Streelman, Points in good shape but Wilson out of BMW Championship
Now there’s just one FedEx Cup Playoff tourney left before the PGA Tour makes its first return to the Chicago area since 2011.
The Deutsche Bank Championship in Boston has a Friday-Monday run this week, and the low 70 in the standings after that 72-hole $8 million shootout come to Conway Farms in Lake Forest for the BMW Championship — tourney of similar duration and purse from Sept. 12-15.
Adam Scott won The Barclays on the outskirts of New York on Sunday and vaulted into second place behind Tiger Woods in the FedEx point race. Woods finished in a four-way tie for second in the first of the four playoff events.
Conway Farms is a new site for the BMW Championship, replacing Cog Hill in Lemont, and at least two players with Illinois connections won’t be there. Elmhurst’s Mark Wilson and University of Illinois alum Scott Langley qualified for 125-man field at The Barclays but didn’t play well enough to move on to the Deutsche Bank Championship.
Four other locals are still alive in the battle for the $10 million bonus that goes to the FedEx leader after the Tour Championship is played in Atlanta the week after the Conway Farms stop. Luke Donald, a Conway Farms member, and Luke Guthrie, another Illinois alum, can’t afford a letdown in Boston.
Donald tied for 41st at The Barclays and is No. 54 in the standings. A missed cut in Boston and he might not stay in the top 70. Guthrie missed the cut last week but is still at No. 81.
The Barclays was much more productive for Wheaton’s Kevin Streelman and Illinois alum D.A. Points, however. Streelman tied for 19th and moved up to No. 12 on the point list. Points, finishing with a 67 on Sunday, tied for sixth and moved up 10 spots in the standings to No. 15.
Changes coming at Olympia Fields
The 91st Illinois PGA Championship concludes Wednesday on Olympia Fields’ South course but bigger things are coming on the more famous North layout, site of four major championships — the 1928 and 2003 U.S. Opens and 1925 and 1961 PGA Championships.
Mark Mungeam, the North course architect the last 20 years, will supervise a renovation that calls for the reconstruction of all existing bunkers and the addition of five more. The ones that are being added were part of the 1938 design created by architect Willie Park Jr. but they were covered up over the years.
The bunkers will get Best (THIS IS BRAND NAME) sand, which is white and more playable than the more tradition varieties, according to Olympia head professional Brian Morrison. All the tee boxes will be given a rectangular shape that is rounded at the corners. Morrison said the renovation isn’t being done in preparation for the 2015 U.S. Amateur, which will be played on both the North and South courses as part of the club’s centennial celebration.
“We’re not required to do it (by the U.S. Golf Assn.),’’ said Morrison. “We are doing this mainly for the playability of our members.’’
Support for military veterans
The Illinois PGA Championship will again serve as the Chicago kickoff for Patriot Golf Day events. IPGA players were asked to make a voluntary donation to the charity that supports military veterans and the section will match the amount, to be determined after Wednesday’s final round.
Meanwhile, eight Chicago courses operated by Billy Casper Golf participated in last week’s World’s Largest Golf Outing, a fund-raiser for the Wounded Warrior Project. The Outing involved 826 golfers from 110 Casper-operated courses in 28 states. It raised $725,000.
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The Western Golf Assn. will spend this week putting on the new Hotel Fitness Championship – first of four events in the Web.Com Tour Finals. The tourney begins Thursday at Sycamore Hills in Ft. Wayne, Ind.
The Chicago District Golf Assn. will conduct two of hits bigger tournaments back-to-back. The Illinois Mid-Amateur concludes its two-day run on Wednesday (AUG 28) at Flossmoor and the Illinois State Senior Amateur is on tap for Kankakee Elks on Thursday.