Daily Herald Columns

Most recent Daily Herald Columns:

Chicago 10 must travel to find a U.S. Open sectional this year Chicago’s two local qualifying tournaments for the U.S. Open are over. Now comes the hard part for the 10 golfers who survived. They were the lucky ones among the 180 who entered the 18-hole eliminations at Northmoor, in Highland Park, and Seven Brid...
Martin's Fox Run, Arrowhead renovations are unveiled April storms created a nightmare for Chicago’s golf course operators, but they were especially troublesome at Fox Run, the Elk Grove Park District facility. Fox Run has undergone a $2 million renovation for two years under the supervision of Aurora a...
Celebrity pro-am will make new Champions Tour event special Tampa’s loss is Chicago’s gain. The Champions Tour is preparing for its return to Chicago after an 11-year absence, and the new version will be much different than the 12 tournaments played here from 1991-2002. The Encompass Championship will be top-...
Affrunti's finally playing again after shoulder rehab Finally there’s some good news involving Joe Affrunti, the Crystal Lake golfer who suffered a serious shoulder injury months after earning his PGA Tour card. Affrunti earned the right to play on golf’s premier circuit by finishing in the top 25 on the ...
LPGA schedule is finally working in Jeray's favor Berwyn golfer Nicole Jeray spent most of the winter in Augusta, Ga., and she had a pass to get into last week’s spectacular Masters tournament there. The Chicago area’s lone member of the Ladies PGA Tour, however, had more important things to do. ``...
Donald has ``special short game shot'' ready for the Masters Last year Luke Donald was the world’s No. 1-ranked golfer entering all four of the sport’s major championships. He was No. 1 for 55 weeks, and it was at the 2012 Masters that his duel for the top spot with Rory McIlroy started. This year’s Masters b...
Streelman looks for a better result in his second Masters Kevin Streelman may be the best feel-good story in golf these days, and maybe in all of sports. Last month Streelman, who grew up in Winfield and built his golf game playing and working at both Cantigny and Arrowhead public courses in Wheaton, won th...
Malm is the player to watch in IPGA's last major at Eagle Ridge It’ll be nothing like the just-completed Ryder Cup, but there is one big competitive event left in the Chicago golf season. The Illinois PGA will stage the last of its four major tournaments, the IPGA Players Championship, at Eagle Ridge in Galena on M...
Tour Championship will set the stage for the Ryder Cup Get ready, get set….. The golf season is reaching a climax, with The Tour Championship concluding the PGA Tour’s FedEx Cup playoffs this week and the 39th Ryder Cup coming the following week to Medinah Country Club. Medinah, though, will open ...
Break in the FedEx playoffs is a good thing with two big weeks coming up There’s a rare break in the PGA Tour season this week, and that’s a good thing. The best players are tired after playing three straight weeks of FedEx Cup playoff events and they’re welcoming a rest before the big two-week stretch coming up. The climax...
WGA did smart thing in moving BMW tourney to Crooked Stick In the past six years this would have been a big week in Chicago golf. During five of those years the PGA Tour made its annual stop at Cog Hill, in Lemont, for the BMW Championship, a FedEx Cup playoff event. Only in 2008 was there no event – and that...
Europe will have big experience edge in Ryder Cup If Ryder Cup experience means anything the U.S. team will be in big trouble when the biennial matches come to Medinah Country Club for their 39th staging beginning Sept. 25. Europe’s 12-man squad is loaded with veterans, to say nothing of talent. The E...
Hohenadel wants to prove IPGA title wasn't a fluke What a difference a year makes. Last year the biggest tournament at Medinah Country Club was the Illinois PGA Championship, which decides the best player among the state’s club professionals. Next month, of course, Medinah hosts the 39th Ryder Cup m...
Only Stricker is sure bet for a U.S. Ryder Cup captain's pick The first phase to determine who will be playing in next month’s Ryder Cup matches at Medinah is over. Point standings, accumulated over two years, determined the eight automatic berths on the U.S. team after Sunday’s PGA Championship was completed an...
Small, Guthrie elevate the profile of Illini golf program This would figure to be a big week for Mike Small, the Illinois men’s coach. He’ll make his 11th appearance in a major championship when he tees off at the Ocean Course at Kiawah Island, S.C., in the PGA Championship on Thursday. This is the last of g...
Rodgers wants to add Western Amateur to his WGA titles Four of the world’s top six amateurs will be battling for the title in the 110th Western Amateur at Exmoor Country Club in Highland Park this week. Among them is Patrick Rodgers, who won the Western Golf Association’s Junior tournament in 2011. ``The ...
Pearson goes for third title on more challenging course in Illinois Women's Open Wheaton’s Jenna Pearson can become only the second player to win the Phil Kosin Illinois Women’s Open three times when the 18th annual tournament begins today at Mistwood in Romeoville. ``I’m definitely hoping to be in that category,’’ said Pearson, w...
U.S. WOMEN'S OPEN: Pak's win in '98 triggered big changes for LPGA KOHLER, Wis. – Blackwolf Run was where women’s golf took a dramatic turn back in 1998. That’s where Se Ri Pak, a South Korean player, captured one of the most dramatic U.S. Women’s Opens ever. Her win in the biggest tournament in women’s gol...
U.S. WOMEN'S OPEN: Neff, Armstrong get into starting field The 67th U.S. Women’s Open, which tees of Thursday at Blackwolf Run, in Kohler, Wis., has two late qualifiers with Chicago connections. Aimee Neff, winner of the Illinois Women’s Open in 2008 and 2009, and amateur Ashley Armstrong, a Notre Dame sopho...
JDC is in the spotlight thanks to Stricker's four-peat bid By far the biggest month of the golf season in the Midwest begins in just a few days. July offers the U.S. Women’s Open at Blackwolf Run in Wisconsin and the John Deere Classic in the Quad Cities , followed by the two state opens for Illinois golfers an...
Illinois Open site change delights defending champion Arouca For over three decades Illinois club professionals dominated their amateur counterparts. Those days are apparently over. Last week the Chicago District Golf Association’s amateur stars beat the Illinois PGA’s best 11 ½-6 ½ in the 51st Radix Cup mat...
Hot nine on Scarlet course got Streelman into the Open Kevin Streelman’s golf game may be peaking at just the right time. The PGA Tour player from Winfield got into this week’s U.S. Open with an extraordinary nine holes in last week’s 36-hole sectional qualifier in Columbus. After shooting a 71 in the fi...
Mistwood shows off its new bunkers Stacked sod-wall bunkers are an extreme rarity at Chicago courses, but they won’t be as much a mystery after owner Jim McWethy re-opens his Mistwood course in Romeoville. That’ll happen for the course’s members and permanent tee time holders on Sat...
Harrigan, Rosinia take aim at Senior PGA This is an unusual year for big-time tournament golf in Chicago. Only September’s Ryder Cup at Medinah is on the calendar, but five other big-time events are within a short drive. The first of those is the 73rd Senior PGA Championship, one of the major...
Sobb's streak is over in IPGA match plays For two years now Jim Sobb has been the man whenever the Illinois PGA holds a match play tournament. This year, though, his reign can to an abrupt halt. The Ivanhoe pro won the section’s senior match play title in 2010 and 2011, was runner-up in the ...
Chien, Hopfinger lead first U.S. Open local qualifier Monday’s rains forced the Illinois Public Links Championship to be reduced from 36 to 18 holes, but the bad weather didn’t hamper the first of two local qualifying rounds for the U.S. Open – the first significant competition of this Chicago golf season....
Affrunti's return to PGA Tour will take awhile Last Sunday’s conclusion of the PGA Tour’s Valero Texas Open created a time of reflection for Crystal Lake’s Joe Affrunti, whose last appearance on golf’s premier circuit was at that tournament in 2011. For Affrunti, a former Illinois Open cha...
Only minor changes coming at Cog Hill Cog Hill is off the PGA Tour calendar for only the second time since 1991 this year, but that won’t keep owner Frank Jemsek from tweaking his Dubsdread layout that hosted both the Western Open and BMW Championship. Jemsek opened the premier course on h...
Batavia's Martin is one busy course architect Batavia-based Greg Martin has been one busy golf course architect within the Chicago area of late. Three of his public course projects are about to open for the season, and at least three others are in the works. Martin handled two renovation pro...
Can Wilson, Donald tame Augusta National? When the first major championship of the PGA Tour season tees off Thursday there’ll be two players with Chicago roots in the field. Luke Donald, the Northwestern alum and the world’s No. 1-ranked player will try to make the Masters his first major titl...
Don't expect Butler National to allow women members soon Every few years, it seems, somebody in Butler National Golf Club’s membership suggests that the all-male facility may be willing to accept women as members, thereby making it possible for big-time golf to be played in Oak Brook again. Citing ``in...
Ceremonies set for Illinois Golf Hall of Fame Another Chicago golf season is almost history now. All that is left — except for the few recreational rounds remaining when weather permits — is the Illinois Golf Hall of Fame induction ceremonies. They're coming up on Oct. 21 at The Glen Club in Glenview...
Could Oak Brook's Butterfield CC land BMW? Conway Farms, the home course of world No. 1 Luke Donald, remains the consensus favorite to land the 2013 BMW Championship, but the Lake Forest layout isn't the only private facility Western Golf Association officials have checked out for the next time PG...
Ryder Cup captains like what they see at Medinah Medinah Country Club, plagued by course conditioning issues last month, received glowing reviews as next year's site for the Ryder Cup matches. Top players from the U.S. and Europe will battle on the club's No. 3 course next Sept. 25-30. The club and P...
Signs point to North suburbs landing BMW in 2013 An announcement won't likely come for a few weeks, but the BMW Championship figures to be played in the north suburbs when it returns to the Chicago area in 2013. The tourney's 20-year run by Cog Hill Golf & Country Club figures to come to an end a...
Streelman's PGA career on rise despite missing BMW The PGA Tour's BMW Championship will be heavy on Illinois talent when it tees off Thursday at Cog Hill in Lemont. World No. 1 Luke Donald is fourth in the FedEx Cup point standings, with Steve Stricker eighth, Mark Wilson 17th and D.A. Points 49th. ...