Author: lenz

Conway Farms is ready for a BMW Championship replay

The PGA Tour’s visit to Chicago isn’t an annual thing anymore, but when the circuit does come it’s a big deal. That’ll be the case this week when the BMW Championship returns to Conway Farms in Lake Forest.

This week’s $8.25 million event, which tees off on Thursday, is the second of three scheduled stagings at Conway Farms. The first was in 2013, and the third and final visit to Conway will be in 2017.

Last week the Western Golf Assn. announced the BMW Championship sites through 2019 — a continuation of its policy of coming to the Chicago area only every other year. The 2016 tournament will be played at Crooked Stick in Indianapolis. After the next return to Conway the event will move to Aronimink in Philadelphia in 2018 and come back to Chicago, at Medinah, in 2019.

All those events – including this week’s — will be hard-pressed to match the first visit to Conway, which hosted the PGA Tour for the first time in 2013 after being the site of a wide variety of top amateur tournaments.

“Record heat, frost, every weather pattern that week,’’ recalled Vince Pellegrino, senior vice president, tournaments for the Western Golf Assn. “Jim Furyk shooting a 59 when the average score for that day was par, oscillating balls on the first green, Hunter Mahan getting a hole-in-one, weather delays leading to a Monday finish, then Zach Johnson shooting 65 to win by two strokes.’’

This time Johnson is back, but as the reigning British Open champion. Two years ago his profile wasn’t so lofty. He was just worried about surviving this third stage of the FedEx Cup Playoffs – golf’s most lucrative competition. It started with 120 players – determined on a point system after the PGA Tour’s 47-event regular season — competing for $8.25 million at The Barclays in New Jersey. The playoffs then continued with the top 90 competing in Boston’s Deutsche Bank Championship for another $8.25 million.

Conway is the third leg of the season-ending playoff series, and it’ll send 30 players to Atlanta for The Tour Championship where another $8.25 million – plus a $10 million bonus for the series winner – will be on the line. Peak at the right time, and a golfer can become a very rich man in a very short period of time. That’s what happened to Billy Horschel last year, when he won the last two playoff tournaments as well as the bonus in a span of barely three weeks.

The playoffs have been a bit on the weird side midway through the four-tournament series this year. The top two players in the world rankings – Jordan Spieth and Rory McIlroy – have done little. Spieth, the Masters and U.S. Open champion, didn’t even survive the 36-hole cut in the first two playoff events.

Two other young stars — PGA champion Jason Day and Rickie Fowler – have taken advantage of the Spieth-McIlroy letdown, Day winning The Barclays and Fowler the Deutsche Bank Championship. But all four hotshots, along with Johnson and Horschel, will be in the field at Conway.

There’ll be some notable absentees, to be sure. Tiger Woods didn’t qualify for the FedEx Cup events and three Chicago-connected players who are regulars on the PGA Tour – Conway member Luke Donald, Mark Wilson and Kevin Streelman – were eliminated the Deutsche Bank Championship.

The BMW Championship, though, has never had to worry about getting a great field thanks to its enviable spot as the next-to-the-last stop on the PGA Tour’s tournament schedule. The BMW started a run as the PGA Tournament of the Year in its first playing at Conway.

“We certainly expect this year’s to be as highly successful and well-attended as that one was,’’ said Pellegrino. Since the BMW replaced the Western Open as the PGA’s Chicago tour stop in 2007 the tournament has raised more than $19.6 million for the WGA’s Evans Scholars Foundation, which is financing the college education of 870 caddies this year.

Unlike 2013, the WGA has set an attendance limit for this year’s BMW though the weekly total is still expected to match last year’s 130,000. Crowds will be limited to 27,000 to help create a better spectator experience. The third-round crowd hit 35,000 at Conway two years ago. This year the crowds don’t figure to be as unwieldy and Conway itself will look different.

The club underwent a major renovation since the first PGA Tour visit, the result making the facility much more spectator-friendly. Seating around the 18th green has been doubled and there’s expanded viewing at Nos. 1, 2, 7, 9, 11 and 17. The Beer Garden has also been doubled in size and cart paths have been widened to improve spectator traffic around the course.

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Streelman, Donald, Wilson will miss BMW at Conway Farms

When the BMW Championship returns to Conway Farms next week it’ll certainly be in sharp contrast from the first staging there in 2013. Zach Johnson, the champion two years ago, will be back. So will Jim Furyk, who shot that dazzling 59 in the PGA Tour’s first-ever visit to the Lake Forest private club.

Otherwise, though, the field underwent a major transformation after the Deutsche Bank Classic, the second FedEx Cup Playoff event that ended on Monday in Boston. The top 70 in the standings after that tournament form the BMW field for the next 72-hole test that begins on Sept. 17.

That cast won’t include the three Chicago-connected players who had a chance of making it going into Monday’s final round of the Deutsche Bank Classic. Conway member Luke Donald, Elmhurst resident Mark Wilson and Wheaton’s Kevin Streelman all survived the 36-hole cut in Boston but couldn’t deliver in the final two rounds.

Monday’s final 18 was particularly a killer for Streelman. He was above the cut line entering the week – a tie for 65th – but his 77 on Monday, which included a 42 on the back nine dropped Streelman to 75th place in the standings. So, his season is over with just two playoff events remaining. The concluding Tour Championship in Atlanta is the week after the BMW.

Streelman and Wilson tied for 69th place in the Deutsche Bank Classic. Wilson, who started the week down in 95th place in the standings, needed a much higher finish to play in Lake Forest and didn’t get it.

Donald, who has been regaining form in the last few weeks, was slightly outside the cut line entering the Deutsche Bank Championship, in 87th place. He finished a tie for 39th place in the tournament but a 73 in the final round prevented him from cracking the top 70 in the playoff standings. He ended his season at No. 80.

The local trio aren’t the only favorites who won’t be playing at Conway Farms. Such prominent names as Davis Love III, Jason Dufner, Stewart Cink, Padraig Harrington, Adam Scott, Vijay Singh, Martin Kaymer and Ernie Els didn’t make it through the two playoff events, either, and Tiger Woods didn’t even qualify for the postseason competition that he had won twice. Two of the top names who did — world Nos. 1 and 2 Jordan Spieth and Rory McIlroy – haven’t been sharp in the playoffs. Spieth missed the cuts in the first two events. McIlroy was down in a tie for 29th place in Boston.

Their regular season play, though, assured they’d be competing at Conway Farms, where the field will also feature Jason Day and Rickie Fowler, winners of the first two FedEx Cup Playoff events, and Billy Horschel, the winner of last year’s BMW Championship in Denver. Horschel also went on to also win the final event in Atlanta and take the $10 million bonus for topping the playoff standings.

Along with those top stars the Conway field will be loaded with up-and-coming players like Daniel Summerhays, Jason Bohn, Russell Knox, David Lingmerth, Harris English, Matt Jones, Tony Finau, Daniel Berger, Brendan Todd, Kevin Chappell, Fabian Gomez and George McNeill.

Unlike the first two playoff events, there’ll be no 36-hole cut in the BMW Championship and only the top 30 in this $8.25 million event will qualify for the final one in Atlanta.

Here and there

The BMW Championship is the major fundraiser for the Western Golf Association’s Evans Scholars Foundation and the members of Kemper Lakes, in Kildeer, will provide an added boost to the effort. They have pledged $2,500 for every eagle made in the tournament up to 20 (or $50,000). Seventeen eagles were made in the 2013 BMW Championship played at Conway Farms.

A second Top Golf location opened in the Chicago area last weekend. This one is in Naperville, and David Ogrin – the former PGA Tour veteran from Waukegan – was on hand for the festivities.

The Golf Collectors Society will hold its 45th annual meeting and trade show Sept. 17-19 at Pheasant Run Resort in St. Charles.

The Illinois PGA will hold its Pro-Women’s Club Champion team event on Thursday at Rolling Green in Arlington Heights and the Illinois Senior Open is on tap for Monday and Tuesday at McHenry Country Club.

Onwentsia, in Lake Forest, has been named the site of the Western Golf Assn. Junior Championship in 2020.

Hopefully a banner U.S. Am leads to USGA’s quick return to Chicago

The 115th U.S. Amateur at Olympia Fields couldn’t have gone much better.

The weather was great, the champion showed potential for long-term greatness and Fox Sports – new to golf broadcasting – presented Olympia Fields in a very positive light. Dave Allard, the club’s chairman for the event, said U.S. Golf Assn. officials told him that Olympia’s greens were the best for a USGA championship this year – and that’s saying a lot since the organization puts on 20 such tournaments at some of the country’s best courses.

There’s only one problem. The USGA isn’t coming back – at least not for a long while. For the first time in at least four decades not one of the USGA championships is scheduled for the Chicago area. Golf’s ruling body in the U.S. generally schedules at least five years in advance. Its biggest event, the U.S. Open, already has sites determined through 2024.

Tom O’Toole, the USGA president, underwent a screening from select golf media about the scheduling issue and stressed that “Olympia Fields has done a fabulous job.’’

So, why no USGA events coming beyond qualifiers for national tournaments? O’Toole didn’t shed much light on that but said it was nothing personal.

“We’d like to continue our history in Chicago because it’s been a rich one,’’ said O’Toole. “There’s a wonderful plethora of clubs here.’’

Olympia Fields, of course, is just one of them and – rather than belabor the future schedule issue – now it’s more appropriate to celebrate another rich moment in Chicago golf history. Thirteen U.S. Amateur Championships have been played in Chicago or its suburbs and the first one at Olympia Fields had to be one of the best – a bonus for the club, which used the event to highlight its Centennial celebration.

The U.S. Amateur made its first Chicago appearance in 1897 at Chicago Golf Club, the site for the championship four times. It was also played at Onwentsia, in Lake Forest; Glenview Club, Flossmoor, Beverly, North Shore (twice), Knollwood and Cog Hill. The Cog Hill version, won by Matt Kuchar, was the most recent. It was played in 1997.

Olympia Fields hosted the U.S. Senior Open the same year Cog hosted the Amateur – a banner year in Chicago golf history. In landing the Amateur, Olympia was able to spotlight its two recently-renovated courses. It was the last Chicago course to host U.S. Open, in 2003 when Jim Furyk won the title. This U.S. Amateur may have measured up better than that Open did. Olympia’s North Course didn’t prove to be the monster that most Open venues have been.

For the U.S. Amateur, though, it was ideal. The North and South layouts contrasted nicely for the 36 holes of stroke play that started tournament week for 312 qualifiers, and the North offered all kinds of interesting challenges for the 64 match play survivors.

There could be only one winner, of course, and that turned out to be Bryson DeChambeau, a senior at Southern Methodist University from Clovis, Calif. He was clearly the best of the lot. Rain delays, caddie changes, a bad tee shot at a critical moment. Nothing was going to keep DeChambeau from joining some of golf’s most elite company.

In winning at Olympia Fields Country Club DeChambeau joined Jack Nicklaus (1961), Phil Mickelson (1990), Tiger Woods (1996) and Ryan Moore (2004) as the only players to win the NCAA Championship and the U.S. Amateur in the same year.

Both finalists, DeChambeau and Derek Bard, earned berths in next year’s Masters, U.S. Open and British Open, but there were few other similarities in their status after the title match. DeChambeau was just too good. He never played beyond the 16th hole in his first five matches and had even less trouble with Bard in the 36-hole final, winning 7 and 6 with a torrid nine holes immediately after the lunch break. That was one of the widest victory margins since the tourney was inaugurated in 1895.

“I kept putting the pedal to the metal,’’ said DeChambeau. “I wanted to play Bryson golf, and that’s what I did. I just made everything.’’

A physics major at SMU, DeChambeau, 21, opened birdie-birdie to go 2-up quickly, but that lead didn’t last. Bard, a 20-year old junior at the University of Virginia, won four of five holes in one stretch to go 2-up, but DeChambeau took charge for good after chipping in to win No. 8.

The 47-minute rain delay didn’t help, but he battled back to get to all square and then won Nos. 14, 15 and 16 to claim the lead for good. There were some moments of adversity, though.

During the 42-minute lunch break DeChambeau’s regular caddie, Mike Sly, told him that he couldn’t continue on the bag in the afternoon. A case of plantar fasciitis was too painful. No problem. DeChambeau called on a friend who had carried his bag occasionally in the past and only briefly lost momentum.

His first tee shot of the afternoon round sailed left into the woods, and he was lucky to find his ball. Still, no real problem. Bard, who had won No. 18 to conclude the morning round, took advantage of DeChambeau’s rare muff to win that hole, too. Still, DeChambeau wasn’t ruffled.

He went on a tear, stringing one great iron shot after another and backing up those approaches with brilliant putting. He had Bard dormie after winning No. 10 and closed out the match when Bard’s birdie putt lipped out on the 30th hole.

It wasn’t just the dominating result that set DeChambeau apart from the field during the week. It was also his unconventional style. His trademark is a cap like the one Ben Hogan wore. He also spoke proudly of going to the same college as the late, great Payne Stewart, who also wore similar headgear.

DeChambeau’s clubs are also unusual. The shafts are all the same length, that of a standard 6-iron. His style for lining up putts is different, too. He lines them up with his putter in a horizontal position rather than the usual vertical method – like taking aim with a gun. And, his training methods include cursive writing backwards with his left hand (he’s right-handed) because it improves the sensitivity in his hands.

“Obviously he’s a very smart kid,’’ sad Bard. “I was prepared for all that. Whatever works –and this week it worked for him pretty well.’’

BMW’s return to Conway Farms will be even better this time

The first BMW Championship played at Conway Farms in Lake Forest was voted Tournament of the Year on the PGA Tour. That was in 2013.

When the FedEx Cup Playoff event returns this month it will be even better. Work done by both the Western Golf Assn. and the Conway membership ensures that.

Conway was tournament-tested before the 2013 BMW Championship. All of the tournaments that had been played there, though, were amateur events. There’s a big difference between a club hosting a top-level amateur event and a PGA Tour stop.

While the move from Cog Hill, in Lemont – the WGA’s 20-year site for its premier championship – to Conway Farms was a success, there was inevitable room for improvement in some areas. Those areas were addressed over the past two years as the 2014 BMW Championship was played at Cherry Hills in Denver. The many fans that go back to Conway Farms from Sept. 14-20 will notice the difference and appreciate the improvements.

Conway itself will look different. The club underwent a major renovation, the result making the facility much more spectator-friendly. Seating around the 18th green has been doubled and there’s expanded viewing at Nos. 1, 2, 7, 9, 11 and 17. The Beer Garden has also been doubled in size and cart paths have been widened to improve spectator traffic around the course.

Players fortunate enough to qualify will find the practice facility enhanced. Billy Horschel won at Cherry Hills, so he’ll be the tournament’s defending champion at Conway Farms – assuming, of course, he qualifies for the tournament.

Horschel also went on to claim the $10 million bonus awarded the winner of the FedEx Playoffs last year. The WGA, however, is using Johnson for promotional appearances in its return to Conway Farms and it never hurts to have the reigning British Open champion on hand for those duties. The first of those was throwing out the first pitch at a Cubs’ game at Wrigley Field two days after the 97th PGA Championship concluded at Whistling Straits in Wisconsin last month.

The move from Cog Hill to Conway Farms two years ago was a challenge for the WGA. Chicago’s golfing public had to be educated about where the tourney was going, and the event itself couldn’t have been more memorable. Vince Pellegrino, the WGA’s senior vice president, tournaments, can attest to that. The 2013 BMW Championship had a bit of everything.

“Record heat, frost, every weather pattern that week,’’ recalled Pellegrino. “Jim Furyk shooting a 59 when the average score for that day was par, oscillating balls on the first green, Hunter Mahan getting a hole-in-one, weather delays leading to a Monday finish, then Zach Johnson shooting 65 to win by two strokes.’’

The return to Conway may find that hard to match in terms of memorability.

In looking back, Johnson was no slouch leading into the 2013 BMW Championship; he had won the 2007 Masters and eight other PGA Tour events. But that year he was worried about surviving the third stage of the playoffs. He had put himself in jeopardy by skipping the first playoff event in New York to attend his brother’s wedding.

That family-based decision was understandable, but didn’t help his status in the FedEx point race. Johnson hadn’t won a tournament in 2013 until he got to Conway Farms. His rousing final round produced the victory that sent him to Atlanta, where he tied for seventh.

Since then he added a victory in the 2014 Hyundai Tournament of Champions in addition to his playoff win at the dramatic Open Championship at St. Andrews in Scotland in July. All eyes were on Jordan Spieth and his bid for a third straight major championship at St. Andrews, but Johnson nixed that. He won the title in a three-man playoff with Spieth one shot back.

Johnson and Spieth were also paired in the first two rounds of last month’s PGA Championship, with then world No. 1 Rory McIlroy making it a spectacular threesome. Johnson was odd man out in that group. He missed the 36-hole cut, while Spieth outdueled McIlroy head-to-head and went on to wrest the No. 1 spot in the Official World Golf Rankings from him with a second place finish in the last of the year’s four major championships.

Spieth, beaten by Australian Jason Day at Whistling Straits, and most of the other top stars figure to battle again at Conway Farms – third stop of the FedEx Playoffs. It’ll have the top 70 players in the FedEx standings after the first two events are completed.

The Playoff started with The Barclays event, which was held Aug. 27-30 in New Jersey. The second event is the Deutsche Bank Championship from Sept. 4-7 at TPC Boston in Massachusetts, where the playoff survivors will be cut to 70 for the Conway Farms test. The 70 playing at Conway will be reduced to 30 players for The Tour Championship Sept. 24-27 at East Lake, in Atlanta.

All four of the no-cut playoff events have prize funds of $8.25 million so — while the field at Conway won’t be set until after the event in Boston is over — the incentive for the top players to compete in Lake Forest again is extremely high.

“We certainly expect this year’s to be as highly successful and well-attended as that (last) one was,’’ said Pellegrino. That means another big payoff for a most worthwhile cause.

Since the BMW replaced the Western Open as the WGA’s tour stop in 2007 the tournament has raised more than $19.6 million for the Evans Scholars Foundation, which is financing the college education of 870 caddies this year.

A new event, the Evans Scholars Cup involving teams from 28 Chicago area clubs, will be played on Monday of tournament week at Conway. Tuesday is reserved for practice rounds and Wednesday for the Gardner Heidrick Pro-Am. Tournament rounds are Thursday through Sunday, with 11:30 a.m. starts planned for the first two days and 7:30 a.m. teeoffs for the weekend rounds.

Unlike 2013, the WGA has set an attendance limit for this year’s BMW. Crowds will be limited to 27,000 to help create a better spectator experience. The third-round crowd hit 35,000 at Conway two years ago.

Golf Channel will televise the first two rounds and will share broadcast duties with NBC on the weekend rounds. The 70 players will play for a purse of $8.25 million with the champion receiving $1,485,000.

Only eight other Illinois PGA players have matched Billiter’s feat

Illinois PGA president Jim Opp presents IPGA Championship trophy to Merit Club’s Jim Billiter.
Jim Billiter and Matt Slowinski were cart partners in Wednesday’s final round of the 93rd Illinois PGA Championship. Slowinski called it “a good pairing’’ and said they had a “great time.’’

It was Billiter, though, who hung on to claim the $10,000 first prize in the first big tournament played on Medinah Country Club’s No. 1 Course since Michigan architect Tom Doak completed a major renovation project on it.

Slowinski, the head professional at Conway Farms in Lake Forest, started the round three strokes behind Billiter, an assistant pro at Merit Club in Libertyville. That deficit was gone in two holes, as Slowinski opened with two birdies and Billiter went par-bogey.

“I had to birdie No. 3 or it would have been a different story, maybe,’’ said Billiter, who lost sole possession of the lead and then got it back in a hurry when Slowinski made bogey at No. 3 after Billiter nearly holed his chip shot on the par-4, settling for a tap-in birdie.

Billiter kept the lead the rest of the way but had to do some nifty scrambling to do it. On three straight holes (Nos. 10, 11 and 12) he hooked his tee shots into the trees but managed to punch out his second shots and salvaged pars each time.

“That was the whole tournament right there,’’ said Billiter. “I had no right making par on any of those holes. I deserved to make bogeys.’’

It wasn’t just a Billiter-Slowinski duel. Travis Johns, teaching pro at Medinah and one of the host club’s three pros to survive the 36-hole cut, shot the best score of the final round – a 4-under-par 67. Playing in the group ahead of Billiter and Slowinski, Johns pulled within one shot on the back nine but couldn’t get any closer.

In the end Billiter settled for a shaky 70 and a 9-under-par 204 score for the 54 holes. Slowinski shot 69 and finished two strokes back in second while Johns was another swing back in third.

“I knew it was going to be hard to catch Jim,’’ said Slowinski. “When he hit bad shots he was still making pars. He just didn’t let anyone get close. He kept doing his thing.’’

The victory basically completes a great year for the 29-year old Billiter, who is in his 10th season at Merit Club. He won the IPGA Match Play title in the spring, and is now one of only nine players to capture both of those major IPGA crowns in the same year. Last to do it was Illinois coach Mike Small in 2007. Small, winner of the IPGA Championship the previous two years and 11 times overall, never was in the mix this time. He finished tied for seventh.

Billiter, despite winning two of the four majors put on annually by the IPGA, will be hard-pressed to be its Player of the Year because he didn’t play in the Illinois Open and won’t play in the season-ending IPGA Players Championship next month. His duties with a major charity outing at Merit Club annually keeps him out of the Illinois Open, and this year the club members are taking Billiter along on a trip to Scotland when the Players Championship is played at Eagle Ridge in Galena. Billiter has no regrets.

“That’s (the Scotland trip) a once in a lifetime thing. It’s going to be great,’’ he said.

The IPGA Championship also served as a qualifier for the PGA Professionals Championship. The top nine finishers earned spots and Katie Pius, assistant pro at Biltmore in Barrington and the only woman in the field, was in the mix after two rounds.

Pius, who is four months pregnant, was bidding to become only the fourth woman to qualify for the club professionals’ national championship and the first one from the Illinois Section to do it. She was tied for 13th place after 36 holes, then shot 78 on Wednesday and finished in a tie for 28th.

Streelman, Wilson, Donald aim for spots at Conway Farms

Kevin Streelman, Mark Wilson and Luke Donald all survived The Barclays, first tournament of the PGA Tour’s lucrative FedEx Cup Playoffs but this week’s challenge means much more to those Chicago-connected players.

The Barclays brought the top 125 players in the FedEx rankings after the 47 regular season tour events to New Jersey. This week’s Deutsche Bank Classic, which tees off on Friday in Boston, takes only the top 100 and the top 70 after its conclusion on Monday get to play in Chicago’s event – the BMW Championship Sept. 17-20 at Conway Farms in Lake Forest.

As was the case at The Barclays, there’ll be a 36-hole cut in Boston. There’ll be no cut at the BMW or the series-ending Tour Championship in Atlanta. All four tournaments have an $8.25 million purse and the series winner gets an additional $10 million bonus.

So, big money is on the line for Streelman, Wilson and Donald. Streelman, who grew up in Wheaton, is in the best position going to Boston. He’s No. 65 in the FedEx standings but will most likely need to survive the cut there to stay in the top 70.

Wilson, who lives in Elmhurst, and Donald, the former Northwestern star and a Conway Farms member, need to do better than that. Both were up to the first challenge at The Barclays. Wilson and Donald tied for 24th place there. Wilson was ranked No. 114 going in and is now 85th in the standings while Donald was No. 119 going in and is now 87th.

Jordan Spieth, the Masters and U.S. Open champion who missed the cut at The Barclays, remains No. 1 on the FedEx point list while Jason Day, the PGA Championship and Barclays winner, is No. 2. British Open champion Zach Johnson, who will defend his title at the BMW Championship, is No. 11.

The Chicago-based Western Golf Assn. conducts the BMW Championship but will have another playoff event to handle before that. The WGA also conducts the Hotel Fitness Championship, first event of the four-tournament Web.com Tour Playoffs at Sycamore Hills in Fort Wayne, Ind. Its 72-hole run begins on Thursday.

Players ranked from 126-200 in the PGA Tour’s FedEx Cup standings will join the top 75 from the Web.com Tour season money list at Sycamore Hills. The field there also includes an Illinois-based trio – Scott Langley, Luke Guthrie and D.A. Points.

Dilemma for International Crown

The second staging of the UL International Crown, the Ladies PGA team event coming to Rich Harvest Farms in Sugar Grove next year, could be a bit different than the first playing in Baltimore in 2014. Spain, winner of the first Crown, isn’t qualified for the second yet.

The top eight countries on the Rolex World Ranking on April 4 will be in the next International Crown. Spain is now ranked ninth, behind – in order – Korea, the United States, Japan, Australia, Sweden, Chinese Taipei, Thailand and England. Each country will have four players, but they won’t be finalized until the rankings are announced on June 13.

Rich Harvest owner Jerry Rich hosted a one-year-out kickoff for the 2016 Crown last week. Weekly tickets for the July 19-24 event are now on sale and volunteer registration is open, both by visiting www.ULCROWN.com.

Here and there

The 93rd Illinois PGA Championship concludes its 54-hole run on Wednesday on Medinah’s No. 1 course. Mike Small, the Illinois men’s coach, is going for his third straight victory and 12th in 15 years but he’ll need a hot round after a 72-73 start left him well back in the pack – 11 strokes behind leader Jim Billiter, assistant pro at Merit Club in Libertyville. Billiter, who shot a 66 on Tuesday, is at 8-under-par 134 and owns a three-stroke lead over Matt Slowinski, the head pro at Conway Farms.

Small’s Illini team, ranked No. 1 in GolfWeek’s preseason coaches poll, opens its season at Rich Harvest in the two-day Northern Intercollegiate tourney Sept. 12-13 hosted by Northern Illinois University.

Thomas Detry, who won the 2012 NCAA title while playing for Illinois, captured the Czech Masters on the European PGA Tour last week. That boosted his world ranking 104 places, to No. 141.

Chadd Slutzky, of Deer Park, won the Illinois State Mid-Amateur title last week at Flossmoor Country Club, beating defending champion Andrew Price, of Lake Bluff, in a three-hole aggregate score playoff.

The Chicago District Golf Assn. will hold its Better Ball of Pairs Championship next Tuesday at Kemper Lakes in Long Grove.

Inkster, Stephenson are both Legends champions at French Lick

Juli Inkster (left) and Jan Stephenson celebrate big victories on The Legends Tour.

FRENCH LICK, Ind. – Two of the greatest names in the history of women’s golf were champions again on Sunday in The Legends Championship, played on the rugged Pete Dye Course at French Lick Resort.

Juli Inkster won the main tournament for players who have passed their 45th birthday. Jan Stephenson took the Super Legends title, an eight-player competition for past stars who have passed their 63rd birthday.

The titles both represented milestones for players who have already achieved so much as LPGA competitors. Inkster won for the first time on the Legends circuit after finishing second in her previous two tournaments. Stephenson, who recently turned 63, triumphed in her first Super Legends event.

Inkster carded a 4-under-par 68 on Sunday, giving her a 36-hole total of 5-under 139 for the tournament and a two-shot win over Trish Johnson. Stephenson, playing from slightly shorter tees, finished even par 144 for the tournament and won by eight over her playing partner, Judy Dickinson.

“Winning can never get old,’’ said Stephenson. “Competing with Juli is impossible for me now, so this was so much fun. And it was really emotional for me. It was for my mom. She passed away earlier in the month.’’

Stephenson debated playing in the more lucrative division, but decided that making her debut in the Super Legends Division made more sense.

“I’ll probably go back and forth, but this was such a hard golf course and it was our big championship,’’ she said. “I really wanted the trophy to jump out of the box. Plus, I had to go back to Australia and didn’t practice. I only arrived back this week. I didn’t feel match-fit.’’

Winning the trophy in her Super Legends debut was a satisfying reward, but Inkster was the big winner. She took home a check for $37,7s00 from the event’s $300,000 purse. Stephenson’s winning check was for $5,000.

Juli Inkster collects her hardware from French Lick head pro Deven Trueblood and director of golf Dave Harner.

Inkster has been focusing on her duties as the U.S. Solheim Cup captain, and she hopes her victory will inspire her team against the Europeans in the upcoming matches in Germany.

“If a 55-year old can win, they can, too,’’ said Inkster. “This has been a tough year, and I’m really tired right now. I have an outing Tuesday in Detroit then I’ll be home for a week.’’

Before the Solheim Cup, however, she’ll take on her LPGA rivals in one of that circuit’s biggest events – the Evian Masters.

Inkster, in the next-to-the-last group, got her game together on the back nine, just in time to hold off Johnson who was playing in the final twosome. They had gone into the final round tied for the lead with Johnson’s playing partner, Dame Laura Davies.

“I wasn’t playing very well on the front side,’’ said Inkster, “but I birdied 13, 15, 17 and 18. That won the tournament for me. I stayed patient and started hitting it a lot better. I had no idea where I was in the tournament. I just tried to keep making birdies. It was good to win. I feel good.’’

The Inkster-Johnson duel came down to the final two holes. Inkster hit the par-4 17th with a 3-wood and 9-iron, setting up a birdie putt. Johnson made birdie behind her. Light rain started to fall as Inkster made her birdie and continued as she played No. 18, a par-5. She got up and down for her final birdie there, then the rain got heavier. That didn’t help Johnson, who three-putted the finishing hole for a bogey.

That handed the title to Inkster, whose 68 was the best round of the day. Pat Hurst, who tied with 2013 champion Lori Kane for third place, shot 69 on Sunday while Johnson posted a 70. Laurie Rinker, the defending champion, made an early run with three birdies on her first eight holes before dropping back. She finished eight strokes back in a tie for 12th.

Sponsor banners, way more numerous than previous years, were everywhere at the Pete Dye Course.

Legends’ leaderboard is loaded for shootout in final round

Dame Laura Davies, one of the first-round leaders in The Legends Championship, hits her first tee shot.

FRENCH LICK, Ind. – Sunday’s final round of The Legends Championship is loaded at the top of the leaderboard with eight players within one shot at the top of the leaderboard.

That select group includes a recently named World Golf Hall of Famer (Dame Laura Davies), a recently-named Legends Hall of Famer (Rosie Jones), the current U.S. Solheim Cup captain (Juli Inkster) and the first winner of The Legends Championship in 2013 (Canadian Lorie Kane).

Defending champion Laurie Rinker is four shots back in a tie for 19th place and needs a great round on Sunday to climb the leaderboard. Last year she produced a 66 under a similar set of circumstances at the Pete Dye Course at French Lick Resort.

“If someone (among the top seven in the first round) can go out and shoot 66 or 67, that would be hard to beat,’’ said Davies, one of three co-leaders after Saturday’s round. Davies, Inkster and England’s Trish Johnson all shot 1-under-par 71s.

Wendy Doolan, Christa Johnson, and Maggie Will join Jones and Kane at par 72.

Jones, coming off an emotional induction ceremony for The Legends Hall of Fame the night before, will likely be more relaxed for the final 18.

“I was more worried about my speech than my putting before this week,’’ she said. “Now that that’s over I can concentrate on what happens on the golf course.’’

The other 57 in the field should beware of Jones. She said as much to conclude her induction speech on Friday night.

“When you go out of the dinner telling the girls to `Watch their backs,’ I kind of set myself up,’’ said Jones. “but I was able to back that up with a decent round, and I feel I’m right there.’’

So is Inkster, who played well despite having to concentrate on her captaincy duties for next month’s Solheim Cup matches in Germany.

“Every night there’s something I’ve got to do,’’ she said, “but it’s been very fun. I’m enjoying the journey. It’s stressful, but I’m looking forward to getting it going.’’

Though she’s tied for the lead, Inkster called her first round over the rugged Pete Dye Course “very sloppy.’’

“You’ve got to hit the fairway. That’s the key,’’ she said. “The speed on my putting wasn’t very good. I’ve got to clean that up before tomorrow.’’

Lori Kane, the Legends’ 2013 champion at French Lick, while the 2014 winner, Laurie Rinker, looks on.

Trish Johnson, winner of the Scottish Open just a year ago, finished strong Saturday and was the first to post a score under par. She did it by putting a 9-iron from 130 yards to three feet for a birdie at No. 17 and then two-putted the par-5 18th for a concluding bird.

“There were some real tough pins,’’ she said, “though the course played a lot softer than it had before. I hit the ball really well, and you needed to do that.’’

The tournament within a tournament for Super Legends, players 63 and older, isn’t quite as top-heavy on the leaderboard. Jan Stephenson, playing her first event as a Super Legend, shot a solid 73 to take a two-stroke lead over Judy Dickinson. Jane Blalock, last year’s Super Legend winner, is four shots behind Stephenson. The Super Legends played a slightly shorter course that the others in the field.

“I felt since I was a Super Legend I could shoot low because you hit a lot of wedges,’’ said Stephenson, “but there were also a lot of blind shots.’’

Defending Legends champion Laurie Rinker takes aim on an approach shot at No. 5.

Stephenson, who is also introducing her new brand of wine at the tournament, was excited about turning 63 and eligible for the senior division.

“I feel like a rookie. It’s a powerful feeling, and that’s great,’’ she said. “I’m excited about it. Maybe I could make more money the other way (in the regular Legends competition), but I really want a trophy.’’

Blalock, who plays in just three tournaments a year while running the Legends Tour as its executive director, played a solid 10 holes and than ran a 30-foot putt off one of the super undulating greens.

“I had 30 feet coming back. That unnerved me a little,’’ said Blalock. “But I’ll have a refreshment and think about it. I won’t practice. I was nervous most of the day, but I’m just as competitive and feisty as ever.’’

Sunday’s schedule calls for play beginning off both the Nos. 1 and 10 tees at 8 a.m.

Past champs paired in Legends’ final twosome of Round 1

FRENCH LICK, Ind. – The pre-tournament festivities ended Friday night. Now 58 members of the LPGA Legends Tour will battle for two days in the circuit’s biggest tournament over the Pete Dye Course at French Lick Resort.

Players arrived here in time for practice rounds on Thursday and Friday was devoted to the day-long pro-am competition. That preceded the evening’s Champions Dinner and Hall of Fame Induction, during which JoAnne Carner and Rosie Jones were added to the select group.

As for the competition in the $300,000 championship, it all starts at 8 a.m. on Saturday when Karen Davies and Joan Pitcock, the survivors of Thursday’s qualifying round, are the first twosome off the tee. Fifty-six more players will follow them with the last group starting play at 12:40 p.m. That last group will be a special one – 2014 champion Lori Kane and the defending champion, Laurie Rinker.

Rinker is coming off a big win in the LPGA Teaching Division and Club Professional National Championship earlier in the week in Florida. That was a tournament she almost didn’t enter.

“I considered not playing,’’ she said, “but I felt I had enough experience on this (Pete Dye) course. Plus, we’re professionals here and it’s much easier transitioning from slow greens to fast greens. So, I’ll be fine.’’

She’s been very much fine over the last two Legends Championships on the Pete Dye Course, having finished second to Kane in the first one before her win last year when the tourney was reduced from 54 to 36 holes by bad weather on Sunday.

Kane needed a 3-under-par 213 for her victory in the first year of the Legends Championship. Rinker shot 71-66 for her win. This year’s tournament will be played over 36 holes.

The Champions Dinner is always a highlight of Legends Week at French Lick, which also hosted the Senior PGA Championship for the men in the spring when Colin Montgomerie won the title.

Carner and Jones join a great group of previous inductees. The original class included Louise Suggs, Mickey Wright and Betsy Rawls – all winners of LPGA tournaments at French Lick from 1958-60 – plus Kathy Whitworth and Jan Stephenson. Last year’s inductees were Legends executive director Jane Blalock and Nancy Lopez. The Hall is located at the West Baden Springs Hotel near the Pete Dye Course.

Whitworth handled induction honors for Carner, who was most appreciative of her selection.

“It’s wonderful,’’ she said. “It makes all your work worthwhile. My career was a long, long one.’’

Carner, who won five U.S. Amateur titles and two U.S. Women’s Opens, didn’t turn pro until 1970, when she was 30 years old. She’s still a regular competitor on the Legends circuit and will captain the U.S. team in the Junior Solheim Cup matches in Germany next month.

Also most intrigued by the chance to play in her first Legends Championship was Jane Geddes, who recalled her first visit to French Lick in 2008. She was working as a staffer for the LPGA then, following a successful playing career, and hadn’t been back since.

“I came with Carolyn Bivens (former LPGA commissioner), and the (Pete Dye Course) was just being seeded,’’ said Geddes. “We liked the facility and it’s fun to see how the course is now. It’s also amazing to see just how the town as grown since then. It’s just delightful. You can feel it.’’

Beneficiary of the tourney, presented by Old National Bank, is again Riley Children’s Foundation.

Rinker is ready to defend her Legends title at French Lick


FRENCH LICK, Ind. — The Legends Championship tees off at the Pete Dye Course at French Lick Resort this week, and the defending champion is ready. Laurie Rinker arrived at 3 a.m. on Wednesday, in time for a Thursday practice round.

She may be a bit on the tired side after enduring a weather delay in Orlando, Fla., but there’s no question her game is in shape. Rinker posted a four-stroke victory in the LPGA Teaching & Club Professionals National Championship on Wednesday on the Palmer Course at Reunion Resort in Florida.

“The green speed at Reunion was about seven, so I’ve got to get my touch back here for these faster greens,’’ said Rinker.

Rinker posted a 9-under-par 207 over 54 holes for her win at Reunion. It was highlighted by a final round 65.

“I started making some putts,’’ she said. “I was in the second-to-last group the last day and shot 5-under (31) on the back nine with birdies at 16 and 18 from three feet.’’

Golf doesn’t get much better than that. Rinker had a similarly hot round en route to her title at The Legends Championship last year. Runner-up to Canadian Lorie Kane in the tourney’s first staging in 2013, Rinker backed up an opening round 71 with a 66 last year to take the lead.

Sherri Steinhauer, posted a second round 63 – the course record, man or woman – to move into contention but steady rain and thick fog forced the cancellation of the final round and Rinker was declared the winner.

“I had played well both days,’’ said Rinker. “My score on Saturday was good, but it didn’t look as good as Sherri’s 63. But that happens in tournaments. It wasn’t necessarily the way I wanted to win, but I was happy to win. I felt good about playing on Sunday. I felt my game was in good shape.’’

She won’t have to beat Steinhauer to retain her title, Steinhauer being sidelined with a broken ankle, but Rinker will have to battle the likes of Solheim Cup captain Juli Inkster, recently named World Golf Hall of Famer Dame Laura Davies, Michelle McGann and Jane Geddes. Inkster and Geddes are making their French Lick debuts and McGann is in her first season on The Legends Tour.

Banners are everywhere in this little southern Indiana town in support of the LPGA Legends Tour.

That’s all good news for Jane Blalock, the tour’s executive director who had her own special memories from last year’s tournament. Not only did Blalock win the Super Legends Division for the circuit’s older stars, she was also inducted into the Legends Hall of Fame, which housed at the West Baden Springs Hotel here. That was a career highlight for the woman who got the circuit started in 2000 and has enjoyed its steady growth.

“Our tour is doing great, but we need to do better – and we will,’’ said Blalock. “The field at French Lick is a who’s who, and that’s in contrast to some other tours. Even the LPGA doesn’t have the names that are as recognizable as those who will be walking the fairways here this week.’’

While pleased with The Legends’ growth, Blalock expects even greater things now that the U.S. Golf Assn. has agreed to add a U.S. Women’s Senior Open to its championship schedule in 2018. French Lick officials are hoping to host the first championship, and the USGA will have representatives on the premises to check out the possibilities during The Legends Championship.

“We’d been working on getting that tournament for about 15 years and it had fallen on deaf ears,’’ said Blalock. “Some of those seeds for it were sewn here at French Lick. The idea had been ignored for a long time, but now that’s over and having a U.S. Women’s Senior Open will totally put us on the map.’’

The Legends Championship’s 58-player field was completed on Thursday when Karen Davies, of Scottsdale, Ariz., and Joan Pitcock, of Fresno, Calif., were the survivors of a qualifying round. Davies posted a 71 and Pitcock, who needd two playoff holes to earn her spot in the field, shot 73.

Others used the day to practice in beautiful weather on the Dye Course. Friday’s schedule calls for pro-ams with shotgun starts at 8 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. and the tournament Gala and Hall of Fame inductions will be held in the evening at a new location, the French Lick Springs Hotel. Rosie Jones and JoAnne Carner will be this year’s inductees.