This week’s second Encompass Championship at North Shore Country Club has two major differences from the first staging as far as the 81-player field is concerned.

Fred Couples, last year’s runner-up, won’t be there when play begins on Friday at the Glenview course but Colin Montgomerie will. Though Couples is one of the most popular players on the Champions Tour, the tradeoff seems a fair one.

Couples has a sore back and hasn’t played in a tournament since May 18 – the Regions Tradition, a Champions Tour major that was won by Kenny Perry. Montgomerie, meanwhile, won the 50-and-over circuit’s last major title – and captured his first victory of any kind in the United States – at the Senior PGA Championship three weeks ago in Benton Harbor, Mich.

“That definitely gives you huge confidence,’’ said Montgomerie. “It was a long time coming – 23 years and 130-odd tournaments without a win in the U.S. It was nice getting that monkey off my back.’’

Montgomerie was a long-time U.S. nemesis while playing for Europe in the Ryder Cup matches. The Scottish golfer didn’t play in the Champions Tour’s last stop — the Legends Championship, a two-man team event played in Branson, Mo. Jeff Sluman and Fred Funk won that title, and both will play at North Shore.

Last week Montgomerie worked as a TV commentator at the U.S. Open. No longer is he the sometimes misunderstood European player who irritated American galleries in his younger days.

“You do mellow with age and mature,’’ Montgomerie said. “I love the American way of life. I hope that’s coming across. It’s given me a new lease on life.’’

Montgomerie couldn’t play in last year’s Encompass tourney because he hadn’t turned 50 yet. He’s happy to make his debut this year in part because tournament director Mike Galeski is a long-time friend. They worked together for equipment manufacturer Callaway when Montgomerie started playing tournaments in the U.S.

The last time Montgomerie competed in Chicago was at the 2006 PGA Championship at Medinah. He was also at Medinah for the 2012 Ryder Cup, won dramatically by the Europeans with a huge comeback on the last day.

“We called it the `Miracle of Medinah,’ and we still do,’’ said Montgomerie. “I don’t know how we won that one.’’

They’ll be here

Montgomerie is one of seven players in the Encompass field to win on the Champions Tour this year. In addition to the Funk-Sluman team that won the Legends event, the others are Bernhard Langer (the circuit’s only winner of multiple tournaments in 2014), Michael Allen, Kirk Triplett and Perry, who tied for 28th playing against much younger players in the U.S. Open. Perry, 53, was the oldest player in the field at Pinehurst.

The Encompass field is a solid one. Fifty-six of the 81 starters have accounted for 370 victories in PGA Tour events. Forty-six have won a combined 252 titles on the Champions Tour. Eighteen have combined for 27 major titles on the PGA Tour and 23 have been responsible for 43 victories in the Champions Tour’s majors. Six are former Ryder Cup captains.

A $1.8 million prize fund will be on the line in the 54-hole event that pays $270,000 to Sunday’s champion. Last year’s winner was Craig Stadler. He’s ben hampered by injuries most of this year but teamed with Triplett for a third-place finish at the Legends event.

Here and there

Chicago players came up empty in Monday’s Encompass qualifying round at Deerfield Golf Club. Out-of-staters Joel Edwards, Bruce Vaughan and Jim Carter shot 6-under-par 66s and Patrick Horgan shot 67, then won the fourth and last berth in the field in a three-man playoff. That foursome completes the 81-man field for the tournament and all 81 will have an amateur partner in the first two rounds.

The 95th Chicago District Golf Assn. Amateur will begin its four-day run on Monday at Hinsdale Golf Club in Clarendon Hills – the site of the CDGA’s founding 100 years ago. There’s no defending champion since Bryce Emory, last year’s winner, has turned professional. Only past winner in the 73-man field is Steve Sawtell, who won in 2004 and 2009. The field will compete over 36 holes in stroke play on Monday to determine 16 qualifiers for the match play portion of the event. The 36-hole final is on June 26.

Construction has begun on the University of Illinois’ 24-acre Lauritsen/Wohler Outdoor Practice Facility, which is adjacent to the J.G. Demirjian Indoor facility in Urbana. Illini men’s coach Mike Small and PGA star Steve Stricker designed the $2 million outdoor facility, which is expected to open on Aug. 1. It was inspired by a similar one at Augusta National, the Georgia site of the Masters tournament.

Wheaton’s Kevin Streelman remains one of golf’s most promising up-and-coming players, but he’s not going into this week’s U.S. Open with any momentum. Chicago’s only homegrown PGA Tour player missed the cut in his last three tournaments.

“It’s been a strange year golf-wise,’’ said Streelman, “but it’s been a wonderful year off the course thanks to Sophia. She’s been my priority.’’

Streelman and wife Courtney became parents for the first time on Dec. 26 when Sophia was born. She arrived a month ahead of schedule, and Courtney had a difficult delivery that led to Sophia spending some time in intensive care. All is fine with the Streelman now, however.

“The first three months were tough, but Sophia’s been an angel,’’ said Streelman, who reluctantly left wife and daughter to finish in a tie for third at the Tournament of Champions in January before deciding to radically alter his schedule.

“I played great at Maui, then was home for five-six weeks after that,’’ he said. “I didn’t go to the Bob Hope (Chrysler Classic), Pebble Beach or Honda – tournaments that I usually play.’’

Since returning to the circuit his play has been sporadic, but he’s not concerned and his career tour earning will likely top $10 million with his next good showing (he’s over $9.9 million now since turning pro in 2001 and joining the PGA Tour in 2007). Sophia, meanwhile, has learned to travel. She’s already made 15 airplane rides.

This year’s Open begins Thursday on the famed No. 2 course at Pinehurst, N.C. Streelman went to college at nearby Duke but hasn’t played that course since it was renovated three years ago. He didn’t see that new look until arriving this week.

“I wasn’t going to go there early because the course wouldn’t have been even close to the conditions we’ll be playing in the Open,’’ he said. “But I’m excited. I’m feeling good and hoping things will click this week.’’

The Open will be his third of four straight weeks of tournaments. Then he’ll head overseas to play in the Scottish and British Opens and re-evaluate his schedule for the remainder of the season after playing in those events.

Luke Donald, the former Northwestern star and former world No. 1, and Elmhurst’s Mark Wilson, who survived sectional qualifying, are also in the Open field. So are University of Illinois alums D.A. Points and Luke Guthrie and Brian Campbell, who was the Big Ten player-of-the-year for the Illini this season.

Remembering Payne

Kemper Lakes will mark the 25th anniversary of the late Payne Stewart’s victory in the 1989 PGA Championship at the Kildeer course with a 5:30 p.m. reception next Wednesday (JUNE 18).

Peter Jacobsen, the popular Champions Tour player and TV golf analyst, will be featured at the event, which also marks the 35th anniversary for Kemper Lakes. Jacobsen was one of Stewart’s best friends and the latest winner of the Payne Stewart Award. Stewart lost his life in a 2000 airplane incident in the aftermath of his second U.S. Open victory at Pinehurst No. 2 in 1999.

A limited number of tickets, priced at $250, are still available for the event. Proceeds will go to the Payne Stewart Family Foundation. Contact Kemper Lakes for details.

Also on tap that night is Donald’s sixth annual Taste of the First Tee event at North Shore Country Club in Glenview. Champions Tour stars Tom Kite, Bernhard Langer, Tom Lehman and Colin Montgomerie will join Donald on the stage at that one. They’ll be in town to compete in Chicago’s only pro tour event of 2014. The Champions Tour’s Encompass Championship will begin its 54-hole run at North Shore on June 20.

Before that, though, there’ll be a pre-qualifier on Thursday (JUNE 12) at Deerfield Golf Club and the top five there will advance to the final qualifier on Monday (JUNE 16), also at Deerfield.

Here and there

Medinah Country Club will formally open its renovated No. 1 course on Friday. Tom Doak, the architect who handled the project that started the day after the 2012 Ryder Cup concluded on Medinah’s No. 3 course, will hit the ceremonial first tee shot.

Ray Hearn, the Michigan architect who directed well-received renovations at Flossmoor Country Club and the Mistwood course in Romeoville, has signed on to supervise another re-do at Midlothian Country Club.

Jack Perry, who concluded a solid collegiate career at Northwestern, took advantage of an invitation to last week’s Cleveland Open on the Web.com Tour. He survived the 36-hole cut in his first tournament as a professional.

Cog Hill, in Lemont will host the first of 50 world-wide qualifiers for the Turkish Airlines World Golf Cup amateur event on Monday (JUNE 16). The finals are in Turkey in November.

The Illinois PGA will hold a qualifier for the Illinois Open at Inverness on Monday, and the Chicago District Golf Assn. will host a similar elimination for the Illinois State Amateur at Lake Bluff on the same day.

Illinois’ only PGA Tour event of 2014 has thrived by appealing to young players, and director Clair Peterson saw no reason to change that approach when he announced his sponsor exemptions for the John Deere Classic this week.

Peterson invited four of the very best college stars to battle the PGA Tour players in the 44th staging of the $4.7 million tournament July 7-13 at TPC Deere Run in Silvis, IL., on the outskirts of the Quad Cities.

Invitees included the top two players in the amateur world rankings – Stanford golfers Patrick Rodgers and Cameron Wilson – plus Oklahoma State’s Jordan Niebrugge and Iowa’s Steven Ihm. Niebrugge will defend his titles in four big events this summer – the U.S. Public Links, Western Amateur, Wisconsin State Amateur and Wisconsin State Match Play.

Rodgers is receiving his third straight JDC invite and Ihm had one last year. Wilson wouldn’t likely have been included had he not won the individual title at the NCAA Championship last week.

Jordan Spieth, who won last year’s JDC in a five-hole playoff, was a sponsor exemption in 2012 after he had completed his freshman year at the University of Texas. He lauded Peterson’s exemption approach.

“Other tournaments need to look at this event as an example,’’ he said at Monday’s media kickoff. “It’s just the opportunities that come out of this. There’s no way that I win last year without that opportunity from the year before. There’s no way that I’m able to feel comfortable on the PGA Tour so quickly without the starts I was given. This tournament does it right.’’

Spieth has done a lot right since becoming the youngest winner of a major professional tournament in 80 years at the 2013 JDC. Still shy of his 21st birthday, he made the U.S. Presidents Cup team, contended at both the Masters and Players Championship and has climbed into the world’s top 10 in the rankings.

Coming off four straight weeks of tournaments, Spieth showed he still has a winning touch at TPC Deere Run. He holed a bunker shot on the last hole of regulation play last year to get into the playoff, in which he beat defending champion Zach Johnson and Canadian David Hearn. Spieth was asked to attempt the same bunker shot at the media day, and he holed the shot again.

Stymied in the sectionals

Five players were Chicago connections were medalists as local qualifiers for the U.S. Open, but none of them survived Monday’s 10 nation-wide sectional eliminations to get into the 156-player finals scheduled for June12-15 at Pinehurst, N.C.

One who wasn’t so sharp in the locals – Brian Campbell, Illinois’ Big Ten player-of-the-year – did earn a spot at Pinehurst through a sectional in California and Mark Wilson, PGA Tour regular from Elmhurst, and Illinois alum Luke Guthrie qualified in the Columbus, Ohio, sectional. As PGA Tour players both were exempt from the local eliminations.

Two others still have an outside chance of playing at Pinehurst. Illinois alum Scott Langley, who plays on the PGA Tour, was first alternate at Memphis, Tenn., and Roselle amateur and Medinah member Dan Stringfellow was second alternate at Springfield, Ohio.

Here and there

The 53rd Radix Cup matches between top professionals from the Illinois PGA and top amateurs from the Chicago District Golf Assn., will be contested Wednesday (JUNE 4) at Oak Park Country Club. The pros lead the series 33-17-2.

General manager Janet Dobson has announced her retirement after 35 years at Kemper Lakes in Long Grove.

Top-seeded Doug Bauman, of Biltmore Country Club in Barrington, captured the Illinois PGA Senior Match Play championship at Merit Club in Libertyville.

Connie Ellett, a junior on the Northern Illinois women’s team, has been named the first recipient of the Betty Rich Award for her dedication and leadership on the course.

Don Pieper, general manager and head professional at the Merit Club in Libertyville, has been named chairman of the Illinois PGA Foundation.

The Chicago qualifier for the U.S. Women’s Amateur Public Links tourney will be Wednesday at Sportsman’s, in Northbrook.

First Illinois Open qualifier is Thursday at Deerfield and first Illinois State Amateur qualifier is also Thursday, at Kankakee Elks.

The Mental Health Assn. of Greater Chicago has scheduled its fund-raising outing for July 17 at Makray Memorial in Barrington.

The U.S. Golf Assn. scheduled one of its sectional qualifiers for the U.S. Open at a Chicago area course for at least four decades. That policy changed two years ago and it’s especially unfortunate this year, given the results at the 111 nation-wide local qualifiers.

Players with Chicago roots were medalists at five of those 18-hole competitions, and Deerfield’s Vince India posted the lowest number – a 10-under-par 61 – at all of the locals. The other medalists were Elgin’s Carlos Sainz Jr., like India a member of the Web.com Tour; Cog Hill teaching pro Garrett Chaussard; Northwestern star Jack Perry; and Northwestern alum David Lipsky.

They’ll take high hopes into Monday’s sectional qualifying, where berths in the Open proper at Pinehurst, N.C., from June 12-15 will be on the line.

Monday’s 10 sectionals are spread across the country and the USGA hasn’t announced complete player assignments yet. India and Sainz will likely go to one of the two eliminations in Ohio since their Web.com Tour has a stop at the Cleveland Open next week.

India and Sainz both opted for Florida sites in local qualifying, India shooting his great round at Waterlefe in Bradenton and Sainz posting 65 at Fox Hollow in Trinity. They’ll find it tough at either Ohio sectional, but more spots at Pinehurst will likely be offered there because of the strong fields.

The 36-hole elimination at Columbus will be the hardest in the country, with non-qualifiers from the PGA Tour going there the day after the Memorial tournament. Six major championship winners – Rich Beem, Trevor Immelman, Justin Leonard, Davis Love III, Vijay Singh and Mike Weir – will be competing at the Scioto and Brookside courses.

Springfield Country Club will host the other Ohio sectional with veteran tour player Billy Mayfair heading the field there.

Perry and Chaussard are both from California and have expressed desires to play in the sectional near San Francisco, where Lake Merced and the Ocean course at Olympic Club will be used. Another sectional survivor, Big Ten player-of-the-year Brian Campbell of Illinois, is also from California and expects to play there after the Illini finish their season in the NCAA tournament in Kansas. Campbell shot a 7-under-par 63 in the NCAA finals on Monday to tie the course record at Prairie Dunes in Kansas and also equal the Illini one-round record.

The Open drew a record 10,127 this year, and other locals still alive include Illinois alum and PGA touring pro Scott Langley; 2012 Illinois Open champion Max Scodro; pros Michael Schachner of Libertyville and Andrew Godfrey of Homewood; and amateurs Dan Stringfellow of Roselle, Glenn Przybylski of Frankfort and Kenneth Li of Westmont. Pyzybylski tuned up by winning the Illinois State Amateur Public Links title for the second time last week. It came 19 years after he won the event for the first time.

Of the 11 locals in sectional play only two – Langley and Chaussard – are past qualifiers for the U.S. Open finals and only two former U.S. Open champions – Ken Venturi in 1964 and Orville Moody in 1969 – won their titles after surviving both local and sectional qualifying rounds.

BMW extends sponsorship

The Western Golf Assn. has announced that BMW has extended its sponsorship of the BMW Championship through 2019. The tourney is part of the PGA Tour’s FedEx Cup playoffs and will be played this September at Cherry Hills in Denver.

Last year’s BMW Championship was played at Conway Farms, in Lake Forest, and the event will return there in 2015. The tourney made its debut in 2007 at Cog Hill, in Lemont, as a replacement for the Western Open on the PGA Tour schedule.

Here and there

The Illinois PGA Senior Match Play Championship concludes its three-day run on Thursday at Merit Club in Libertyville.

U.S. Amateur champion Matt Fitzpatrick, who dropped out of Northwestern in December after only one semester of his freshman year, has announced he’ll turn pro after the U.S. Open.

Taylorville’s Dave Ryan dethroned three-time defending champion Tom Miler of Kewanee in the title match of the Chicago District Senior Amateur at Calumet Country Club. Miler had defeated Ryan in two previous title matches in the tournament.

The Northwestern women’s team finished in a tie for 15th at the NCAA finals in Tulsa, Okla.

Chicago’s only pro tour stop of 2014, the Encompass Championship, is less than a month away. It’ll return to North Shore Country Club in Glenview from June 16-22, and this week’s tourney update suggests the event has some issues.

Defending champion Craig Staler visited North Shore and revealed health issues that have sidelined him for most of this year. He suffered torn cartilage in his knee in January in Hawaii and needed six weeks to recover. Then he injured his back shortly after returning to action.

Last week he pulled out of the Regions Tradition, one of the Champions Tour’s major events, after nine holes, and he won’t play in this week’s Senior PGA Championship. He’s targeting a new event in Branson, Mo., for his return, as a tune-up for his title defense at North Shore.

“I haven’t been healthy all year,’’ he said. “I hope it turns around.’’

Stadler wasn’t exactly at the top of his game when he arrived at North Shore last year, either. He hadn’t even contended in a tournament since 2007 before getting his victory.

“I had basically quit,’’ said Stadler. “I was basically in the bottom 10 every week, and I was tired of embarrassing myself. It was no fun at all, but then (swing guru) Billy Harmon re-routed everything in my swing. It was a work in progress, and it still is.’’

Stadler liked what he saw at North Shore and still does.

“Every player was amazed by the condition of the golf course,’’ he said. “All 81 of us fell in love with it immediately. Augusta (home of the Masters) is great, but (North Shore) is right with it. Its 10th fairway looks better than some of the greens we play. It’s certainly different from Butler National (Oak Brook) and Cog Hill (Lemont), where we had to grind it out in the Western Open on the PGA Tour. It’s a perfect setting for us to be here.’’

North Shore wasn’t exactly perfect on Monday, though. Temporary greens were used on two holes to allow for the putting surfaces to recover from rugged winter weather and the No. 14 hole was closed because a hawk living there has become overly aggressive with humans lately.

Tournament director Mike Galeski, however, was able to announce seven of the projected 10 celebrity participants in the two-day pro-am held concurrently with the 54-hole main event. Brian Urlacher and Toni Kukoc are returning. They’ll be joined by Northwestern men’s basketball coach Chris Collins, hockey legends Mike Eruzione and Jeremy Roenick, ex-Bear Gary Fencik and baseball great Roger Clemens.

Harbor Shores hosts Champions Tour major

Closest of the major tourneys (PGA, LPGA, Champions tours) is this week’s Senior PGA Championship at Harbor Shores in Benton Harbor, Mich.

Harbor Shores, a Jack Nicklaus design, hosted the tourney in 2012 and will also host in 2016 and 2018. Last year the event was held at Bellerive in St. Louis. The Senior PGA has had surprise winners the last two years, England’s Roger Chapman having triumphed at Harbor Shores and Japan’s Kokhi Idoki winning at Bellerive.

Idoki will defend his title beginning on Thursday. The 72-hole test runs through Sunday and immediately follows the Champions Tour’s first major of the season. Kenny Perry won his third major title in the 50-and-over circuit last Sunday when he captured the Regionals Tradition at Shoal Creek in Birmingham, Ala.

Here and there

Only two players – Hannah Pietlia of Brighton, Mich., and Elizabeth Tong, of Thornhill, Ontario — advanced to next month’s U.S. Women’s Open during Monday’s 71-player, 36-hole qualifier at Indian Hill in Winnetka. Pietlia was medalist at 4-over-par 146, two strokes better than Tong. Streamwood’s Noriko Nakazaki was the top local player, one stroke behind Tong in a tie for third.

The 13th Chicago District Senior Amateur runs through Thursday at Calumet Country Club in Homewood. Kewanee’s Tom Miler, the only player to win the tourney more than once, is going for a three-peat. He won in 2010, 2012 and 2013.

Next week’s Illinois PGA Senior Match Play Championship has been moved from Shoreacres in Lake Bluff to Merit Club in Libertyville. Its three-day run will begin next Tuesday (MAY 27).

Deerfield product Vince India has been struggling as a rookie on the PGA’s satellite Web.com Tour this year, but he didn’t struggle on Monday in a local qualifier for the U.S. Open.

The former University of Iowa golfer shot a 10-under-par 61 to earn medalist honors in a local qualifier at Waterlefe, in Sarasota, FL. India played there because it was close to his new residence in Lakewood Ranch, FL. India moved there after obtaining playing privileges at the Concession Club, the site of the annual Big Ten Match Play Championship.

Concession is also the home course for former PGA champion Paul Azinger and Tony Jacklin, the former U.S. and British Open champion. The name of the course was inspired by Jacklin, in honor of a memorable Ryder Cup moment when Jack Nicklaus conceded him a short putt that led to the competition between the U.S. and Europe ending in a tie in 1969. Last month Concession hosted a new team event, the Concession Cup, which pitted amateur teams from the U.S. and Europe against each other.

“This is my third winter (at Concession), and Paul Azinger’s been quite the mentor to me,’’ said India, the Illinois Amateur champion in 2010. “It’s helped for me to play at a facility that’s in major championship condition every day.’’

India didn’t survive the 36-hole cut in the rain-hampered South Georgia Classic, last week’s Web.com Tour event at Kinderlou Forest in Valdosta, Ga.. He spent time with Azinger working on his alignment after heading to Florida and it paid off in the Open qualifier.

“I’d rather have the 61 in a tournament where they pay some cash out,’’ said India. “I’ve been struggling to post a number like this on the Web.com Tour this year.’’

Still, the hot round was six strokes better than his nearest rival and put him in the sectional stage of U.S. Open qualifying. Survivors of the 36-hole sectionals advance to the U.S. Open proper at Pinehurst, N.C., next month.

Malm bids for an historic three-peat

Curtis Malm became the first player in 25 years to defend a title in the Illinois PGA Match Play Championship last year. His task will be even more historically significant when he goes for the three-peat beginning on Monday at Kemper Lakes in Long Grove.

The first of the IPGA’s four major tourneys was first held in 1952, and only two players have won three times in a row. The last was the late Bill Ogden, the long-time pro at North Shore in Glenview, who enjoyed his three-peat from 1970-72. Bob Harris, at Sunset Ridge in Northbrook, won six straight from 1958-63.

Malm is also bidding for his third straight IPGA Player-of-the-Year title. The only two who have won three straight in that category were Aurora’s Bob Ackerman (1987-89) and Steve Benson, then at Hillcrest in Long Grove (1980-82).

“A lot of neat stuff can happen this year,’’ said Malm. “This year could be fun.’’

He’s already leading the 2014 Player of the Year race after finishing third in both the season-opening Pro-Pro event and the Pekin stroke play. Next week, though, will be huge for Malm. Anticipating a first-round bye on Monday in the Match Play, he opted to enter the U.S. Open local qualifier that day at Knollwood in Lake Forest. Matches run at Kemper Lakes through Thursday.

Malm could have competed in Chicago’s other Open local, on Monday at George Dunne in Tinley Park, but preferred Knollwood after playing in the Royal Cup matches against Wisconsin’s assistant pros there last October. The George Dunne layout proved a tough test on Monday, with Garrett Chaussard, a teaching pro at Cog Hill in Lemont, the only player under par with a 1-under-71.

He led five qualifiers into next month’s sectional eliminations while Malm prepared for his big week. Though a top local player since winning the Illinois Open in 2000, Malm has yet to qualify for a U.S. Open.

A sidelight to Malm’s bid for local golf history this season also involves a job change. He was an assistant at St. Charles Country Club the last two years before taking the head job at White Eagle in Naperville during the winter.

“I’ve just been trying to get used to a new place,’’ he said, “but the members have been great. They’ve embraced my playing ability and tournament schedule.’’

Illini going to Rich Harvest

Illinois’ men couldn’t extend their Big Ten title run, finishing second to Minnesota in the league tournament at Indiana’s French Lick course on Sunday, but the Illini were awarded a good location for NCAA regional play on Monday. The Illini were assigned the No. 2 seed in the May-15-17 elimination at Rich Harvest Farms in Sugar Grove.

The top five teams at that 54-hole test will advance to the finals May 23-28 at Prairie Dunes in Kansas. Illinois (No. 8) is the only nationally-ranked team in the Big Ten. Coach Mike Small’s team finished second to Alabama in last year’s NCAA finals.

Northwestern was given the No. 10 seed in the regional at Briggs Ranch in San Antonio, Tex. Notre Dame’s Niall Platt was named one of five individual qualifiers at Rich Harvest.

Medinah event sold out

The fifth annual Medinah Patriots Day outing on May 27 is already a sellout. Tournament chairman Mark Slaby said over 200 players will participate on Medinah’s No. 2 course.

“The event’s growing, and we’re already taking reservations for next year when we go to Course One,’’ said Slaby. Medinah’s No. 1 layout is being renovated and won’t open until June.

Medinah Patriots Day is held to support families of Illinois military service men and women who lost their lives or were disabled in service to their country. Sixty-two scholarships and over 4,000 backpacks have already been provided to needy families thanks to proceeds from the event.

The PGA Tour changed its qualification procedures last year, relegating its brutal 90-hole fall Q-School tournament to offering only spots on the satellite Web.com Tour in 2014. The new format, though, resulted in unprecedented success for Chicago players.

Rarely did a local golfer make it through Q-School to the PGA Tour under the older format, but three – Vince India (Deerfield) Andy Pope (Glen Ellyn) and Carlos Sainz Jr. (Elgin) — survived under the new one. They entertain hopes of playing their way on to the big circuit in 2015 via the Web.com circuit.

The trio has been in all seven Web.com events this year, five of which were held outside the U.S. border, and had only modest success. Pope, who attended Glenbard West and Xavier University, had the best tournament showing with a tie for 15th in last week’s weather-shortened WNB Classic in Midland, Tex. His payday there accounts for $10,200 of his $12,325 season winnings.

India, who won the 2010 Illinois Amateur at Chicago’s Beverly Country Club and was the Big Ten’s player-of-the-year for Iowa in 2011, has been the most consistent. He made the cut in five of the seven tournaments but has faltered on the weekends. His $8,673 in winnings is good for only 108th on the tour’s season money list, 14 spots behind Pope.

Sainz, from Larkin High School and Mississippi State University, was the best of the trio at Q-School with a 10th place finish. He was a hot player at the right time in late 2013 when – in a month’s stretch – he won The Players Cup on the PGA’s Canadian 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, where he had worked the pro shop during his college days.

Those strong showings gave him momentum for Q-School, where he shot a final-round 63, but it didn’t carried over to 2014. Though he’s made only three cuts and $5,248 in seven starts Sainz made Web.com history when he holed a 250-yard second shot for a double eagle in the first round of the Chile Classic. It was the first albatross in the tourney’s three-year history.

All three players will be in the field for this week’s South Georgia Classic, played for the last seven years on one of the tour’s most respected courses – Kinderlou Forest in Valdosta, Ga. The field will be stronger, too, with John Daly and Lee Janzen – both winners of two major championships – joining such veteran tourists as Billy Mayfair, Jesper Parnivik, Dicky Pride, Hunter Haas and Rod Pampling.

Bob Spence, the first head professional at Kemper Lakes in Long Grove, supervised the building of Kinderlou Forest – a Davis Love III design that opened 10 years ago. Spence, back at Kinderlou for another design project, greeted the Chicago area trio upon their arrival.

Upgrades at Royal Melbourne

Jay Blasi, who assisted famed architect Robert Trent Jones Jr. on the construction of Chambers Bay – the new Washington course that will host the U.S. Open in 2015, is overseeing renovation work at Royal Melbourne in Long Grove. Tweaks are being made at the Nos. 8 and 17 holes but the most work is coming on the practice range.

A 4,200 square-foot green, a new green-side bunker and more fairway and rough turf are being added to allow for practice on longer approaches to the green. The work, to be completed by July 15, will permit more short-game instruction for both members and non-members at the Royal Melbourne Golf Academy.

The home explosion that damaged several homes near the course last week was only a minor problem for golfers. One nine was closed for a day to allow for removal of debris but it opened the following day.

Here and there

Northwestern, third in the Big Ten women’s tournament on Sunday, was given the No. 7 seed in the NCAA West Regional on Monday. NU will join defending NCAA champion Southern California in the 24-team field. Also headed to the West, to be played at Washington’s Tumble Creek course, are Wisconsin, seeded No. 16, and Notre Dame, No. 18. Illinois’ Amber Schuldt was given an individual berth in the Central Regional.

Two new charity events have been scheduled for May – the Wake Up Narcolepsy outing on May 10 at Whisper Creek in Huntley and the Champ Community Project Celebrity Pro-Am on May 28 at Old Orchard in Mt. Prospect. LPGA Tour player Nicole Jeray, who has coped with narcolepsy, will be featured at Whisper Creek.

The Golfsmith Demo Day will be held at Downers Grove Golf Club from 11 a.m.-3 p.m. on Saturday, and it’ll be followed by the nine-hole Spring Swing Scramble tournament.

A two-month series of fitness workshops hosted by Dr. Paul Callaway will begin at Cantigny next Tuesday.

Chicago golfers beware. In most years virtually all Chicago courses are in full swing by the time the Masters tournament tees off in April. This year that wasn’t the case, and that’s not all.

The Midwest Golf Course Superintendents Assn. is conducting a survey of its courses this week and executive director Luke Cella doesn’t expect the results to be encouraging.

“We estimate that 80 percent of the courses in the area have suffered some turf loss, some significant,’’ said Cella. “The area, like much of the country, experienced a record cold winter. As spring slowly churns its way out we are finding turf that did not survive. It won’t be uncommon for this damage to be apparent while superintendents and their staffs begin the recovery process.’’

Cella says that winter ice caused the problems easily visible on the courses that have opened, particularly those that have Poa annua on the greens. Those with bentgrass fared better.

“This ice lasted for more than 60 days – a length of time that was too long for Poa annua to survive,’’ said Cella. “Even though the plants are dormant in the winter, they still need oxygen to survive. When ice encases the plant for extended periods of time there’s a buildup of deadly gasses that suffocate the plant. Even courses that employed the use of covers on their greens experienced ice buildup underneath the covers. Those (courses where workers) went out to break the ice and remove it from the putting surfaces experienced damage, too.’’

The problems encompass both public and private courses. Temporary greens were in evidence at some of the courses while others delayed their openings. At least two of the most prominent – one public, one private – aren’t even open yet. Mistwood, the Romeoville home of the Illinois Women’s Open, won’t open until April 25. North Shore, the Glenview home of Chicago’s only pro tour stop of the year, has set a May 1 opening. That private facility will host the Champions Tour’s Encompass Championship beginning June 16.

According to a report issued to member clubs in the Chicago District Golf Association’s Illinois Turfgrass program last month, some courses are as much as a month behind in their preparations and most won’t be in optimal playing shape until June.

Conway Farms names Slowinski

The offseason has led to some major changes in the club professional ranks. The biggest has Matt Slowinski, the long-time assistant at Glen Oak in Glen Ellyn, moving to Conway Farms in Lake Forest as the head man. Slowinski won two of the Illinois PGA’s major tournaments while at Glen Oak and was the section’s Assistants Player of the Year in 2013.

Harlan Chemers, who had been Conway’s head professional, will join Wildcat Golf Academy founders Pat Goss and Jeff Mory in the expansion of that highly-successfully junior program. A move to The Glen Club in Glenview has allowed them to take students beyond the junior level.

In other pro changes Josh Pius, a former North Shore assistant, is the head man at Inverness; Reagan Davis is in charge at Eagle Ridge, in Galena; and Mike Hainline has taken over at Ravisloe, in Homewood.

Here and there

A major change in the superintendents ranks has Scott Pavalko leaving Cog Hill, in Lemont, for Bob O’Link, the all-male club in Highland Park. Chris Flick came from Ohio to replace Pavalko at Cog Hill. Other superintendent changes have Michael Paciga moving from an assistant at Biltmore in Barrington to the head job at Kemper Lakes in Long Grove; Jeremy Duncan going from assistant at Cantigny in Wheaton to head man at Fox Run in Elk Grove; Brian Stout being promoted to the head job at Edgewood Valley in LaGrange; and Mike Mumper landing the head job at Villa Olivia in Bartlett.

The first event on the Illinois PGA schedule, Monday’s Pro-Assistants Championship at Naperville Country Club, was cancelled. The IPGA has a Pro-Pro event on tap at Chicago’s Harborside International next Monday. The Chicago District Golf Assn. opens its season with its first Better Ball of Pairs event next Tuesday at The Glen Club.

The Golfers on Golf radio show will unveil the first of 21 weekly broadcasts at 9 a.m. on Sunday. It’ll be carried on WSBC (1240-AM) and WCFJ (1470-AM) with Rory Spears, Ed Stevenson, Bill Berger and Mike Munro again co-hosting.