and he’s good enough to win this thing,’’ said Cassin. “It wouldn’t be the first time a college player has won on (the Web.com) tour.’’

Hardy’s addition means that all four sponsor’s exemptions into the Rust-Oleum tournament will be Chicago area players. Previously announced exemptions went to present Web.com Tour player Brad Hopfinger of Lake Forest; Deerfield’s Vince India, who played on the PGA Tour’s top developmental circuit last year; and Ivanhoe member Michael Schachner of Libertyville.

“We had targeted the fourth exemption to a player who wound up getting into the PGA Tour event in Memphis,’’ said Cassin, “so that freed up another spot, which we gave to Nick.’’

The 156-man field for the $600,000 shootout will also include Brian Campbell, a Web.com Tour player who was an Illinois stalwart last year; and Brian Bullington, a University of Iowa product from Frankfort. Bullington was the only Illinois player among the 12 advancing through Monday’s two Rust-Oleum qualifying tournaments at Stonewall Orchard, in Grayslake, and Pine Meadow, in Mundelein. The Illinois PGA received 176 entries to the tourney qualifier, necessitating the need to use two sites.

The Web.com Tour regulars competing at Ivanhoe won’t include leading money winner Wesley Bryan, who accepted a sponsor’s exemption to the PGA stop in Memphis, but Dominic Bozzelli – run-away champion at last week’s Web.com event in the Dominican Republic – will try to keep his hot streak going at Ivanhoe.

On to Oakmont

The Chicago area is enjoying one of its best years ever in U.S. Open sectional qualifying. Hardy did the best at all the qualifying sites and his Illini teammate, Charlie Danielson, also got through the Springfield, Ohio, sectional. He did it by beating PGA Tour player Tony Finau in a playoff for the last of four available berths at Oakmont offered there.

Kevin Streelman and Luke Donald, Chicago’s most prominent PGA Tour players, both got through the sectional at Powell, Ohio, after playing for four days in the nearby Memorial tournament. Streelman tied for fifth in that sectional and Donald tied for ninth before coming back on Tuesday morning to survive a six-man playoff for the last five Open berths on the line in that elimination.

Glen Ellyn’s Andy Pope, who has been a regular on the Web.com Tour but won’t be playing at Ivanhoe, tied for third in a sectional at Summit, N.J. Like Hardy Pope also survived sectional qualifying in 2015 and went on to make the cut in the Open proper.

Here and there

The Radix Cup matches, pitting 12-player teams from the Illinois PGA and the Chicago District Golf Association, will be held for the 55th time on Wednesday. The pros have a 34-18-2 edge in the series but the amateurs have won nine of the last 15 meetings.

Six top collegiate players, headed by Danielson and recently-crowned NCAA champion Aaron Wise of team titlist Oregon, have been given sponsor’s exemptions into the PGA Tour’s John Deere Classic. Others are Jon Rahm, of Arizona State; Beau Hossler Texas; Lee McCoy, Georgia; and Jordan Niebrugge, Oklahoma State. The JDC will move off its usual July dates and be played Aug, 8-14 opposite the Olympic Games golf event in Brazil.

Jeff Sluman, the Champions Tour veteran from Hinsdale, has joined the staff of California-based Blast Motion — an industry innovator focusing on elevating player performance with its swing and stroke analysis technologies.

The eight countries qualified for next month’s UL International Crown team event at the Merit Club will announce their four-player rosters on Monday following the conclusion of the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship in Washington.

The first of seven statewide qualifiers for the Illinois Open will be held Wednesday at Maple Meadows in Addison.

Coach Mike Small has insisted that the last four seasons have been the best in the history of the Illini program, and there’s no arguing that point after what has happened in the last few weeks.

The Illini trailed Iowa going into the last round of the Big Ten tournament but came back to win with a strong showing in the final round. The same thing happened in the NCAA regional at Whistling Straits in Wisconsin and, still again, in Monday’s final round of the NCAA finals at Eugene Country Club in Oregon.

With only the top eight teams advancing to the match play conclusion to the tournament the Illini rallied again. Illinois was tied for ninth after 54 holes but three of the five Illini players– Thomas Detry (67), Dylan Meyer (69) and Nick Hardy (69) — bettered par in the final round as the Illini rallied for a second-place finish. Charlie Danielson, was the top Illinois player in the individual standings, finishing in a tie for eighth after a 1-over 71 on Monday.

Only Texas – with Arlington Heights product Doug Ghim among its players – could top the Illini in the 72-hole portion of the championship and the Longhorns – unlike the Illini – survived the first day of matches.

Illinois beat South Carolina 4-1 in the quarterfinals but lost 3-2 to host Oregon in the semifinals on Tuesday. Oregon, led by NCAA individual champion Aaron Wise, will face Texas for the title on Wednesday.

Next year the NCAA finals will be played at Rich Harvest Farms in Sugar Grove.

Pine Meadow, Stonewall host Web.com qualifiers

The first of Chicago’s two pro tour stops of 2016 begins on Monday with two qualifying rounds for Web.com Tour’s Rust-Oleum Championship. Eliminations at both Pine Meadow, in Mundelein, and Stonewall Orchard, in Grayslake, will off six berths in the $600,000 tournament proper at Ivanhoe Club.

Monday’s program also features a celebrity pro-am that tees off at noon at Ivanhoe. On Tuesday there’ll be a practice day plus the first local qualifying round for next year’s Drive, Chip & Putt competition and a final pro-am will be held on Wednesday before the 72-hole, four-day tournament proper begins on Thursday, June 9.

Entries into the 156-man starting field for the $600,000 competition close at 5 p.m. on Friday. The Web.com Tour is competing this week at the Corales Puntacana Resort and Club Championship in the Dominican Republic. Two Chicago area players – Vince India and Joe Affrunti – are in the field there.

U.S. Open berths on the line

A handful of local players will be among the nearly 600 participating in Monday’s 10 sectional qualifiers for the U.S. Open. Those 36-hole tests will determine who plays in the Open proper June 16-19 at Oakmont, in Pennsylvania. Survivors of the HOW MANY local eliminations have their choice of sectional sites.

While the U.S. Golf Association again bypassed Chicago as a sectional site, the area did host two locals at both Village Links of Glen Ellyn and Exmoor, in Highland Park. Two of the top local players, though, chose to compete elsewhere.

Tee-K Kelly, the two-time Illinois Amateur champion from Wheaton, got through the local with a tie for third at Rattlesnake Ridge, in Ohio, prior to competing as an individual in the NCAA Championships. Libertyville’s Michael Schachner, an invitee to the Rust-Oleum Championship to be played as his home club, was medalist in the local at Bishops Bay in Wisconsin. Northbrook’s Tim Puetz also advanced to sectional play at Bishops Bay.

Here and there

The Arlington Heights Park District is opening registration Wednesday (TODAY) for players wanting to play in the July 1 re-opening of the Arlington Lakes course. It’s been closed for over a year to undergo a renovation.

Japan club manufacturer XXIO will host a demo day from 1-5 p.m. on Friday at Cog Hill, in Lemont.

John Platt gave Mistwood’s professional staff another title last week when he defeated Craig Carney of Bull Valley in the final of the Illinois PGA Senior Match Play Championship at Shoreacres in Lake Bluff.

The downstate team of Tom Kearfott, of El Paso, and Tim Sheppard, of East Peoria, won the new Chicago District Golf Association Senior Amateur Four-Ball tourney last week at Crystal Tree in Orland Park.

As far as major championships go, this is a rare lean year in the Chicago area. Last year there was both the U.S. Amateur and the PGA Tour’s BMW Championship. The Amateur has come and gone and the BMW is taking a year away; it’ll be played at Crooked Stick in Indianapolis in September before returning to Conway Farms, in Lake Forest, in 2017.

That leaves the 77th Senior PGA Championship, which begins its 72-hole run on Thursday at Harbor Shores in Benton Harbor, Mich. Roughly a two-hour drive away, it’s by far the closest major tournament on any of the pro tours to be played in the general vicinity of Chicago.

The Senior PGA was played at Harbor Shores in 2012 and 2014 and will return in 2018. Last year it was played on French Lick’s Pete Dye Course in Indiana.

This week’s tourney has by far the best storyline than any of those. Scotland’s Colin Montgomerie will be the focal point. He’s trying for a three-peat, something that hasn’t happened in the Senior PGA since Hale Irwin dominated from 1996-98.

“Three in a row would be something very special,’’ said Montgomerie during a recent visit to Harbor Shores, where he won his first major title of any sort in 2014. “That doesn’t happen very often in any sport.’’

Montgomerie was an established international star before joining the Champions Tour. He never lost a singles match in eight Ryder Cup appearances, but his career was also notable for lots of near-misses in the big events. He was second in five majors between 1994 and 2006.

He’s blossomed on the 50-and-over circuit, however. His first three wins were majors – the two Senior PGAs plus the 2014 U.S. Senior Open. The first of this year’s five Champions Tour majors was last week’s Regions Tradition. Montgomerie finished in a tie for 17th place as Bernhard Langer won the title.

Illinois Amateur champ in NCAA finals

Medinah’s Tee-k Kelly, an Ohio State senior who won two of the last three Illinois State Amateur titles, was medalist in the NCAA regional at Blackwolf Run, in Kohler, Wis., last week and advanced to the NCAA finals. They run Friday though Wednesday, June 1, at Eugene Country Club in Oregon.

Illinois also qualified as a team at Blackwolf. The Illini won their fourth straight regional title and will be making their ninth straight appearance in the finals, a streak topped only by the 10 in a row by Texas and Southern California.

Illinois coach Mike Small, still competitive as a player at the pro level, was also awarded a sponsor’s exemption to the Lincoln Land Charity Classic, a new Web.com Tour event to be played next month at Panther Creek in Springfield.

Here and there

Erica Shepherd, of Greenwood, Ind., and Ashleigh Simon, of South Africa, advanced to the U.S. Women’s Open finals at Monday’s sectional qualifying round at River Forest Country Club. Shepherd was medialist with a 3-under-par 142 over 36 holes, two strokes better than Simon. Sabrina Bohanno, of Norridge, and Dana Gattone, of Addison, were the top Chicago area players. They finished eight strokes back in a tie for 11th place.

Medinah Country Club hosts its Patriots Day event for the seventh time on Tuesday. Last year’s event raised about $300,000. This year’s has a full field on the recently renovated No. 1 course. The event, sold out since February, will feature 35 foursomes. Veterans will also be honored at Willow Crest. That course has invited veterans to play free after noon on Memorial Day with tee times required.

Kyle Nathan, of Exmoor in Highland Park, added the Chicago District Golf Association’s Mid-Amateur title to the Illinois Mid-Am he won four years. Nathan CDGA win in the second annual event came last week at Lake Shore, in Glencoe.

Ivanhoe Club is going to be a busy place. The club plays host to the Rust-Oleum Championship, Chicago’s new Web.com Com Tour stop, from June 6-12 and the next day it will host the College of Lake County Classic, a fundraiser for the school’s scholarship fund.

Libertyville Sports Complex will kick off its Lessons for Kids program on June 14. The five-day camps for boys and girls in the 4-6, 7-10 and 11-plus age groups will be directed by PGA professional Chris McConnell.

The Illinois PGA’s Senior Match Play Championship concludes on Wednesday at Shoreacres, in Lake Bluff.

The PGA Tour is bringing its secondary circuit back to the Chicago area for the first time since 2008, but things have changed a lot since then.

The Glen Club, in Glenview, hosted the LaSalle Bank (or Bank of America) Open on what was then called the Nationwide Tour through 2008 before sponsorship problems set in. The return comes under the banner of the Web.com Tour on June 6-12 when the $600,000 Rust-Oleum Championship comes to Ivanhoe Club.

Scott Cassin, tournament director at The Glen, is also in that role at Ivanhoe and this week he explained just how different the tournaments of the past were compared to the upcoming event. It goes far beyond the tour’s name change. The Nationwide was more of a developmental circuit.

“That’s no longer the case,’’ said Cassin. “Now (the Web.com Tour) is the pathway to the PGA Tour. It’s gained a lot of stature in the last couple years with international players coming in.’’

Previously, players used the Nationwide Tour to prepare for the PGA fall qualifying school. Now the Q-School feeds just to the Web.com Tour. So does the PGA’s Latinoamerica, Canadian and China circuits, which weren’t under the PGA banner a decade ago. The Web.com Tour’s best go directly to the PGA Tour in 2017.

“This (Web.com) tour is still about fun, and there’s a lot of young, hungry golfers,’’ said Cassin. And some older ones, too.

The initial entry list for Ivanhoe includes such names as Jonathan Byrd, a five-time winner on the PGA Tour; Len Mattiace, a PGA Tour champion twice and once a runner-up in the Masters; and Greg Chalmers, a veteran of the international circuits with wins in both the Australian Open and Australian PGA championships.

Based on the early entrants Ivanhoe will get nine of the current top 10 money-winners on the Web.com circuit, the only one not signed up yet being No. 1 Wesley Bryan. There’ll be a number of local players as well, headed by Lake Forest’s Brad Hopfinger — the last of only seven players to earn wins in both the Illinois Amateur and Illinois Open. Winner of the Amateur in 2011 and the Open in 2014, he moved up to the Web.com from the Latinoamerica circuit this year.

The structure of the Rust-Oleum Championship, which had been held the last two years in Cleveland, will be more comprehensive, too. At Ivanhoe – the tourney site for the next three years — there’ll be a celebrity pro-am and two qualifying rounds on Monday and the first local qualifier for the 2017 Drive, Chip & Putt contest on Tuesday before the 72-hole championship tees off. Tickets, though, remain affordable. They’re $20 for the week with those 17 and under admitted free.

Here and there

The Chicago District Golf Assn. concludes its three-day Mid-Amateur Championship on Wednesday at Lake Shore Country Club, in Glencoe, before conducting a sectional qualifier for the U.S. Women’s Open on Monday at Oak Park Country Club. Only two players from the 90 teeing off at Oak Park will advance to the Women’s Open proper at CordeValle in California in July.

Wauconda’s Josh Esler shared medalist honors at Monday’s U.S. Open local qualifying round at Exmoor in Highland Park with Chicago’s Brian Atkinson. Those two, plus Chicago’s James Lelliott, Maryville’s Keenaj Sampson and Rockford’s Kyle Slattery, qualified for next month’s sectional eliminations.

The NCAA men’s six regionals conclude Wednesday (TODAY), but Doug Ghim – a Texas sophomore from Arlington Heights – was an immediate sensation with a 64 in Monday’s first round of a regional in Franklin, Tenn. He had six birdies and an eagle in his first bogey-free round as a collegiate player. Illinois and Northwestern complete their bids to reach the NCAA finals on Wednesday with the Illini competing in Kohler, Wis., and the Wildcats in Stillwater, Okla.

Bears’ kicker Robbie Gould will co-host the Good as Gould event on June 4 at Eagle Ridge, in Galena. Gould and host professional Reagan Davis will conduct a free, interactive golf demonstration for families and individuals and the resort is also offering a VIP Golf Package for participants.

Jay Freitag of Glen View Club and Simon Allan of Prestwick, in Frankfort, led the way in Monday’s Illinois PGA stroke play event at Westmoreland, in Wilmette. Both shot 69s. Next up is the IPGA Senior Match Play Championship, which runs Monday through Wednesday at Shoreacres, in Lake Bluff.

The collegiate golf season reaches its climax in the next three weeks, and it could go down as one for ages as far as Illinois schools are concerned.

Both the men’s and women’s teams at Northwestern qualified for the NCAA tournament and the Illinois men’s squad looms as one of the favorites for the national title again. Coach Mike Small’s Illini are ranked No. 2 in the national polls and Emily Fletcher’s NU women are No. 8 in the women’s poll.

Fletcher’s team is already qualified for the NCAA finals after last week’s rousing 18-stroke victory at a regional elimination at Shoal Creek in Alabama. Small’s Illini are the top seed in the men’s regional that starts on Monday at Blackwolf Run’s Meadows Valley Course in Kohler, Wis.

In addition to the 13 teams competing, the 10 individual invitees there include Tee-K Kelly, the Ohio State senior and Medinah member who won two of the last three Illinois State Amateur titles, and Miami of Ohio sophomore Patrick Flavin, who is from Highland Park.

Northwestern’s men’s team is the No. 9 seed in a regional at Karsten Creek in Stillwater, Okla. All the regionals are contested over 54 holes and the top five teams and low individual at each regional qualifies for the national finals at Eugene Country Club in Oregon. The women compete at Eugene from May 20-25 and the men from May 27-June 1.

Illinois is a No. 1 regional seed for the second straight year and an NCAA qualifier for the ninth straight year on the men’s side. The Illini, ranked behind only Texas nationally, will be seeking their fourth straight regional title at Blackwolf Run.

The NU women earned at least a share of the Big Ten title in three of the last four years but the regional title was the first ever for the Wildcats, be it the men’s or women’s teams. Freshman Janet Mao shared individual honors at Shoal Creek, and that was an encouraging sign that Fletcher’s team is peaking at the perfect time. The regional marked only the third tournament where Mao’s score counted towards the team total.

Knoll tops first U.S. Open elimination

The U.S. Golf Assn. reported that 9,877 players entered the U.S. Open and the elimination process has begun for next month’s finals at Oakmont, in Pennsylvania, Ray Knoll, the 2014 Illinois Amateur champion from Naperville, carded a 4-under-par 68 to win the first Illinois local qualifier on Monday at Village Links of Glen Ellyn.

Knoll, who plays collegiately at iowa, was one stroke better than Tim Streng who teaches at Northwestern’s Wildcat Academy. NU sophomore Dylan Wu was a stroke further back but all three – along with Patrick Duffy and Kyle Kochevar – advanced to sectional play.

Another regional was held at illini Country Club in Springfield, with Bloomington’s Kyle English and former Illinois State basketball player Brandon Holtz sharing low score honors with 2-under-par 69s. Mini-tour player Kurt Slattery of Taylor Ridge, also made it to sectional play. Once again Chicago won’t have a sectional elimination. The closest will be in Ohio, but qualifiers from the locals can opt for sectional berths in any area.

Here and there

Despite a lengthy weather-related suspension of play on Tuesday the 65th llinois PGA Match Play Championship is scheduled to be completed as scheduled on Thursday at Kemper Lakes in Kildeer.

The Chicago District Golf Association’s second Mid-Amateur Championship has a Monday-Wednesday run at Lake Shore, in Glencoe.

The women’s teams from Illinois Wesleyan and Aurora are in the NCAA Division III finals this week. The tourney, which started on Tuesday, concludes on Friday at Bay Oaks in Houston.

The Illinois PGA will hold its next stroke play events on Monday at Westmoreland, in Wilmette.