KOHLER, Wis. – There doesn’t seem to be a question about whether a South Korean golfer will contend for the U.S. Women’s Open title. After all, four players from that little country won the biggest tournament in women’s golf in the last seven years. Now the question is, which one will win it next?

Na Yeon Choi appears the best bet after her third-round 65 on Saturday at Blackwolf Run. Making seven birdies in her first 12 holes, Choi came from four strokes off the pace to open a six-stroke lead over Amy Yang, another South Korean, entering today’s final round.

Choi’s 7-under-par score tied the record for low third-round in the 67-year history of the U.S. Women’s Open. It was also the lowest at Blackwolf Run, one stroke better than American Michelle Wie shot on Friday. Choi hit 15 fairways on a windy day and needed only 26 strokes on the very undulating putting surfaces designed by architect Pete Dye.

Wedge shot approaches set up four of her eight birdies, the longest of which came from 20 feet at No. 7. That run of good play left Choi at 8-under 208 for 54 holes.

“I had a really good feeling about my swing,’’ said Choi. “The last two months I’ve been playing so-so, but this got me back on track. I wasn’t nervous. I played one shot at a time. It was windy when we started and it looked like a difficult day, but I made birdies on the first two holes and that gave me confidence.’’

Blackwolf Run is where this astonishing Korean success story began, when Se Ri Pak won the first U.S. Women’s Open held here in a dramatic 20-hole playoff in 1998. Pak — now an LPGA Hall of Famer –was the first champion among the Korean players, and she was Yang’s playing partner on Saturday.

Since Pak’s win Korean players have averaged seven LPGA titles a year and the U.S. Women’s Open has been their greatest stage. Yang started 10 groups in front of Choi and carded a 69.

Today Choi hopes to follow Birdie Kim (2005), Inbee Park (2008), Eun-Hee Ji (2009) and So Yeon Ryu (2011) as recent Korean winners of the Open. Ryu won last year by beating another Korean, Hee Kyung Seo, in a playoff. They have built on the success that Pak started.

“I was only 9 years old when I was watching on TV when Se Ri inspired all the Korean players,’’ said Choi. “I remember that feeling. All of our golfers call her a legend. I want to continue that feeling, from what Se Ri did 14 years ago.’’

Choi, Pak, Yang and Ryu were among 26 players from South Korea – a country about the size of Indiana – in the starting field here. Choi , 24, has won five times on the LPGA Tour since coming on the circuit in 2008 and earned over $6 million.

In each season she ranked in the top 10 in birdies, scoring average, rounds under par, rounds in the 60s and top-10 finishes. In 2010 she had low scoring average and also won the LPGA money title. This year she’s fifth in the Rolex Rankings.

A win by Yang, 22, wouldn’t be a fluke, either. Ranked 13th, she hasn’t won since joining the LPGA in 2008 but tied for 10th in last year’s U.S. Women’s Open.

Norway’s Suzann Pettersen, the 36-hole leader, soared to a 78 in the third round. So did Wie, her playing partner. American Christie Kerr, one shot behind Pettersen at the start of the day, carded a 77.

KOHLER, Wis. – Finally Michelle Wie is back – well, at least for a day.

Long touted as the next superstar of women’s golf, Wie fired a 6-under-par 66 in the second round of the 67th U.S. Women’s Open at Blackwolf Run on Friday, an indication that her lengthy run of mediocre play might be over.

“At least I know I made the cut,’’ quipped Wie after moving into a tie for second place with Cristie Kerr midway through the 72-hole championship. Norway’s Suzann Pettersen, playing in the threesome behind Wie, posted a 68 and holds the lead at 5-under-par 139 entering today’s third round. Wie, though, was the story of the day after posting the best round of the tournament so far.

“Playing behind her, I never saw her make as many putts as she did today,’’ said Pettersen. “She was fist-pumping on every putt. Michelle’s a great player with a lot of game.’’

But, until Friday, it hadn’t been so evident. Wie had six missed cuts in her previous 10 tournaments this year with her best finish a tie for 33rd.

“I played out of my butt to shoot 6-under. I’m pretty stoked to be back in contention,’’ said Wie. “I felt it coming the last couple weeks. It’s nice that it all came together today.’’

Wie, 22, contended for this biggest title in women’s golf in 2005 and 2006 when she was a young phenom. During that period of her life she became the youngest player (at age 10) to qualify for a U.S. amateur tournament, the youngest win one (the U.S. Women’s Amateur Public Links), the youngest to qualify for an LPGA event and the youngest to make a 36-hole cut on the pro circuit. She turned pro before her 15th birthday.

She was so promising then that she even tried to compete against the men in some PGA Tour events. That didn’t turn out so well, and Wie opted to go to college while playing a limited LPGA schedule. Though now a Stanford University graduate, she has but two LPGA wins, one in the limited field Lorena Ochoa Invitational in 2009 and the other in the full-field Canadian Open in 2010.

This year she’s been bugged by putting problems, and she even briefly tried the belly putter made popular on the men’s Champions Tour. Those putting woes disappeared on Friday, when Wie had 13 one-putt greens and made seven birdies en route to her best round – by three shots, mind you, in a U.S. Women’s Open. Maybe, just maybe, that magic will carry over for two more days and Wie will get the long-awaited first big win of her career.

“It’s nice that people have had those expectations for me,’’ she said. “It’s better than them having no expectations. I don’t know if anyone gave up on me or not. I’m sure some did and some didn’t. But I never gave up on myself, and today was a good reminder that I still have it.’’

She still has to overcome Pettersen, Kerr and the flock of Korean golfers who have dominated women’s golf in recent years.

Pettersen challenged for the Open title twice, tying for second in 2010 and tying for sixth in 2009. In 1998 Blackwolf Run proved the toughest-ever challenge for the tournament, as champion Se Ri Pak, first of the Korean stars, won with a 6-over-par performance. Pettersen doesn’t think the current Blackwolf – 400 yards longer than 14 years ago – is all that brutal.

“It’s pretty straight-forward, as wide open as U.S. Open course will ever get, and the greens are pretty big,’’ said Pettersen. “The course is very playable. You hit the fairways, you give yourself a lot of chances.’’

Friday’s 36-hole championship match of the 93rd Chicago District Amateur was interrupted by a 2-hour 40-minute rain delay, and the break had a big impact on the outcome.

Michael Davan and David Lawrence, two players who just completed their collegiate eligibility with plans to turn pro in the fall, were locked in a tight battle when the rain pelted Cantigny’s Woodside and Lakeside nines in Wheaton.

Davan was 1-up with a drive in the fairway at the 12th hole when play resumed. He was ready for the match’s restart, Lawrence wasn’t. Davan put his first swing after the delay on the green with a 9-iron from 125 yards while Lawrence hit his 8-iron from 162 far left, into a tree stump. Davan won that hole and took the next two with birdies.

“During the delay I took a nap, and it seemed like it took me an hour and a half to wake up,’’ said Lawrence, a Moline resident and Ohio Valley Conference first-team selection for Eastern Illinois. “I went from 1-down to 4-down quickly.’’

Davan, from downstate Hoopeston and the Horizon League player-of-the-year for Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, never trailed. He went on to a 4 and 3 victory in the first of the Chicago District Golf Association’s two major tourneys. The Illinois State Amateur is in August.

“Rain delays can make for a difficult situation,’’ said Davan. “I knew the shot I had to hit, and doing it gave me momentum. I got on a little run, and that made me comfortable.’’

Lawrence, 6-down at one point, fought back to 3-down with four holes left. He had a 14-foot birdie putt that might have cut the deficit further, but his putt lipped out. Davan then rolled in a 12-footer for birdie to clinch the match.

Four state-wide qualifying round advanced 60 players to the four-day competition at Cantigny. Though he’s had wins in college and junior events, Davan made the CDGA Am – oldest amateur tourney in the Midwest – his first major win. It came after a runner-up finish in the Southwest Amateur last week.

BENTON HARBOR, MI. – If you look at golf’s big picture, there are two significant stories brewing going into Sunday’s final round of the 73rd Senior PGA Championship.

The more obvious one is Roger Chapman, the English pro who tied the record at the new Harbor Shores course with a 7-under-par 64 on Saturday to open a five-stroke lead in the Champions Tour’s first major tournament of the year.

Still lurking, though, is 66-year old Hale Irwin, who goes into the final round tied four third and seven shots back. Once the dominant player on the 50-and-over circuit, Irwin is far more familiar with winning than Chapman. Chapman, 58, had one win in 19 seasons on the European PGA Tour and none anywhere since he turned 50.

Irwin was dubbed Mr. Chicago in his glory days, when he won the 1974 Western Open at Butler National, the 1990 U.S. Open at Medinah and two Champions Tour titles when the circuit had an annual Chicago stop at Stonebridge and Kemper Lakes.

Though Irwin hasn’t won since 2007, the winningest player in Champions Tour history is in somewhat familiar territory. The two-year old Harbor Shores course, designed by Jack Nicklaus, is the closest Champions Tour event to Chicago and the undulating greens remind Irwin of Winged Foot, the New York layout where he won the first of his three U.S. Opens in 1974.

If Irwin could pull of a win at Harbor Shores he’d be the oldest champion in Senior PGA history. Jock Hutchison, the long-time pro at Glen View Club, won the first Senior PGA in 1947 at age 62, and Irwin isn’t giving into age just yet.

“I’d have to play at least as well as I did yesterday (a second round 66 – the fourth time he’s shot his age in competition), said Irwin. “Roger played extremely well. He really separated himself from the field, but that can be inspirational as well.’’

Better putting would inspire Irwin, who is tied with Steve Pate and two shots behind second-place John Cook. Even after shooting his 66 he changed putters on Saturday, going with a heavier one. That’ll get discarded for the final round, as Irwin plans to bring back his Friday putter minus the tape he had put on it.

“Right now I’m looking for anything,’’ he said.

Irwin missed from eight feet at the first hole of Saturday’s rain-delayed round and three feet on the third. Then he put his tee shot in the water and three-putted at No. 4 for a triple bogey six. He still posted a 69 while playing in the same threesome as Chapman.

“That was the first time I played with Hale,’’ said Chapman, “and I felt in the right place mentally. I hit a lot of good iron shots early, and they kept getting better and better. That had to be the best iron play of my life.’’

He’s at 14-under-par 199 for 54 holes. Burr Ridge’s Jeff Sluman, the only player with a Chicago connection to survive the 36-hole cut, is tied for 42nd. Champions Tour members Gary Hallberg and Chip Beck and club pros Mike Harrigan and Billy Rosinia all failed to break 80 in difficult conditions during Thursday’s first round. They improved dramatically in the second but couldn’t qualify for weekend play.

BRADENTON, FL. — The current Northwestern men’s team was no match for the Wildcats’ alumni, but taking a pasting from world No. 1 Luke Donald and his cohorts did have its upside. It prepared the Wildcats well for another un at the Big Ten Match Play Championship.
Despite winning the title the previous two years, the Wildcats went into this year’s tourney as only the No. 7 seed. That didn’t matter, as coach Pat Goss’ squad knocked off No. 10 Penn State, No. 2 Iowa and No. 6 Ohio State before edging No. 8 Minnesota 4-1-1 to clinch the three-peat on Saturday.
A few days before the tournament the Wildcats took a 20 1/2-6 1/2 pounding from an alumni team that featured Donald but also included Nationwide Tour member Chris Wilson, former Illinois Amateur titlist T.C. Ford, former Eastern Amateur winner Kyle Moore and ex-PGA Tour player Jess Daley.
Donald starred for the Wildcats in his college days and has never forgotten his school loyalties. Among the many things he does to support his school involves hosting the annual alumni match at the Bear’s Club in Florida. That was particularly beneficial this year.
“Other schools have had those kinds of matches,’’ Goss said of the alumni battle, “but it helped (us). We always seem to play well in (the Big Ten Match Play) tournament.’’
Goss has now coached the Wildcats to 27 tournament titles in his 15 seasons.
The Bear’s Club, where Donald does his winter practicing, is a Jack Nicklaus design. So is the Concession Golf Club, which became the third course to host the Big Ten Match Play tourney in its four-year history.
Concession was brutal. Weather conditions were good on the first day of the two-week tourney, but the course (which Nicklaus designed with input from former European Ryder Cup champion Tony Jacklin) lived up to its 155 slope. Players from the 12 Big Ten members needed 5 1/2 hours to complete the first round of matches on the 7,472-yard layout and the second round was barely completed when darkness set in on Friday.
Fearing problems getting the tourney over on its second day, the coaches made a night-before decision to hold only a championship and third-place match after all teams played matches in the morning. That was a wise move as Concession played even more difficult on the Saturday day with strong winds swirling throughout.
After watching Donald shoot 67 in taking down Sam Chien in the alumni romp, the current Wildcats had a first-round scare at Concession. They survived Penn State in a tiebreaker after the regulation six matches ended 3-3. Iowa and Ohio State went down much more easily before Minnesota went down in the final. The Wildcats have won 13 straight matches in the tourney, which started in 2009 and are 14-1 overall.
The Big Ten became the first conference to establish a match play championship. Most college competitions are at stroke play, but league coaches thought it would better prepare their teams for the NCAA Championship if a match play event was included on the schedule. The format for the NCAA Championship was changed in recent years to provide a match play wrapup. The Big Ten’s version is the only televised regular-season collegiate tournament. Big Ten Network covered the action.
Teams were seeded according to their rankings in the fall season. Top-seeded Illinois was knocked out immediately, by Minnesota, and No. 2 Iowa survived only one round before losing to the Wildcats. NU didn’t figure to contend, despite its strong showing in previous conference match play competitions. NU was only mediocre in the fall season, but that was due in part because junior Nick Losole wasn’t available due to a bulged disc.
“He’s probably my second-best player,’’ Goss said.
Given clearance to use a push cart, Losole was a big factor at Concession. Playing as the No. 5 man in his first tourney of the year he didn’t need to play even the 18th hole in winning his first three matches and halved his other.
Joining Chien and Losole on the NU squad that competed at Concession were Eric Chun, Matthew Negri, Jack Perry and Matthew Negri.

LEMONT, IL. — Wire-to-wire champions were rare in the 20 years that Cog Hill has hosted the PGA Tour, and European winners of the BMW Championship and its longstanding predecessor, the Western Open, were rarer still.

England’s Justin Rose met both criteria Sunday after holding off his Australian playing partner, John Senden, on what’s expected to be the end of an era for the tourney at the Lemont layout. Rose started the day with a four-stroke lead, allowed Senden to get within one on the 15th hole and then put him away with a 36-foot chip-in birdie at the 17th.

Rose became only the third wire-to-wire winner at Cog Hill, joining Nick Price (1993) and Tiger Woods (2003), who were Western Open titlists. The BMW, which replaced the Western in 2007, had a wire-to-wire champion in 2008, but Camilo Villegas won his title at Bellerive in St. Louis — a substitute site while Cog’s Dubsdread course was undergoing a renovation.

As far as European champions go, Rose was the first since Harry Cooper won in 1934 and he had only two real challengers in the final round — Senden and another Australian, Geoff Ogilvy, who came on late to nab third place. That got Ogilvy into this week’s Tour Championship at East Lake in Atlanta — the last event of the FedEx Cup playoffs — and a spot on the World team in the upcoming President’s Cup matches in his home country.

Rose had his worst round of the week, a par 71, but finished at 13-under 271 for the 72 holes. Senden shot 69 for 273 and Ogilvy, also a 69 shooter, was another stroke back.

The Rose-Senden duel swung in the winner’s favor at the par-4 17th. Rose’s approach stopped just short of the green while Senden’s went into a green-side bunker. Senden’s escape shot finished 11 feet away, then Rose debated whether to putt from off the green or use a 54-degree wedge. Caddie Mark Fulcher advised the wedge, so Rose went with it and holed the shot.

“You can boil the whole day down to that moment,” said Rose. “John Senden was a rock out there, but I knew it was coming down to me. Either I was going to fritter it away or make something happen to win the tournament.”.

The chip-in gave Rose a two-stroke lead with just the 497-yard 18th to play, but Senden didn’t think he was dead yet after making his clutch par-saver.

“We were pretty close coming down the stretch,” said Senden. “I was pretty steady, and he was making some mistakes. After I holed my putt on 17 I thought I still had a chance, because anything can happen on that last hole.”

Rose wasn’t about to let his first victory of the season and third of his PGA Tour career slip away, however.

“It had been a gritty kind of round,” said Rose, “and it was an amazing feeling, making two great swings on the last.”

After Senden left his birdie putt four feet short Rose nearly holed his. The tap-in for par sealed his victory and boosted him from 34th in the FedEx standings at the start of the week to third heading into this week’s 30-player Tour Championship. By being in the top five Rose controls his own destiny in the chase for the $10 million bonus that awaits the FedEx winner. Any player in the top five now claims it with a win at East Lake. Senden left happy, too, since he needed a top-five finish here to reach the Tour Championship and got it.

Rose, 31, tied for sixth at The Barclays, the first playoff event, but was tied for 68th in a disappointing performance at the second — the Deutsche Bank Championship in Boston. He didn’t expect good things at Cog Hill, a course he first played in 1997 at the U.S. Amateur.

“It beat me up then,” he said. A year later, though, Rose was the darling of the golf world when — at age 17 — he holed out from the rough on the last hole to tie for fourth at the British Open. He turned pro the next day, then missed his first 21 cuts as a professional while also coping with the death of his father. Success was slow in coming, but Rose is enjoying it now.

“Mentally this is the best I’ve ever been in terms of being very under control with my emotions, being very calm, being very aware of the situation and feeling comfortable with it,” he said. “This week, as a competitor and as a professional, was probably my best-ever performance.”

SILVIS, IL:. — Steve Stricker had 10 previous wins on the PGA Tour, but none had quite the flair of Sunday’s three-peat at the John Deere Classic.

Stricker, now the 20th player to win a PGA Tour event three years in a row since World War II, had a five-stroke lead entering the back nine only to see Kyle Stanley, playing in the twosome in front of him, make five birdies in six holes. Coupled with two bogeys of his own, Stricker found himself two strokes down with two holes to play but still found a way to pull out a dramatic victory.

“An unbelievable week, and an unbelievably finish,” summed up Stricker. “I felt no momentum going my way most of the day. I just tried to hang in there, and I feel very fortunate to have won.”

A 12-foot birdie putt at the 17th hole pulled Stricker to within a shot. Stanley, who scrambled for par on the 17th after driving far right into deep rough, put his tee shot on the 18th in the right trees. When he lipped out a nine-foot par-saver it opened the door for Stricker to pull off his miracle.

His tee shot wasn’t much either, winding up in a bunker 184 yards from the green with trees and a pond affecting his next shot. He also had an awkward stance, with one foot in the bunker and one out. Making a last-minute club change, to a 6-iron, Stricker managed a great second to the back fringe 25 feet from the cup.

Two putts from there would have put him in a playoff but Stricker did better, rolling in the birdie putt and sending the standing-room-only gallery into a frenzy.

“I probably had a one- or two-out-of-10 chance of pulling off the shot from the bunker,” said Stricker, and then the putt — I don’t know what to say about that. I was trying to make it, but you don’t expected those to go in. I’m just glad that one did.”

His 69 in the final round gave him 22-under-par 262 total for the tournament and an $810,000 payday.

Stanley, a Clemson graduate who played on the Nationwide Tour last year, didn’t land his first pro victory but he did get a consolation prize — a berth in this week’s British Open as the highest-finishing non-qualifier among the JDC’s top five finishers. He heard the roar for Stricker’s final putt while sitting in the scorer’s trailer.

“That was a great birdie from where he was,” said Stanley. “I’m excited to go play (the British), but it’s difficult calming down from that round. I know I have the game to win out here. I just don’t know when it’ll be.”

GLENVIEW, IL. — Patrick Cantlay was the world’s top-ranked amateur golfer entering Saturday’s championship match of the 109th Western Amateur at North Shore Country Club in Glenview. The UCLA sophomore was low amateur at this year’s U.S. Open and a top -25 finisher in three PGA Tour events.

Not only that, but Cantlay had eliminated Chris Williams — the lowest-scoring medalist in Western Am history with a 16-under-par performance in the stroke play qualifying — and U.S. Amateur titlist Peter Uihlein in match play en route to reaching Saturday’s final. The best his opponent, Ethan Tracy, had done in a tournament this summer was an eighth-place finish in the Ohio Amateur.

Cantlay should have breezed to the title, right? Wrong!!!

Tracy, a senior at Arkansas, took the lead for good at the 13th hole and protected it the rest of the way for a 1-up victory. That put him in the company of Chick Evans, Jack Nicklaus, Tom Weiskopf, Curtis Strange, Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods as winners of the prestigious tournament.

Cantlay’s well-earned reputation didn’t scare off Tracy, a qualifier for the Western’s Sweet 16 match play participants in 2010 prior to his breakthrough win.

“He was just another player to me,” said Tracy. “I knew if I played my own game I’d be OK. I’d played well all week, and I played well in the final match.”

Tracy’s 15-foot birdie putt won the 13th hole. He never trailed again, but extra holes seemed likely after Tracy’s tee shot at the 18th sailed far left, leaving him a second shot with a tree five feet in front of him and in direct line to the pin.

“I wasn’t very happy, but I played the smart shot out to the fairway,” said Tracy. “I was lucky to have a chance to win.”

Tracy’s chip-out left him with a third shot short of Cantlay’s drive in the fairway. Tracy put his third 10 feet from the pin, then watched as Cantlay”s birdie putt from 15 feet lipped out. Tracy had a par-saver to win. Otherwise the nip-and-tuck match would go into sudden death. A gallery of about 400 walked with the players throughout the match and the gallery grew to watch the drama on the 18th green.

“I tried for a good roll and started it right on line,” said Tracy, whose father acted as his caddie throughout the five-day tournament. “I made it a good read and a good stroke.”

The putt dropped, leaving Cantlay frustrated with his own play.

“The greens were slow, and I didn’t make any putts,” he said. “I played awful in stroke play and barely squeaked in to match play. I never had a stretch where I felt comfortable with my putter, but you can’t win all the time in golf. It was a good week, all in all.”

GLEN ELLYN, IL. — The Illinois State Amateur seems to be turning into the Iowa Invitational. At least over the last two year’s the big event for Illinois players ended up as a showcase for the University of Iowa’s golf program.

In 2010 Deerfield’s Vince India was a seven-shot winner of the State Am at Beverly Country Club. A year later two of his college teammates, Brad Hopfinger of Lake Forest and Chris Brant of Edwardsville, finished one-two in the 81st Illinois State Amateur at Glen Oak in Glen Ellyn.

“That says a lot about the team we had there,” said Hopfinger, who got around the 6,741-yard Glen Oak layout in 12-under-par 272. Brant was four strokes back and no one else was under par, in part because of the unfortunate disqualification of perennial contender Todd Mitchell of Bloomington.

Leading through 36 holes, Mitchell finished third but then signed an incorrect scorecard. Hopfinger, his playing partner in the final twosome of the last two rounds, put him down for a four on the fifth hole of the final round when Mitchell instead made a five. Mitchell, who left the premises without commenting, had won the State Am twice and never finished worse than eighth in his previous nine starts.

Mitchell’s misfortune didn’t detract from a great final day for Hopfinger, who took the lead with a blistering 64 in the third round and never trailed.He made eight birdies in the morning round of the 36-hole finale, three of them coming on the final three holes. He never trailed after that en route to claiming the Louis T. Emmerson Trophy.

Brant, playing one group in front of Hopfinger, got within one stroke after 10 holes of the final round but his chances at winning ended when his 3-iron tee shot at the 225-yard par-3 16th sailed far right into thick rough, leading to a double bogey.

“I had a shot until then,” said Brant. “I hit a really, really poor golf shot. You can’t miss right of that green, but realistically I would have had to make par there and birdie the last two holes. Brad played very well. It was good to see him win.”

India and Hopfinger both used their fathers as caddies in their runs to the title.

“In the past that hasn’t always worked out too well,” said Hopfinger, but (his father) did it in the Trans-Mississippi tournament in Kansas this summer and I shot 66-66, so I thought I should try it again.”

India couldn’t defend his crown. The Big Ten player-of-the-year for 2011 was named to the U.S. team for the World University Games, so he spent the week competing in China.

“I wish he’d been here,” said Brant, who will enter his senior year at Iowa this fall while India and Hopfinger are moving on. India, Hopfinger and Brant played in the 1-2-3 positions for an Iowa team that finished 10th in the NCAA finals.

For Hopfinger, 22, the State Am was a great ending to his amateur career. Having failed to qualify for the U.S. Amateur, he entered the pro ranks slightly ahead of schedule. Three days after his big win at Glen Oak he was off to Lawrence, Kansas, and a Monday qualifier for a Nationwide Tour event.

“It meant a lot to get a win,” said Hopfinger, who got around par-71 Glen Oak in 71-68-64-69.

A week earlier Hopfinger made a solid showing in the Western Amateur at North Shore Country Club. He got through all 72 holes of the rugged stroke play qualifying there but didn’t make it to match play.

He was better in the State Am despite a slow start in the opening round, when wet conditions required the lift, clean and place rule to be put into effect. The 7-under 64 in the third 18 was Hopfinger’s low career competitive round. It was one stroke off the course mark set by Danny Mulhearn, who is in his eighth year as the club’s head professional.

Next year’s State Am at Kokopelli in downstate Marion represents a chance for an Iowa three-peat. Brant would be a strong contender if he has a solid senior season for the Hawkeyes.

“I don’t know my schedule, but I’d like to come back,” he said. “I would plan to play (the State Am) and the U.S. Amateur.”

Though it’s a year away, the next step after that seemed obvious — following Hopfinger into the pro ranks.