Carlos Sainz Jr. will be the focal point of the Chicago Open, the last big tournament of the local season – assuming he plays, that is.

Sainz, 28, earned his PGA Tour card two weeks ago and the premier circuit’s 2014-15 season begins next week. The Chicago Open features a pro-am on Friday and tournament rounds Sunday through Tuesday (OCT 3-5) at Cantigny, in Wheaton.

The first event of the PGA Tour’s next season is the Frys.com Open, a California event that starts two days after the Chicago Open concludes. The problem is, Sainz hasn’t secured a place in the field for what might be his first PGA Tour event and he might not know if he’s in until the last minute.

Latest report is that he’s the No. 6 alternate in the Frys.com Open. He’s also the defending champion in the Chicago Open. The Frys.com Open has a $5 million prize fund. Last year’s Chicago Open paid $50,00 last year, but it does offer Sainz a competitive event. As a tour player, he must go where the money is, and he played tournaments 14 weeks in a row at one point this season.

In addition to playing lots of tournaments this year, he also found competition in Colombia, Chile, Brazil, Panama and Mexico in addition to the U.S. So, squeezing in events in Chicago and San Martin, Calif., in the same week isn’t that big a deal.

“I’ll play the Chicago Open unless I know I’m in the Frys,’’ said Sainz. “As of now I’m not. We’ll see how things go.’’

Sainz, who grew up in Elgin and attended Larkin High School before moving on to Mississippi State University, doesn’t have much priority on the PGA Tour’s performance list. He was No. 49 of the 50 qualifiers off the Web.com Tour’s advancement list. That means he’ll have trouble getting into the big-money PGA Tour events.

“I’ll get into 15-20 events,’’ he said. “It comes down to, when I get in, I’ve got to be ready to play. It might be harder for me, but I’m looking forward to the challenge. I’ll get in enough events, in my eyes, to make it.’’

So, Sainz will be watching the priority list on a daily basis to see if enough players withdraw for him to compete. If enough drop out early enough he could skip the Chicago Open and head straight to California. He could also try to get into the Frys event via a Monday qualifying tournament, but he’d prefer competing in the Chicago Open to doing that.

“I’ll know where I stand,’’ he said. “Every tournament has between two and 10 guys withdraw. If I’m close I’ll play the Chicago Open, then head to California and practice there Wednesday and play in the tournament.’’

Sainz will face a similar dilemma for most of the season. In fact, he might not get into a PGA Tour event until January. His money total come September will determine where he plays next season. If he’s in the top 125 he’ll remain on the PGA Tour for another season. If not, he’ll be back to the Web.com Tour Finals, where he earned his PGA Tour card for this season.

The Chicago Open will be played for the 25th time, and is part of Cantigny’s 25th anniversary season. The Chicago Open, though has had an on-again, off-again history. The Illinois Junior Golf Assn. revived it last year as its primary fundraiser.

This year’s tourney has 147 entrants. In addition to Sainz they include Mark Hensby, former winner of the Illinois State Amateur, Illinois Open and PGA Tour’s John Deere Classic; Illinois men’s coach Mike Small, who won the Illinois PGA Championship for a record 11 times in August; and former Northwestern star Jack Perry.

The Chicago area has a new member on the PGA Tour. Elgin’s Carlos Sainz Jr. earned playing privileges for the 2014-15 season after finishing in a tie for 31st place in the Web.com Tour Championship on Sunday at TPC Sawgrass in Florida.

Sainz, 28, had only one top-10 finish and survived the 36-hole cut only 10 times in 23 tournaments in his rookie season on the PGA’s satellite circuit, but his best play came when it counted the most.

A tie for second in August’s Price Cutter Charity Championship earned Sainz $44,550, which accounted for most of his regular season earnings. Still, it allowed him to squeeze into the Web.com Finals, a four-tournament series of $1 million events that offered 25 berths on the PGA Tour for next season. The Finals was limited to the top 75 on the Web.com money list and players ranked from 126-200 in the PGA’s FedEx Cup standings.

Sainz, ranked 74th in regular season money, posted a tie for 19th and a tie for 12th in the first two Finals events before missing the cut by one stroke in the third. That put him in a precarious position going into the last event at TPC Sawgrass, but the former Mississippi State golfer put together rounds of 70, 70, 68 and 71 for a 278 total that was just good enough to put him on the 50 players from the Web.com circuit to advance to the PGA Tour.

A bogey on the last hole Sunday left Sainz in a precarious position, and he had to wait for the last putt to drop several hours after he finished his round before he was assured advancement in the No. 49 position.

Sainz is scheduled to defend his title in the Chicago Open at Cantigny, in Wheaton next month, but that may be in limbo now. Under its new scheduling format, which went into effect in the fall of 2013, the next PGA Tour campaign begins with the Frys.com Open in Napa, Calif., from Oct. 6-12. The Chicago Open is Oct. 5-7.

Though he has his PGA Tour card, Sainz won’t have a high enough priority to play in all the tournaments, and he may not get into an event on the premier circuit until January.

Derek Fathauer won the Web.com Tour Championship, finishing at 14-under-par 266 for the 72 holes. He was 13 strokes ahead of Sainz.

Three weeks ago University of Illinois men’s coach Mike Small won the Illinois PGA Championship for a record 11th time, with two of those victories coming at Olympia Fields Country Club in 2010 and 2013. This weekend Small reverts from player to coach with hopes that his well-regarded Illini can do as well at the Olympia Fields Fighting Illini Invitational.

It’ll be the season opener for the Illini, who were ranked No. 4 by Golfweek and No. 6 by the Golf Coaches Assn. of America in preseason polls. Annually one of the top collegiate invitations in the country, the Olympia Fields test is also — potentially at least — the beginning of the collegiate careers for both Arlington Heights’ Doug Ghim and Northbrook’s Nick Hardy, two of the most promising young players to come out of the Chicago ranks in years.

While tournament rosters haven’t been announced, Ghim could be in Texas’ lineup and fellow freshman Hardy was among Small’s latest recruiting class at Illinois. Ghim was runner-up in the U.S. Amateur Public Links Championship this summer and medalist in the Western Amateur. Hardy was runner-up in both the Western Junior and Illinois State Amateur.

Hardy’s presence aside, Illinois’ lofty rankings are understandable since Small has five of six players returning from last year’s squad including All-Americans Brian Campbell, Charlie Danielson and Thomas Detry.

The Illini reached the match play finals of the NCAA tournament three times in the last four years, but winning their own event this weekend won’t be easy. The 15-team field for the three-day 54-hole event that tees off on Friday comprises one of strongest in collegiate golf with Texas and Stanford looming as the top challengers for the host team.

In the first in-season poll, released by TheGolf Channel this week, Texas was No. 2 and Illinois No. 3 behind Oklahoma State. In addition to Ghim, the Longhorns have the two finalists from this summer’s Western Amateur at Chicago’s Beverly Country Club in champion Beau Hossler and runner-up Scottie Sheffler, both Californians.

From the tours

Wheaton’s Kevin Streelman won’t be in the Tour Championship, last event of the PGA Tour’s FedEx Cup playoffs. It begins Thursday at East Lake in Atlanta, and Streelman couldn’t retain his spot among the top 30 qualifiers. Despite a closing round 66 at the BMW Championship on Sunday Streelman ranked only 48th after the first three events of the four-tourney playoff series.

Elgin’s Carlos Sainz Jr. continued his bid to earn his PGA Tour card for 2015 with a tie for 12th in the second event of the Web.com Tour Finals. He’s tied for 16th midway through that four-tournament series and the top 25 money winners after the finals conclude on Sept. 21 advance to the premier circuit next season.

Northwestern alum David Lipsky won the Omega European Masters in Switzerland, an event co-sponsored by the European and Asian PGA Tours. The victory earned Lipsky his playing privileges on the European Tour for two years and elevated him to the top spot in the Asian Order of Merit.

Lake Forest’s Chip Beck held the first-round lead in the Champions Tour’s Quebec Championship last week but a pair of 75s after that relegated him to a tie for 49th place. Hinsdale’s Jeff Sluman tied for 10th and is now in fifth place in the Charles Schwab Cup point race with five events left in the season.

Holmes tops IPGA honorees

Jim Holmes, head professional at Ravinia Green in Riverwoods, has been named the 60th recipient of the Illinois PGA Golf Professional of the Year Award.

Katie Dick, of Chicago’s Bryn Mawr Country Club, is Assistant of the Year while Wheaton’s Gary Pinns was named the Teacher of the Year and Brett Packee of Vernon Hills took the Youth Player Development Award.

Others cited include Eric Aldrich, Glen Ellyn, Player Development Award; Tim Buscombe, Champaign, Bill Strausbaugh Award; Todd Sones, Vernon Hills, Horton Smith Award; and Wally Hines, Naperville, Bill Heald Career Achievement Award. Merchandiser award-winners were Lake Zurich’s Andy Shuman (private clubs) and Hampshire’s Steve Gillie (public facilities). All will be honored Oct. 23 at Medinah

Coming up next

The Illinois State Senior Amateur runs Monday through Wednesday at Royal Club of Long Grove. It has an 85-man field, but figures to be a two-man duel. Either Taylorville’s Dave Ryan, the defending champion, or Kewanee’s Tom Miler have won the last three titles in the event and five of the last six.

There’ll be 18-hole rounds on Monday and Tuesday before the field is cut to the low 35 and ties or any player within 10 shots of the lead for the final round next Wednesday, Sept. 17.

These are not the best of times for Luke Donald even though his last tournament round was a great one – a 67 to conclude the Deutsche Bank Championship on Monday in Boston.

“A nice round but a disappointing season on the PGA Tour,’’ the former Northwestern star and former world No. 1 said via Twitter. “Have never worked harder, so hopefully that was a glimpse of things to come.’’

Unfortunately, the hot round was only good enough for a tie for 57th place in the second of the four FedEx Cup Playoff events, and that wasn’t all. After the second of the four $8 million tournaments Donald stood 89th in the FedEx Cup standings. Only the top 70 are eligible to play in the third event – the BMW Championship, which tees off Thursday at Cherry Hills in Denver.

That meant Donald will miss out on a great financial opportunity and things got worse for Donald on Tuesday. Paul McGinley, captain of the European Ryder Cup team, bypassed Donald in making his three roster picks for the upcoming matches at Gleneagles in Scotland. McGinley went for Ian Poulter, Lee Westwood and Stephen Gallacher instead. In so doing, he passed on Donald who had played on four straight winning Ryder Cup teams.

Not only had he been on the Europeans’ roster but Donald also had been one of its stars. He won 70 percent of the points available in his matches, the last of which were played at Medinah two years ago. Of those who have played in at least 15 Ryder Cup matches only Poulter (80 percent) and Arnold Palmer (71.9 percent) have done better than Donald.

Despite his solid Ryder Cup record and the fact that he had publically pushed for McGinley’s selection as European captain, Donald knew he was on the bubble before McGinley made his roster decisions. His game has not been sharp, as evidenced by only one top 35 finish in his last nine starts.

“I told Paul last week that I felt my game was pretty close,’’ Donald told British media members prior to Tuesday’s announcement. “It seems like I’ve been in a bit of a mental rut and not been able to get any momentum going.’’

McGinley was also Donald’s partner in his first Ryder Cup match in 2006, but that didn’t prevent Donald from getting the bad news.

“He wasn’t expecting it. He was very, very disappointed – and rightly so,’’ McGinley said. “That was a very difficult conversation.’’

Missing the last two FedEx events will be difficult, too. The BMW Championship was played at Conway Farms in Lake Forest — Donald’s home course – last year and will return there in 2015. The Western Golf Assn., which conducts the event to raise funds for its Evans Scholars Foundation, has opted to play the tournament away from Chicago every other year. That’s why it’s in Denver this time.

Last year’s event at Conway was won by Zach Johnson, but the week’s highlight was a 59 by Jim Furyk. Both are in the field at Cherry Hills. So is Wheaton’s Kevin Streelman, who is No. 38 in the FedEx standings after finishing in a tie for 26th at the Deutsche Bank Championship.

Streelman needs a good week to get into the top 30 in the standings and earn a spot in the last FedEx event – the Tour Championship at East Lake in Atlanta. The FedEx point leader after that event will earn a $10 million bonus in addition to his prize money.

Deutsche Bank winner Chris Kirk, world No. 1 Rory McIlroy and Hunter Mahan, winner of the first playoff event (The Barclays), are 1-2-3 in the standings going into the BMW.

Here and there

The PGA’s satellite Web.com Tour holds the second of its four playoff events, the Chiquita Classic in North Carolina, starting on Thursday. It’s important for Elgin’s Carlos Sainz Jr. because the top 25 in the Web.com Finals get PGA Tour cards for 2015. Sainz is tied for 19th after last week’s first event in the series at Fort Wayne, Ind.

The last major local competition, the Oct. 5-7 Chicago Open, has its first qualifying round in the area at Village Links of Glen Ellyn on Monday. The only other one locally will be Sept. 25 at Makray Memorial in Barrington before the tournament proper is played at Cantigny in Wheaton.

The Illinois Senior Open runs Monday and Tuesday at McHenry and the Chicago District Golf Assn. holds its Par 3 Championship Monday at Lost Dunes in Bridgman, MI., and its Mid-Amateur Championship Tuesday at Bridges of Poplar Creek in Hoffman Estates.

This may well be the busiest two weeks in the Western Golf Association’s 105-year history.

The WGA, based in north suburban Golf, does much of its fundraising for its Evans Scholars Foundation through the staging of big tournaments. Until last year that basically meant putting on three events that were spread out over the course of the summer.

Last year the WGA added a fourth tournament – the Hotel Fitness Championship, which is part of the Web.com Tour Finals. This year the WGA will conduct the same four events, and the Western Junior and Western Amateur have already been held. The last two professional events will be held in back-to-back weeks.

The Hotel Fitness Championship tees off Thursday at Sycamore Hills in Fort Wayne, Ind., and the WGA’s biggest event follows with a Sept. 4-6 staging of the BMW Championship at Cherry Hills in Denver. The WGA staff will work both.

“It was different last year,’’ said WGA president and chief executive officer John Kaczkowski. “We had a week in between, and it was a little easier to manage them.’’

It’s not as easy this time. The Hotel Fitness Championship has 125 players – among them Elgin’s Carlos Sainz Jr. — battling to earn places on the PGA Tour for 2015. A week later the top 70 in the FedEx Cup standings after this week’s Deutsche Bank Championship in Boston will battle for an $8 million purse at Cherry Hills.

The BMW Championship was held at Conway Farms in Lake Forest last year, which eliminated travel considerations for the WGA staffers. That’s not the case this time.

“At the end of the day it’s easier to run a tournament in Chicago,’’ said Kaczkowski, “but moving it is better for the organization. It gives us more exposure and is more lucrative for the Evans Scholars.’’

The more money raised, the more caddies that can receive college scholarships. The WGA has been providing them since 1930 and more than 800 are currently in college on Evans Scholarships.

This week’s Hotel Fitness Championship was created when the PGA Tour revised its qualifying school format. It brings together the top 75 players on the Web.com Tour money list and players ranked 125-130 on the PGA Tour’s FedEx Cup standings.

“It’s an interesting event with a really good field,’’ said Kaczkowski. “There’s some pretty big names in it (ex-major champions Mike Weir, Ben Curtis and Trevor Immelman). It’s taken awhile for the Fort Wayne community to understand what’s going on, but this year we’ve seen an uptick in ticket sales and we’re optimistic we’ll get good crowds.’’

Sainz barely made the field. His tie for 41st in the Web.com’s last regular season event, the Portland Open, gave him the No. 74 spot on the money list.

The BMW Championship returns to Conway Farms in 2015. Conway closed earlier this month for renovations, which include an upgrading of the practice ranging and re-grassing of all the greens in preparation for the return of the BMW.

Crooked Stick, in Carmel, Ind., is expected to host in 2016. The BMW Championship was played there in 2012 with Rory McIlroy winning the title. Club members are expected to formally approve the tourney’s return on Thursday. The previous event at Crooked Stick was one of the best-attended tournaments, with 143,000 showing up during the course of the week. It was also voted the PGA Tour’s Tournament of the Year.

Titles on line for IPGA, Mid-Am

The final rounds for both the 92nd Illinois PGA Championship and 22nd Illinois State Mid-Amateur will be played on Wednesday. The IPGA began its 54-hole run on Monday at Stonewall Orchard in Grayslake and the Mid-Am started with 36 holes on Tuesday at Flossmoor Country Club.

Fields at both tournaments were cut after Tuesday’s rounds. The IPGA started with 117 players but only the low 60 and ties after 36 holes will play on Wednesday. The Mid-Am teed off with 81 players and was cut to the low 35 and ties plus any player within 10 shots of the lead for Wednesday’s wrapup.

Defending champions are Mike Small in the IPGA Championship and Todd Mitchell in the Mid-Am. Small is seeking his 11th win in the IPGA Championship and Mitchell is after his fifth victory in the Mid-Am. He won in both 2011 and 2013 at Flosssmoor.

Nicole Jeray has been toiling on the LPGA Tour since turning pro in 1993, and this week’s Wegmans Classic could be critical to her remaining on the women’s premier circuit.

“I need to play good in Rochester (N.Y.) so I can get up on the money list,’’ she said. “I started the year really well. I made the cut in my first three tournaments. Then I missed a whole bunch in a row by one or two shots.’’

The Berwyn native and Northern Illinois University graduate also struggled in the Illinois Women’s Open, a tourney she won twice, in a return home two weeks ago. As the only LPGA player in the field she settled for a 10th place finish.

Last week, though, could have put Jeray back on a positive career path. After five straight missed cut, she qualified for all 72 holes in the Meijer Classic, a new LPGA event in Grand Rapids, Mich. Jeray finished in a tie for $8th place and her $3,907 check was her best on the circuit since April . Still, Jeray needs more good showings to retain her card for another season and she’s not sure how many more tournaments she’ll be able to play in after the Wegmans.

Heading into the Rochester tourney Jeray is No. 141 on the season money list with $14,777. You have to admire her determination, though. Narcolepsy, a sleeping disorder, slowed her career for a while but she remains Chicago’s only LPGA player. In fact no other local players have even come close to making it in the last three decades.

“That totally surprises me,’’ she said. “I thought there’d be a million players from Chicago. There are a lot of good teachers around (Chicago) and we have the Illinois Junior Golf Assn., too. You’d think something’s missing, but I don’t know what it is.’’

Jeray has made regular returns to the LPGA qualifying school and played on the satellite Symetra Tour, too, compiling career earnings of $253,819. She has no intention of retiring any time soon.

“I still totally enjoy it,’’ she said. “I try on every single shot. I just need one good tournament. You just never know in this game.’’

Sainz makes a splash

Elgin’s Carlos Sainz Jr. had been struggling as a rookie on the Web.com Tour until last week’s Price Cutter Charity Championship in Springfield, Mo. Sainz broke through in a big way there, finishing in a tie for second and winning $44,550.

That payday gave Sainz winnings of $63,471 on the PGA Tour’s satellite circuit and boosted him to 68th on the money list. He had missed the cut in four straight events and six of seven before a 20-under-par performance left him joint runner-up and one stroke behind champion Cameron Percy. Sainz shot 66-65-67 in the last three rounds.

Sainz had a strong finish in the 2013 season. He won an event on the Canadian PGA Tour, lost the Illinois Open title in a playoff at The Glen Club in Glenview and then won the Chicago Open at Cantigny in Wheaton in his final events before a successful showing in the PGA qualifying school.

If he can finish in the top 25 on the Web.com money circuit he’ll be on the PGA Tour in 2015. This week’s Web.com event is the News Sentinel Open in Knoxville, Tenn.

Here and there

Teams consisting of the top seniors in the Illinois PGA and Chicago District Golf Assn. will battle for the Thompson Cup on Wednesday at Chicago’s Ridge Country Club. The CDGA will also conduct its second Super Seniors Championship at Kankakee that day.

The LPGA Legends Championship, at French Lick Resort in Indiana, follows last week’s PGA Championship into the Louisville area this week. The 54-hole event, which begins on Friday, is the biggest event on the LPGA’s senior circuit. It’ll be preceded by the induction of Nancy Lopez and Legends co-founder Jane Blalock into the tour’s Hall of Fame. Ribbon-cutting for the Hall, at the West Baden Springs Hotel, will follow the induction ceremonies on Thursday night.

Qualifying for the U.S. Senior Amateur will be held on Monday at Rich Harvest Farms in Sugar Grove.

Yes, there will be a Chicago area contingent in the year’s last major. Luke Donald, Steve Stricker and Kevin Streelman will tee it up Thursday in the 96th PGA Championship at Valhalla, in Louisville, Ky.

But there’ll be some notable absentees, too. Mark Wilson and D.A. Points, both going through sub-par seasons, have the week off. So do up-and-coming University of Illinois alums Luke Guthrie and Scott Langley and – in a distinct departure from recent years – there won’t be a local among the 20 club professionals among the 156 starters.

Mike Small, the Illinois coach, has been a consistent qualifier and a few of his state colleagues have made appearances as well. Not this year, though. Small and Conway Farms’ Matt Slowinski fizzled in the last holes of the Professional Players National Championship, which determined the 20 qualifiers, but Curtis Malm’s near-miss was even more heart-breaking.

The first-year head man at White Eagle in Naperville was, for a while at least, at the top of the alternate’s list among the club pros. If one of the 20 couldn’t play for whatever reason Malm would be making his first appearance in the PGA Championship this week.

Malm, the Illinois PGA player-of-the-year the last two seasons, was in a six-man playoff for the last five club professional spots at Valhalla. He was the odd man out at the end of the four-hole playoff but still held out hopes of getting in – until a few days ago.

“I’m officially removed from the event,’’ said Malm. “They give the PGA (club pro qualifiers) to a certain date. If one withdraws after that they fill it with one of their guys.’’

In other words, a touring pro gets in – not a club pro. The PGA of America is the body that represents the club professionals (about 27,000 of them) in the golf industry. Malm is understandably disappointed.

“It’s terrible,’’ he said. “I’d definitely would have been down there (if there was a chance for his elevation to the field). It’s time for the PGA of America to step up and have a backbone. We’re losing control of our tournament.’’

The PGA does have the strongest field of the four major championships with 99 of the top 100 on the World Rankings entered at Valhalla. The lone absentee from that group is Dustin Johnson, who announced last week he is taking a leave of absence from golf to detail with personal issues. Tiger Woods’ status is also in doubt after he withdrew from last week’s Bridgestone Invitational with a back injury.

The Bridgestone, won by Rory McIlroy in a duel with Sergio Garcia, didn’t bode well for the chances of the players with Illinois connections fortunate enough to play at Valhalla. Donald (Northwestern) tied for 50th, Steve Stricker (Illinois alum) finished 65th and Streelman was 71st among the 72 players who completed all four rounds. Woods was among four who withdrew.

Here and there

The PGA of America announced on Monday that grounds tickets for the four tournament rounds are sold out. Those seeking tickets for the 2015 PGA at Whistling Straits in Wisconsin have until Sunday to pre-register.

As soon as the PGA Championship ends the LPGA Legends Championship tees off at nearby French Lick Resort in Indiana. Jane Blalock, who directs the Legends circuit, and Nancy Lopez will be inducted into the Legends Hall of Fame as part of the festivities.

Brian Carroll, of Royal Hawk in St. Charles, won the Illinois PGA Assistants title on Monday, carding a 5-under-par 137 over 36 holes at St. Charles Country Club for a four-stroke victory.

The nation-wide courses managed by Billy Casper Golf will conduct the World’s Largest Golf Outing next week to benefit the Wounded Warrior Project. The Chicago area courses participating include Orchard Valley in Aurora, Whisper Creek in Huntley, Water’s Edge in Worth, George Dunne National in Oak Forest, Highland Woods in Palatine, Indian Boundary in Chicago, Chick Evans in Morton Grove and River Oaks in Calumet City. All the events will be held on Monday, Aug. 11, except Whisper Creek. The event will be held there on Tuesday, Aug. 12.

Arnold Palmer visited Rich Harvest Farms in Sugar Gove last weekend to check out the place for next June’s Palmer Cup matches between college stars from the U.S. and Europe.

Hana Lee, a senior on the Northwestern women’s team, is competing in the U.S. Women’s Amateur, which runs through Sunday in Glen Cove, N.J. She’ll try to duplicate the success of NU teammate Kacie Komoto, who recently repeated as the Hawaii State Match Play champion.

No tournament in golf, amateur or professional, requires as much to win as the Western Amateur. The Western Golf Assn. is conducting its annual golf marathon for the 112th time this week at Chicago’s Beverly Country Club, and Wednesday is an especially big day because it includes the largest cut of the event – from the starting field of 156 to the low 44 and ties.

The Tuesday and Wednesday stroke play rounds involved 156 players, including 21 of the top 37 in the world amateur rankings. Only the low 44 and ties after the first 36 holes resume play on Thursday. They’ll go 36 more holes to determine 16 qualifiers for the match play portion of the tournament.

That’s when the title is really on the line. There’ll be two rounds of match play on Friday, the semifinals are on Saturday morning and the championship match on Saturday afternoon.

“It’s such a tough tournament to win,’’ said Oklahoma State golfer Jordan Niebrugge, who won it last year in Arkansas. “You have two cuts, then four matches after that. It really tests your patience.’’

Niebrugge, from Mequon, Wis., came in with good credentials. Playing as an amateur, he tied for 27th in the John Deere Classic in his first PGA Tour event. The next week, though, he was beaten by Arlington Heights resident Doug Ghim in the last U.S. Amateur Public Links Championship.

That ended Niebrugge’s hopes of defending that title, and Ghim – with a berth in next year’s Masters tournament on the line – lost a 37-hole duel with San Diego’s Byron Meth in an epic title match. Ghim and Meth, co-medalists in the Publinx, were among the many top stars teeing off in the Western Am.

Ghim, headed to the University of Texas, wasn’t the only Chicago star in the starting field. Naperville’s Ray Knoll qualified for the John Deere Classic and won the Illinois State Amateur the following week at Cantigny in Wheaton. His opponent in the final there was Northbrook’s Nick Hardy, who had been runner-up in the Western Junior at Flossmoor earlier in the summer.

Tournament director Vince Pellegerino had players from 30 states, 17 countries and six continents in his starting field. The foreign contingent include Tawian’s Cheng-Tsun Pan, the Western Amateur medalists in 2009 and 2010 and a qualifier for the 2013 U.S. Open and this year’s British Open, and China’s Tianglang Guan, the 14-year old who survived the cut in April’s Masters tournament.

The Western Amateur’s champions list includes Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Ben Crenshaw and Curtis Strange. Beverly last hosted the tourney in 1930. It has also hosted four Western Opens, the 1931 U.S. Amateur and Chicago Opens.

Illinois Open moving?

The Illinois Open was played for a record ninth time at The Glen Club in Glenview last week, and Illinois PGA executive director Michael Miller said that a proposed format change could “potentially’’ take the tourney elsewhere.

In an effort to increase the entries the IPGA is considering an expansion of the qualifiers for the finals from 156 to 312. That would mean two courses would be needed for the first two rounds and a 36-hole facility would be ideal.

With the IPGA working with partner Kemper Sports, that suggests the finals might be shifted to Harborside International in Chicago for the first two rounds. Using two 18-holers in close proximity to each other is also under consideration. Miller said the tourney will remain at 54 holes and be limited to Illinois residents.

Here and there

The Illinois PGA Assistants Championship will be decided on Monday in a 36-hole competition at Crystal Lake Country Club.

Matt Pekarek, after 47 years at Village Links of Glen Ellyn, has retired as the 27-hole facility’s general manager. A past president of the Chicago District Golf Assn., he’ll continue to work on CDGA projects. Pekarek’s brother Chris is in his 45th year as superintendent at Village Links.

Justin Fetcho, assistant men’s coach at Illinois the past two years, has been named the head coach at Southern Illinois.

The Chicago District Golf Assn. will conduct four straight days of qualifying for the U.S. Mid-Amateur starting on Monday. Sites, in order, will be Red Tail in Decatur, Balmoral Woods in Crete, Stone Creek in Urbana and Highland Park Country Club.

The Illinois Amateur Invitational has been scheduled for Aug. 9-10 at Heritage Bluffs in Channahon.

The 65th Illinois Open ends on Wednesday. Then it’s the women’s turn. The 20th anniversary staging of the Phil Kosin Illinois Women’s Open will tee off on Monday at Mistwood in Romeoville.

Like the men’s tournament, the IWO is a 54-hole competition that concludes on a Wednesday, July 20. The men’s had state-wide qualifying rounds and 156 finalists at The Glen Club. Mistwood director of golf Dan Phillips expects about 80 players to compete for a $25,000 purse in the IWO. Unlike the men’s Open, the IWO has a Sunday pro-am. Phillips reported that it’s already sold out.

The first and last champions in the IWO, and several in between, will compete at Mistwood. Diane Daugherty, the former women’s coach at Southern Illinois, won the first IWO at Odyssey in Tinley Park. The event moved to Mistwood after four staging’s there.

Elise Swartout, who plays on the LPGA’s satellite Symetra Tour, will defend her title next week. She became the fifth Michigan golfer in the last six years to win the IWO when she survived a two-hole playoff, One of the players she beat in the extra session, Berwyn veteran Nicole Jeray, will return in search of a third IWO title. The LPGA Tour member won in 1998 and 2003.

Only Burr Ridge amateur Kerry Postillion has won the tournament three times. She got her wins between 1996-99.

Another past champion will also be closely-watched. Michigan native Samantha Troyanovich was an amateur out of Tulane University when she took the 2012 title. Now she’s hoping to become the first Mistwood member to win the IWO.

“The first time I played in the Illinois Women’s Open was a shot in the dark,’’ Troyanovich said. “I didn’t known what to expect..’’

After winning she took a year off from golf to get her Master’s degree in accounting. In January she turned professional. Though she’s had trouble getting into tournaments, she has worked daily with Mike Baldwin, director of Mistwood’s upscale Performance Center.

“I needed to work with Mike,’’ said Troyanovich. “He’s my coach. I’m a full member and it’s my job 9:30 to 5. It’s a perfect setup.’’

Mistwood completed a massive renovation, supervised by Michigan architect Ray Hearn, just prior to last year’s IWO and Golf magazine named it the “Best U.S. Renovation You Can Play ‘’ in 2013. The new Performance Center also opened in time for that tournament and work on a new clubhouse is expected to begin shortly after this year’s IWO is completed.

International Crown tees off

The LPGA’s new International Crown event begins Thursday at Caves Valley in Baltimore. The inaugural four-day event, featuring four-player teams from eight countries, will set the stage for its second staging at Rich Harvest Farms in Sugar Grove in 2016.

Rich Harvest’s staff will have a booth at the Sugar Grove Corn Boil from Friday through Sunday to trigger promotional efforts for the second staging. It’ll feature live Golf Channel jumbotron updates from 3-3:15, 4:40-4:55 and 6:10-6:25 p.m. on Saturday and 2:30-2:55 p.m. on Sunday. The booth will be in operation from 4-9 p.m. on Friday, 11 a.m.-9 p.m. on Saturday and 11 a.m.-6 p.m. on Sunday.

Here and there

John Schickling, the head professional at Rolling Green in Arlington Heights, and Kevin Marion, who holds the same position at Old Elm in Highland Park, will be the honorees at Monday’s Illinois PGA Senior Masters event at Onwentsia in Lake Forest.

The Illinois PGA will conduct its Assistants Championship on Monday. It’ll be a one-day 36-hole event at Crystal Lake Country Club. Australian Nick Smith, who directs the Twin Lakes facility in Palatine, will defend his title.

The Chicago District Golf Assn. Centennial Team Championship is scheduled for Midlothian Country Club on Monday.

Knollwood Country Club, in Granger, Ind., will host the Chicago-based Women’s Western Golf Assn. Junior Championship next week. It’ll run Monday through Friday, Aug. 1.

The Lake Park High School Educational Foundation will celebrate its 25th anniversary with an Aug. 4 outing and reception at Medinah.

Twenty-five players who competed in the John Deere Classic were on the tournament’s jet to the British Open on Sunday night. Zach Johnson figures to have the best chance of that group when the third major championship of the season tees off on Thursday at Royal Liverpool.

Johnson was the runner-up in the Quad Cities’ annual PGA Tour stop on Sunday, losing by one stroke to Brian Harman. Harman also was on the jet thanks to his victory but doesn’t have the experience overseas that Johnson has. The 2007 Masters champion has played in the British every year since 2004 and had top-10 finishes the last two years.

Winner of 11 PGA Tour events, Johnson’s game is traditionally good in July when the JDC and British are held on back-to-back weeks.

Johnson won the JDC in 2012, lost in a playoff in 2013 and was solo second on Sunday. He was ninth in the 2012 British Open and sixth last year.

“My game feels good, but my expectations over there are just to keep processing the way I’m processing, keep hitting solid shots,’’ said Johnson. “I’ve gone there with minimal confidence and played OK. It’s a totally different animal than what we experience here, and something that I truly, truly love.’’

Given his results the last two years, Johnson has high hopes for this week’s British.

“It’s a tournament where driving the golf ball is a premium,’’ said Johnson. “Driving it straight, especially if the course is firm and fast, is a huge advantage.’’

Johnson’s never had much trouble doing that, but now he wants to go to the next level – like Phil Mickelson did when he won his first British last year.

“The short game can separate you. That’s what we saw with Phil last year,’’ said Johnson. “He made some putts. Obviously he hit it well, but everybody is hitting it well at that point. Short game is what’s going to take you further.’’

Regardless of the results, Johnson cherishes his annual trip across the pond to play in a tournament with a different atmosphere than the usual PGA Tour stops.

“I love the nuances of it,’’ said Johnson. “I love what it demands. I love when I leave there, because that golf tournament magnifies my weaknesses more than any golf tournament I’ve ever played. You have to hit it high, you have to hit it low, you have to hit it left, you have to hit it right, you have to flop it, you have to bump-and-run it. You have to do everything. It’s pure golf.’’

Sluman marches on

Playing the U.S. Senior Open at Oklahoma’s Oak Tree course last week proved fruitful for Hinsdale’s Jeff Sluman. Sluman, who won the 1988 PGA Championship there but hadn’t been back in 25 years, finished in a tie for fifth in the Champions Tour’s latest major tournament.

The Senior Open was Sluman’s 92nd consecutive start. He last missed a tournament in 2010 to attend his sister-in-law’s wedding. The ironman streak is going to continue for awhile, too. Sluman had originally planned to skip next month’s Senior British Open, but he’s since changed his mind and will make the trip.

Here and there

Northbrook’s Vince India had his best finish on the Web.com Tour in Sunday’s Utah Championship when he tied for 15th – his second top-20 in the last four tournaments. He climbed to 102nd on the circuit’s money list and has six events left to get into the top 75 who qualify for the season-ending playoff series.

The 84th Illinois State Amateur’s 136-player field will be cut to the low 35 and ties and any player within 10 shots of the lead on Wednesday. The survivors will decide the title in a 36-hole final on Thursday at Cantigny in Wheaton. India won the title in 2010.

Illinois pros Kevin Streelman and D.A. Points were on the jet to the British Open even though both missed the cut at the JDC. Elmhurst’s Mark Wilson didn’t go, but he did play the full 72 holes at TPC Deere Run, finishing in a tie for 63rd place. A five-time PGA Tour winner, Wilson made only his third cut in 13 starts at the JDC.

The 65th Illinois Open tees off on Monday (JULY 21) at The Glen Club in Glenview. Antioch’s Joe Kinney will defend his title in the three-day 54-hole event. There’ll be 156 starters, most survivors of seven state-wide qualifying rounds. The field will be cut to the low 50 and ties after Tuesday’s second round.