Clearly Curtis Malm is the player to watch in next week’s 91st Illinois PGA Championship on Olympia Fields Country Club’s South course.

Malm, first assistant professional at St. Charles Country Club and the IPGA’s player-of-the-year in 2012, fired a 9-under par course record 63 at Elgin Country Club on Monday in the section’s fifth stroke play event of the season.

In April he won the first of the section’s majors – the IPGA Match Play Championship at Kemper Lakes in Long Grove – for the second straight year. Malm also tied for third in the second major, last month’s Illinois Open at The Glen Club in Glenview, and is at the top of the player-of-the-year standings again.

“I haven’t played as well as I did last year as far as consistency goes,’’ said Malm, “but my game’s getting there.’’

He took on expanded duties at St. Charles this year, adding the role of membership sales director, and that has reduced Malm’s practice time. He is also lacking in knowledge of Olympia Fields’ South course. Malm hopes to get in his first round ever there on Thursday. Otherwise his first will be on Monday in the first day of the three-day championship.

Malm’s round at Elgin – his lowest ever in competition — featured seven birdies and an eagle. (He had a 62 in an informal round at Blackberry Oaks in Sugar Grove).

Other than Malm, the favorite at Olympia figures to be Illinois coach Mike Small, who won by 11 strokes the last time the event was played at the storied south suburban private club in 2010. Small has won the tourney a record nine times, but not since his runaway win at Olympia, where he is an honorary member. Steve Orrick, from Country Club of Decatur, is the defending champion. He won last year at Stonewall Orchard, in Gurnee.

FedEx Playoffs tee off

Kevin Streelman, at No. 13, is the top-ranked of six players with Illinois backgrounds in the PGA Tour’s FedEx Cup Playoffs, which begin on Thursday with The Barclays tourney at Liberty National in New York.

The top 125 on the season-long PGA Tour points list qualified for The Barclays, a 72-hole no-cut tournament with an $8 million purse. It’s the first of four such events, and the point winner after they’re over claims a $10 million bonus. Third stop in the series is the BMW Championship at Conway Farms in Lake Forest.

Joining Streelman among the Illinois hopefuls in The Barclays field are D.A. Points (ranked No. 25), Luke Donald (55), Luke Guthrie (72), Mark Wilson (102) and Scott Langley (124). Only the top 100 on the points list after The Barclays play in the following week’s Deutsche Bank Championship in Boston, and the top 70 after that one advance to Conway Farms.

Leader in the standings going into the playoffs is Tiger Woods, who won the FedEx Cup in its first year – 2007 – and became the only two-time champion with a victory in 2009. Last year’s winner, Brandt Snedeker, is No. 3 in the current standings behind Woods and Matt Kuchar. Phil Mickelson is No. 4, Bill Haas (FedEx Cup champion in 2011) is No. 5, U.S. Open winner Justin Rose is No. 7 and John Deere Classic champ Jordan Spieth No. 8.

NU has a super freshman coming in

Matt Fitzpatrick, who will begin his freshman year at Northwestern next month, continued a brilliant summer by winning the U.S. Amateur at Brookline, MA., on Sunday. That means his first year of college could be a wild one. By virtue of his U.S. Am win Fitzpatrick is eligible to play in the Masters, U.S. Open and British Open in addition to his college events.

Before winning the U.S. Am the 18-year-old from Sheffield, England won the British Boys title in 2012, was low amateur in this year’s British Open and runner-up in the English Amateur. His latest win elevated Fitzpatrick to the No. 1 world ranking for amateurs. He was also a shoo-in when the European Walker Cup selections were announced on Sunday.

The U.S. also made its Walker Cup selections. They featured Jordan Niebrugge, an Oklahoma State sophomore from Mequon, Wis., who won the U.S. Amateur Public Links, Wisconsin Amateur and Western Amateur titles in a three-week hot streak that preceded his first-round loss in the U.S. Am.

Luke Donald and Mark Wilson, Chicago-based PGA Tour players and members of the Western Golf Assn. board of directors, put on an exhibition this week to promote next month’s BMW Championship at Conway Farms in Lake Forest.

The nine-hole closed-to-the-public event, which included new Northwestern basketball coach Chris Collins and Bulls’ guard Kirk Heinrich, raised $45,000 for the WGA’s Evans Scholars Foundation. It also underscored the PGA players’ uncertainty about their status regarding the upcoming FedEx Cup playoffs.

Only this week’s Wyndham Championships in North Carolina preceded the four-tourney FedEx Playoffs – the biggest money opportunity in all of golf. Each of the four events – the BMW is the third – offers an $8 million purse and limited fields. Financial windfalls await the players who play the best at this time of the year.

Naturally, Donald and Wilson want to cash in, but need to improve their current position to do it. The top 125 on the season-long FedEx point stands get into The Barclay’s – the New York-based first playoff event that tees off on Aug. 22.

The top 100 after points are awarded in The Barclay’s qualify for the Deutsche Bank Championship in Boston, which begins on Aug. 30. The top 70 after the Deutsche Bank go to Conway Farms and the top 30 after that one play in the Tour Championship in Atlanta.

Based on the current standings Wilson will be hard-pressed to survive the first playoff event and Donald will have a challenge qualifying for the BMW Championship that will be played on his home course.

Donald, the world’s No. 1 player barely a year ago, dropped to No. 54 in the FedEx standings after missing the cut at last week’s PGA Championship. Wilson didn’t play in the PGA and is No. 95. He entered the Wyndham in hopes of boosting his playoff position.

“My game’s a work in progress at the moment,’’ said Donald. “Golf’s like that with its ups and downs. It’s been trying at times, but I’m looking forward to the Fed Ex events. Each tournament offers five times as many points (as the previous ones). There’s always a chance to make big leaps and bounds, and one great week can turn around your year.’’

The playoff format can also create volatile swings in the point standings, so Donald and Wilson could fall or climb dramatically depending on how they play beginning in two weeks.

“In the last two years I came into the playoffs in great position,’’ said Donald, who was No. 3 in the FedEx standings when he held the top world ranking. “This time I’m a little further back, so it’s a different mindset. One good tournament can shoot me up the board. I’m excited about that chance.’’

Wilson, hampered by a sore ankle, is also having a somewhat down season. He tied for ninth in his last start at the Canadian Open, though, and that was cause for optimism.

“I’ve worked through some swing thoughts,’’ he said, “and I’m rounding into form.’’

Wilson had spent much of his practice time in Chicago at Cog Hill, the Lemont facility that hosted the BMW Championship for 20 years prior to the WGA’s decision to move it to Conway this year. He’s not nearly as familiar with Conway as Donald is, but welcomes the change and thinks the 70 players who make it will, too.

“I played in the NCAA Championship there (in 1997) and have come on a regular basis,’’ said Wilson. “We play a lot of new courses every year on tour, and there’ll be a little learning curve, but our games travel.’’

Look out for Hardy

Nick Hardy, a 17-year old senior at Glenbrook North High School, shot a stunning 65 on Monday to lead the first round of the 36-hole stroke play qualifying at the U.S. Amateur in suburban Boston.

Hardy, who plans to attend the University of Illinois and recently played a practice round with Michael Jordan, shot his six-birdie opening round at Charles River Country Club. His second round was Tuesday at The Country Club in Brookline, Mass. – a former U.S. Open site that will be the venue for six days of match play beginning on Wednesday. The title match is on Sunday.

The U.S. Amateur started with 312 finalists from nation-wide qualifying tournaments. The low 64 after Tuesday’s second round of stroke play advancing qualify for the match play portion of the championship.

Did you know?

Emily Fletcher, who coached the Northwestern women’s team to its first Big Ten title and was the league’s coach-of-the-year, had her contracted extended through 2015.

Michael Smith of Twin Lakes, in Palatine, defeated Midlothian’s Frank Hohenadel in a three-hole playoff for the Illinois PGA Assistants title.

Top area amateur Blake Biddle of St. Charles has transferred from Nevada Las Vegas to Arkansas.

Playing in the PGA Championship isn’t anything new to Mike Small, the University of Illinois men’s coach who qualified for this week’s final major championship of 2013 for the ninth time.

Small, who got into the tourney by finishing in a tie for fourth at the Professional Players National Championship in June, has made the cut in three previous PGAs and was low club pro in 2007 and 2011. His chances to do it again don’t look as good when the event tees of on Thursday at Oak Hill in Rochester, N.Y., however.

“It’s weird. The last year and a half I haven’t played well,’’ said Small after finishing in a tie for 19th at the Illinois Open – an event he won four times. “The game’s hard for me now.’’

Small, who will also bid for his 10th win in the Illinois PGA Championship later this month at Olympia Fields, has had a big year away from playing. His Illini won the Big Ten title for the fifth straight year and finished second to Alabama in the NCAA Championship. He also was voted into the Illinois Golf Hall of Fame, the induction to take place on Oct. 25 at The Glen Club in Glenview. At 47 he’ll become the youngest member of the Hall.

He ascribes to the theory that his game has deteriorated as his coaching has improved and insists recent equipment changes have not been a factor in the dropoff in his play.

“I need to start playing the way I coach my guys,’’ he said. “I need to take my own advice, and that’s not easy sometimes. Equipment’s not a problem. It’s me. I have a problem sustaining my concentration.’’

That’s understandable, given what goes with his success on the coaching end.

“I’ve played more social golf and done more clinics than I did before,’’ he said. “And I’ve been using myself as a test-dummy. That’s helped me become a better coach, but it is what it is. I’m not playing bad. I can still compete in PGA stuff.’’

Another revival for the Chicago Open

The last big tournament of the Chicago golf season will be a new/old one. The Illinois Junior Golf Assn. is reviving the Chicago Open, a tournament that includes Ben Hogan, Byron Nelson, Sam Snead and Luke Donald on its list of past champions.

Last held in 2001, the next Chicago Open will be held Oct. 7-9 at Cantigny in Wheaton. It’ll be contested over 54 holes and offer a $50,000 purse. There’ll be five qualifying tournaments – Sept. 3 at Brown Deer in Wisconsin, Sept. 16 at Flossmoor, Sept. 23 at Country Club of Old Vincennes in Indiana and Lake Michigan in Michigan and Sept. 26 at Makray Memorial in Barrington. Players who don’t qualify in the first four events can take a second crack at it at Makray.

“In reviving the Chicago Open our goal is to provide an opportunity for aspiring tour pros and top amateurs to compete at a high level,’’ said Marty Schiene, the IJGA president. “Playing in a competition with such a rich history can make the event that much more meaningful to the contestants.’’

Did you know?

Northwestern recruit Matt Fitzgerald finished second in the English Amateur, losing the final 4 and 3 to Callum Shinkwin. Fitzgerald, who arrives at NU as a freshman in the fall, made the cut in the British Open and has climbed to third in the World Amateur Rankings.

With Michigan-based Kitchenaid extending its sponsorship the Senior PGA Championship will remain based in the Midwest. It was held at Harbor Shores, in Benton Harbor, Mich., in 2012 and Bellerive in St. Louis this year. Harbor Shores hosts again in 2014 and will also get the Champions Tour major in 2016 and 2018. Indiana’s French Lick Resort will host in 2015.

The Illinois PGA will hold its Senior Championship next Monday and Tuesday (AUG 12-13) at Lincolnshire Country Club.

The 19th Phil Kosin Illinois Women’s Open, which tees off Wednesday at Mistwood in Romeoville, has taken a different approach from the men’s 64th Illinois Open, which had one of its most exciting stagings last week at The Glen Club in Glenview.

The men’s version, won by Antioch’s Joe Kinney in a three-hole playoff, is much bigger entry-wise with seven state-wide qualifying rounds conducted to determine the finalists. The Illinois PGA limits Illinois Open entries to state residents.

On the women’s side, the field is smaller but much more diverse. In its early years IWO founder Phil Kosin limited the field to state residents, then later expanded it to players from eight neighboring states. Mistwood owner Jim McWethy and his staff took over the IWO after Kosin’s death in 2009 and quietly accepted all players. The move paid off, as tourney entries topped 100 for the first time this year and included 43 professionals.

“That’s almost double the number of professionals we have had in the past,’’ said Dan Phillips, Mistwood’s director of golf. “Even the amateurs are basically scratch players. We’ve got the cream of the crop of amateurs, too. Word is out that this is a quality tournament.’’

Thanks to BMO’s sponsorship first prize last year went up to $5,000, and this year’s purse will be announced during the 54-hole competition that concludes on Friday. Last year’s winner, though, was Michigan amateur Samantha Troyanovich, who will defend her crown.

The new influx of pros include two-time winner Nicole Jeray and Chelsea Harris, both U.S. Women’s Open qualifiers; McKenzie Jackson, who was part of Big Break Mexico, the popular series on The Golf Channel; plus Mari Chun from Hawaii and Sarah Bradley from New Zealand.

“We have players from all across the country and beyond,’’ said Phillips. “Most every (professional) player has some kind of status on either the LPGA or Symetra tours. Opening up the entries has really made our field strong.’’

Suttie moves from Cog Hill to Mistwood

The IWO usually represents the biggest week of the season at Mistwood, but this time there was more going on that that. McWethy announced that Dr. Jim Suttie, one of the country’s best-known instructors, has joined the Mistwood teaching staff.

Suttie was the PGA of America’s national teacher-of-the-year in 2000 and Illinois PGA teacher-of-the-year three times. He ended a longstanding relationship with Cog Hill, in Lemont, to work at the new state-of-the-art Performance Center in Romeoville.

“That was the big overriding factor,’’ said Suttie. “Cog Hill has been really good for me, but I always wanted to have a place like this. I couldn’t pass it up.’’

Suttie, who had previous stints at Medinah and Green Garden, in Franfort, worked at Cog Hill from 1996-2002 and again from 2005 until moving to Mistwood. He’ll continue to work in Naples, FL., in the winter but is planning periodic teaching visits to both Mistwood and McQ’s – the McWethy-owned indoor facility in Bolingbrook.

Did you know?

Doug Ghim, of Arlington Heights, reached the semifinals of last week’s 66th U.S. Junior Championship in Truckee, Calif. He was eliminated by Scottie Scheffler, of Dallas, 6 and 4. Scheffler went on to capture the prestigious title.

Jason Mathus, a Chicago resident who attends high school at Lindbloom, will get a chance to compete at Pebble Beach with Champions Tour players thanks to his efforts with the First Tee of Greater Chicago. He was one of 80 junior players selected by a national panel of judges to participate in September’s Nature Valley First Tee Open.

There’ll be two big local championships on Monday. The Illinois PGA Assistants will determine their champion at River Forest and the Chicago District Super Senior Amateur event will be played at Royal Hawk in St. Charles.

The men’s Illinois Open concludes its 64th staging on Wednesday. Now it’s the women’s turn.

Mistwood, in Romeoville, will again host the 19th Illinois Women’s Open next week. There’ll be a pro-am on Tuesday and the first of three tournament rounds is Wednesday. That’ll put the spotlight on Berwyn’s Nicole Jeray, who will bid to become the second player to win the tournament three times.

Amateur Kerry Postillion took the titles in 1996, 1997 and 1999. She didn’t enter this year’s IWO, but her daughter Samantha – a member of the University of Illinois’ team – heads the amateur contingent.

Jeray, who triumphed in 1998 and 2003, hasn’t always competed in the premier state championship for women because of her commitments on the Ladies PGA Tour. The IWO is opposite the Women’s British Open this year. Not qualified for that event, Jeray opted to return to the IWO.

Three other players have won the IWO twice – amateurs Emily Gilley in 2000-01 and Aimee Neff in 2008-09. Jenna Pearson, who will be in next week’s field, won as an amateur in 2006, lost the title in a 10-hole playoff in 2007 and won another title as a professional in 2011.

Jeray and Pearson, who plays on the LPGA’s Symetra Tour, are among 40 pros among the 104 starters. So is the tourney’s first champion, former Southern Illinois University coach Diane Daugherty.

Among the other pros in the field are defending champion and Michigan resident Samantha Troyanovich and Chelsea Harris, a former University of Iowa golfer from Normal who qualified for this year’s U.S.Women’s Open. Harris’ swing instructor is John Platt, who is based at Mistwood’s new Performance Center and caddied for her at the Open.

Last year’s IWO was played on a course in the late stages of a renovation being directed by Michigan architect Ray Hearn. Now the renovation, which featured 20 sod-wall bunkers, is complete.

“We’re very proud of the reputation we’ve developed for the IWO,’’ said Dan Phillips, Mistwood’s director of golf. “This year’s event will be very exciting, as the women will experience several new challenges on the course. The new bunkers will be more in play and closer to the greens than they were in the past.’’

A big week for NU

In incoming freshman at Northwestern were big winners.

Matt Fitzpatrick of Sheffield, England, was low amateur at the British Open, shooting 10-over-par 294 at Muirfield in Scotland. Fitzgerald took home the Silver Medal, an award first presented in 1949. Previous winners were Tiger Woods, Justin Rose, Rory McIlroy, Hal Sutton and Jose Maria Olazabal.

Kacie Komoto, who will join the NU women’s team, captured the Hawaiian State Women’s Match Play title. Both Fitzpatrick and Komoto will compete in their respective U.S. Amateurs next month.

Did you know?

Barrington’s Heather Ciskowski won last week’s Women’s Western Golf Assn. Junior title in Dubuque, Iowa. She defeated Naperville’s Bing Singhsumalee, the Illinois Women’s Amateur champion, 2 and 1 in the semifinals and then defeated Kelsey Murphy of Plymouth, Mich., in a title match that went 20 holes.

The Chicago District Golf Assn. will conduct qualifiers for the U.S. Amateur at both Ivanhoe and LaGrange on Monday.

The Western Amateur will take a break from its Chicago rotation next week with a week-long staging at The Alotian Club in Arkansas beginning on Monday. It’ll return to Chicago in 2014, at Beverly Country Club.

The Chicago District Golf Assn. revamped its tournament schedule this year, and the biggest change comes this week when the men’s 83rd Illinois State Amateur tees off a month earlier than previous years.

It began a three-day 72-hole run at Aldeen, in Rockford, on Tuesday. After its conclusion on Thursday many of the same players will head for The Glen Club in Glenview, where the 64th Illinois Open tees off on Monday.

Both tourneys are steeped in history, and the back-to-back scheduling puts Glenview’s Quinn Prchal in the spotlight first. He was one of the youngest-ever winners in the State Amateur last year. Then 18, he took the title shortly after his graduation from Glenbrook South High School. He’ll try to defend after a successful freshman season at Princeton University, during which he was named the Ivy League’s Rookie of the Year.

Prchal broke a string of five straight State Am titles for Big Ten golfers. This time he’ll try to become the first repeat champion since Todd Mitchell of Bloomington ruled in 2002-03. Mitchell, who is also in the field at Aldeen, is one of only three players to win back-to-back since the tournament went to a stroke play format in 1963. The other two – Bob Zender and D.A. Points – went on to become regulars on the PGA Tour.

The State Am has 137 starters, 114 of whom earned their spots at 10 state-wide qualifying rounds. Among the 23 players exempt from those was Aurora’s Bryce Emory, who won the CDGA Amateur and will try to become the fifth player to sweep the CDGA’s two premier titles in the same year. Those who accomplished that feat were Dave Huske (1963), Mike Milligan (1974), Dave Ogrin (1980) and Joel Hirsch (1988).

Prchal also entered the Illinois Open, but he won’t be in the spotlight at The Glen unless he wins at Aldeen. The player to watch in the Open is Illinois coach Mike Small, who will try again for a fifth title to tie Gary Pinns for the most wins in tourney history.

Small won for the last time in 2007 and was runner-up the next two years. Pinns won his last crown in 1990.

A record-tying win would be in keeping with the great year Small has enjoyed. In June he guided his Illini to a fifth straight Big Ten title and a runner-up finish in the NCAA championship. Then he tied for fourth in the Professional Players National Championship in Oregon, a feat that earned him another berth in August’s PGA Championship and a spot on the U.S. team for September’s PGA Cup matches against Europe in England.

In October Small, 47, will become the youngest inductee into the Illinois Golf Hall of Fame.

All of Small’s Illinois Open wins came at The Glen, which will host the tourney for a record eighth time next week. The tourney was played there from 2002-2007 and returned in 2012, when Chicago mini-tour player and Notre Dame graduate Max Scodro took the title in a five-hole playoff with 2010 winner Eric Meierdierks.

Meierdierks earned his PGA Tour card last fall and won’t return to this year’s Illinois Open where 156 players will tee off on Monday. The field, which includes a much more than usual 71 amateurs, will be cut to the low 50 and ties after Tuesday’s round. The survivors will play another 18 on Wednesday to decide the champion.

In the Illinois State Amateur the cut will come after Wednesday’s round, with the low 30 and ties or any player within 10 strokes of the lead going 36 holes on Thursday before the winner is crowned.

Did you know?

Bloomington’s Lauren English, runner-up in the recent Illinois Women’s Amateur, defeated Michigan’s Samantha Troyanovich, the reigning Illinois Women’s Open champion, in the round of 64 at last week’s Women’s Western Amateur in Dayton, Ohio. English was eliminated in the round of 32. Troyanovich will begin defense of her IWO title at Mistwood in Romeoville on July 31.

The Mount Prospect-based Bricton Group has taken over management of the Eagle Ridge Resort & Spa in Galena. Texas-based Touchstone Golf will manage Eagle Ridge’s four courses.

The Encompass Championship, which brought the Champions Tour back to Chicago for the first time since 2002 last month, has announced June 16-22 dates for 2014. The event will return to North Shore in Glenview.

Zach Johnson’s title defense and three-time winner Steve Stricker’s return to the PGA Tour may be the focal points of the John Deere Classic, which tees off Thursday in Silvis, IL., on the outskirts of the Quad Cities.

The 43-year old $4.6 million championship, though, may have its best field ever thanks to the first-ever participation of major champions Keegan Bradley and Trevor Immelman. It doesn’t hurt that Ryo Ishikawa, the young Japanese sensation, is also making his first appearance in the U.S. event immediately preceding the British Open.

Bradley won the 2011 PGA Championship and Immelman the 2008 Masters. They’re among 11 winners of major championships who will be boarding the jet from the Quad Cities Airport on Sunday night for the direct flight to Scotland and the third major championship of 2013 at Muirfield.

The JDC field was immediately upgraded when director Clair Peterson ordered the first chartered jet to the British in 2008.

“The charter has made it possible for us to attract more international players who may or may not be exempt for the British Open,’’ said Peterson. “It’s no secret that golf is an international game, and the jet enables us to compete for players we might not have been able to attract before we had it.’’

Never has the JDC foreign contingent been as strong as it is this year. That 39-player group includes 11 Australians and seven Koreans including Si Woo Kim – the youngest player to graduate through the PGA Tour’s qualifying school. He was 17 when he survived the rigorous 90-hole competition but couldn’t compete until he turned 18. The JDC will be his first tournament.

Of the six players from Sweden among the 156 starters are JDC rookies Jonas Blixt (winner of the Greenbriar Classic on Sunday), Peter Hanson, Robert Karlsson and Henrik Norlander. Nine players in the field are exempt for the British and more could get in through their play at TPC Deere Run.

The tourney has a Thursday-Sunday run. It’s the PGA Tour’s only summer visit to Illinois; the BMW Championship stops at Conway Farms in Lake Forest in September.

Another Senior Open for Sobb

Ivanhoe pro Jim Sobb has qualified for the U.S. Senior Open, which tees off Thursday at Omaha Country Club in Nebraska. He made it to the 50-and-over major championship by finishing second in a 58-player sectional elimination in Minnesota.

Sobb, who also qualified for the Senior Open in 2006 and 2009, had some heart-breaking match play losses this spring. He bowed in 21 holes to Gary Groh of Bob O’Link in the Illinois PGA Senior Match Play final after losing a semifinal to Biltmore’s Doug Bauman in the section’s regular Match Play event.

Joining Sobb at Omaha will be Blue Island’s Jerry Vidovic, who got into the Senior Open as first alternate at the Chicago sectional, held at Ruth Lake in Hinsdale. Vidovic got a spot in the field when Olin Browne withdrew.

Singhsumalee hopes to go national

Naperville’s Bing Singhsumalee, the 16-year old champion of this year’s Illinois Women’s Amateur, heads the field in Wednesday’s sectional qualifier for the U.S. Women’s Amateur at Biltmore, in North Barrington.

State amateur champions of previous last two years – Nora Lucas (2011) and Elizabeth Szokol (2012)– are also in the 62-player field that competes for seven berths in the finals at Country Club of Charleston in South Carolina.

When Singhsumalee won her state title she was believed to be the youngest winner of the 80-year old tournament. The Illinois Women’s Golf Assn. made a further check of its records, however, and found that nine-time winner Lois Drafke was only 15 when she won for the first time in 1953.

Did you know?

Matt Fitzpatrick, a Northwestern recruit from Sheffield, England, qualified for next week’s British Open. Fitzpatrick, who will be an NU freshman in the fall, survived a 36-hole elimination to play at Muirfield.

The men’s three-day Illinois State Amateur tees off next Tuesday at Aldeen in Rockford. Princeton University sophomore Quinn Prchal, from Glenview, is defending champion.

Good things may still be ahead for Joe Affrunti, who gets back on the PGA Tour at the John Deere Classic in the Quad Cities in two weeks, but the Crystal Lake golfer will have a hard time forgetting what happened to him in his last tournament.

Affrunti, who missed half of his rookie season on the PGA Tour because of shoulder surgery in June of 2011, looked like he was finally getting a good break while leading the United Leasing Championship on the PGA’s Web.com Tour on Sunday.

Bouncing between the PGA and Web.com circuits the last two months after returning to action, Affrunti was tied for the lead with Billy Hurley III through 16 holes at Victoria National – a spectacular layout in Newburgh, Ind. — on Sunday.

Hurley then put his second shot at No. 17 in a hazard and took a double bogey. Affrunti, on the green in two, needed a two-putt par to take a two-stroke lead to the final hole.

So what happened? Affrunti four-putted and wound up in a four-way tie for the lead through the regulation 72 holes. With darkness setting in, the four co-leaders (all at 11-under-par 277) had to return for a sudden death playoff on Monday, and Affrunti was eliminated when he made bogey on the first extra hole. After putting his drive in the rough he missed an eight-foot par putt.

Ben Martin took the title with a two-putt par, leaving the four-putt of the day before another career derailer for Affrunti. He missed from five feet and then from three on that nightmarish 71st hole of regulation. Both putts hit the hole but didn’t fall.

“The ball’s in twice, and still lips out. It is what it is,’’ said Affrunti, the 2004 Illinois Open champion. He still earned $44,800 for his tie for second (Martin pocketed $108,000), and much more money will be available at the $4.6 million JDC, which begins is 72-hole at TPC Deere Run in Silvis, IL., on July 11.

Affrunti will be one of five former University of Illinois golfers in the field, joining Steve Stricker, Luke Guthrie, D.A. Points and Scott Langley. They’ll all be trying to dethrone defending champion Zach Johnson in the final PGA Tour event before the British Open.

Small’s in PGA again

Illinois coach Mike Small finished in a tie for fourth at the PGA Professionals National Championship in Oregon last week, and that earned him his ninth berth in next month’s PGA Championship at Oak Hill in Rochester, N.Y.

Small, who also qualified for three U.S. Opens, made the cut at the PGA in 2005, 2007 and 2011. He was voted into the Illinois Golf Hall of Fame last month.

Did you know?

Bryce Emory, a recent Northern Illinois University graduate from Aurora, defeated Blake Johnson of Winnetka 2 and 1 in the final of the 94th Chicago District Golf Assn. Amateur at Edgewood Valley in LaGrange.

Dennis and Tim Troy will be the honorees when the Illinois PGA conducts its Senior Masters tourney on July 29 at Onwentsia in Lake Forest.

The 22nd Illinois State Amateur Public Links Championship will be held Monday and Tuesday (JULY 8-9) at Bowes Creek in Elgin. Qualifying for the U.S. Women’s Amateur is next Wednesday (JULY 10) at Biltmore in North Barrington.

The Chicago Lighthouse will honor former Bears’ coach Mike Ditka at its July 15 fundraiser outing at North Shore in Glenview. Proceeds benefit programs for the blind or visually impaired.

This week’s golf, both nationally and locally, is all about the women.

The U.S. Women’s Open tees off on Thursday at Sebonack, a seven-year old New York course co-designed by Tom Doak and Jack Nicklaus. Meanwhile, the Illinois Women’s Amateur begins the match play portion of its competition on Wednesday (TODAY) and concludes on Friday at Cantigny in Wheaton.

Two Illinois players will be in the field at Sebonack. Nicole Jeray, the veteran LPGA Tour player from Berwyn, survived a May 5 qualifying session at Elkridge Club in Baltimore and Chelsea Harris, a former University of Iowa player from Normal, advanced at a May 14 sectional at Cantigny in Wheaton.

Harris, who earned her berth in a playoff, works with swing guru John Platt, last year’s Illinois PGA Teacher of the Year. Platt, now working out of Mistwood in Romeoville, will be Harris’ caddie at Sebonack.

Jeray, 42, regained her LPGA playing privileges this year and ranks 111th on the circuit’s money list with $20,670 won in 11 events. She came up one stroke shy of missing the cut in her last start – the Walmart Northwest Arkansas Championship that concluded on Sunday.

Inbee Park won that tourney and will be a heavy favorite at Sebonack when she goes after her fifth win of the season. Two of her previous ones came in LPGA majors – the Kraft Nabisco and Wegmans LPGA Championship. The last LPGA player to win three majors in a row was Babe Zaharias 63 years ago.

Park will try to keep her streak going in the tourney’s first visit to Long Island in its 68-year history. While Jeray and Harris are longshots, both are in select company. This year’s Women’s Open drew a record 1,420 entrants from 46 states. The previous record entry was last year, when 1,364 tried to get into the final at Wisconsin’s Blackwolf Run.

Fourteen of the 156 starters at Sebonack are teenagers, the youngest being Nelly Korda of Bradenton, FL. She is the younger sister of Jessica Korda, one of the 81 players exempt from qualifying rounds, and they are the daughters of Petr Korda, a former touring tennis pro who won the 1998 Australian Open doubles title.

Anniversary event for IWGA

The Illinois Women’s Golf Assn. will celebrate the 80th anniversary of its state amateur championship at Cantigny.

Qualifying rounds, played on Tuesday, placed the entrants in flights for the match play portion. Northwestern student Elizabeth Szokol, from Winnetka, won last year’s title at Ravisloe in Homewood, defeating Michelle Mayer of Illinois in the final.

Cantigny will host the Women’s Amateur for the first time. The men’s Illinois State Amateur was played there in 1996, 2002 and 2008.

Did you know?

The 94th Chicago District Golf Assn. Amateur runs through Thursday at Edgewood Valley, in LaGrange.

Thomas Pieters, who helped Illinois to a runner-up finish in the NCAA tournament in his junior season, has turned professional. He made his pro debut in the Scottish Hydro Challenge on the European tour.

Next month’s John Deere Classic will include young stars Justin Thomas, who helped Alabama to the NCAA title, and Patrick Rodgers of Stanford in its starting field. They received sponsor’s exemptions as did Jordan Spieth, who was invited to last year’s JDC and has four top-10 finishes on the PGA Tour this season.

The Golf for the Child outing, benefitting Court Appointed Special Advocates of Will County, will be played at Ruffled Feathers on Friday. Proceeds from the event will serve abused and neglected children.

Hinsdale’s Brendan O’Reilly lost a playoff with Daniel Wetterich of Cincinnati for the Boys Division title at this week’s Midwest Junior Players Championship at Mistwood. Bolingbrook’s Jessica Yuen was third in the Girls division of the American Junior Golf Assn. event.

Some of Nick Price’s best days in a Hall of Fame career on the PGA Tour came in Chicago, when he won back-to-back Western Opens at Cog Hill in 1993 and 1994.

Price’s participation in this week’s new Encompass Championship is big news on the Champions Tour simply because he’s playing again. He hasn’t competed on the 50-and-over circuit since last August when he suffered a torn ligament in his left elbow.

His return comes at North Shore Country Club in Glenview, in the second of three new tournaments on the Champions Tour schedule. One of eight former Western champions in the field, Price will hit his first shot in Thursday’s pro-am. There’ll also be a day-long pro-am on Wednesday (TODAY), and among the players in it will be Bob Gilder – winner of the circuit’s last Chicago event, at Harborside in 2002.

The Encompass’ 54-hole main event begins on Friday with a new look from the circuit’s previous Chicago visits. In the first two rounds the 81 pros will be paired with an amateur in a two-man, two-day team event. The amateurs include a few celebrity types – Bears’ kicker Robbie Gould; retired football stars Joe Theismann and Brian Urlacher; ex-Bulls Scottie Pippen and Toni Kukoc; new Bears’ coach Marc Trestman; Jack O’Callahan, who played for the Blackhawks after helping the U.S. won an Olympic hockey gold medal in 1980; wounded warrior Chad Watson and Hawks’ broadcaster Pat Foley.

Only the pros will be on the course on Sunday when the $1.8 million purse will be distributed, with the champion receiving $270,000.

Nine winners from the Champions Tour’s first 10 tournaments of 2013 are in the field, including David Frost and Bernhard Langer – the only two-time champions. They also rank 1-2 in the circuit’s season-long Charles Schwab Cup standings.

Champions from Chicago’s golfing past will be headed by Hale Irwin, who won five times on area courses – the 1975 Western Open at Butler National, the 1990 U.S. Open at Medinah, the 1995 Ameritech Senior Open at Stonebridge and the 1998 and 1999 ASO at Kemper Lakes.

Irwin, Langer and Price are among seven Hall of Famers in the field, the others being Fred Couples, Tom Kite, Ben Crenshaw and Sandy Lyle. In addition to Irwin and Price the Western Open winners competing at North Shore include Tom Kite (1986), Crenshaw (1992), Scott Simpson (1980), D.A. Weibring (1987), Wayne Levi (1990) and Russ Cochran (1991).

Another former Chicago winner, John Riegger, will make his Champions Tour debut at North Shore after just reaching his 50th birthday. He won the 2007 LaSalle Bank Open on the Nationwide (now Web.com) Tour.

He’s a player again

Lance Ten Broeck learned his golf on Chicago’s South Side and won on the PGA Tour before switching from player to caddie. As Jasper Parnevik’s long-time bag-toter Ten Broeck rarely competed as a player, but he’ll be in the field this week. He shot 68 in Monday’s open qualifying round at Deerfield to earn a spot among five survivors. Tim Matthews was low man with a 66.

Ten Broeck isn’t the only player giving the Encompass some local flavor. Jeff Sluman, Gary Hallberg and Chip Beck – all Champions Tour regulars – are also entered.

Did you know?

The Illinois Women’s Amateur makes a rare Chicago appearance next week. The 80th version of the event will begin a four-day run on Tuesday (JUNE 25) at Cantigny in Wheaton.

Samantha Troyvanovich has made a verbal commitment to defend her Illinois Women’s Open title at Mistwood next month. She’s competing in the Women’s Western Amateur this week in Dayton, Ohio.

Steven Ihm, the first University of Iowa golfer to be awarded a sponsor’s exemption to the PGA Tour’s John Deere Classic, just captured the prestigious Sunnehanna Amateur title in Pennsylvania.

Pat Rollins, the Lombard police officer who got a confused Rory McIlroy to last September’s Ryder Cup singles matches at Medinah in the nick of time, has been named police chief in Sugar Grove.

Wilson Sporting Goods will host Mike Small Day festivities June 28 at Stone Creek in Urbana.