Author: lenz

Staff departures put Illinois PGA in limbo

The Illinois PGA is in limbo heading into the first big month of the Chicago golf season. There’s no doubt about that.

Two key staffers, Jared Nowak and Lauren Moy, left the section during the winter and executive director Michael Miller replaced them both. Robert Duke took Nowak’s place as tournament director and Catherine Wagner will inherit most of Moy’s duties in a general office re-structuring.

Wagner will manage day to day operations of the IPGA Drive, Chip & Putt competition and be responsible for execution of current player development programming including the PGA Junior League. She will also help grow the IPGA Foundation programs. Both 24 year-olds are new to the Chicago area; Duke comes from Nashville, Tenn., and Wagner from Austin, Minn.

Those changes, though, were minor compared to the one necessitated by the next departure – that of Miller himself.

Jim Opp, the new IPGA president, announced Miller’s departure in a March 20 letter to the membership. After 27 years with the section, 20 of them as executive director, Miller accepted a position as executive director of the Southwest Section of the PGA.

Miller planned to oversee the transition for the IPGA until May 1 and his tentative starting date on his new job was May 4. Opp said he was in no hurry to name Miller’s successor. A lengthy search was expected after Miller’s departure.

“It’s definitely a little strange for both parties (himself and the IPGA), but this opportunity was too good to pass up,’’ said Miller.

The Illinois and Southwest are among 41 geographical sections of the PGA of America, which has about 28,000 members nation-wide. The Southwest encompasses all of Arizona and part of Nevada, including Las Vegas. It’s larger than the Illinois Section in terms of both geography and membership. The Illinois section has 850 members, the Southwest 1,350.

Illinois has a rich history. It’s considered a charter member of the PGA, with roots to the organization’s founding in 1916. Back then, though, the section encompassing the Illinois club professionals was called the Middle States Section. Illinois got its designation in 1922 and that section has had only three executive directors.

First to hold the job was Ken Boyce, who was in charge fro 1976 to 1988. He hired Miller as his tournament director in 1986. Miller left that post in 1989 to work for Pinnacle, a Libertyville-based marketing firm, but returned shortly after Vance Redfern replaced Boyce as executive director.

Redfern named Miller as his assistant, and Miller moved up to the head job when Redfern left to become associate athletic director at San Diego State University in 1995. The IPGA had a three-person staff when Miller was first hired in 1986. It now has six full-timers and two-three seasonal interns.

“Leaving was a difficult decision because this has pretty much been my whole career,’’ said Miller. “But this will be the next stage of my career – a bigger section with a little different culture. And the climate change doesn’t hurt, either.’’

The Illinois Section members are basically at individual clubs or public courses. Resorts form a much more significant segment of the Southwest Section membership. The Southwest Section post became available when Curt Hudek resigned last fall after seven years on the job. Miller began the interview process for that job in early January.

Under Miller’s direction the IPGA established the Illinois Golf Hall of Fame and a consumer golf show and played major roles in the organization of two PGA Championships (1999 and 2006) and the 2012 Ryder Cup, all played at Medinah Country Club. The youth skills competitions that were part of the ’99 PGA and Ryder Cup were so popular that the PGA took that concept to the national level.

The IPGA Foundation also flourished under Miller’s tenure, and developing a similar one for the Southwest Section will be a priority in his new job.

With his new base in Scottsdale, Ariz., Miller will face new projects that weren’t part of his Illinois duties. The Southwest Section runs a very active junior tour, conducting over 60 events. The Illinois PGA deferred those duties to the Illinois Junior Golf Assn. The Southwest Section also oversees a Golf Pass program, which offers discounted greens fees to residents in what’s considered the offseason there.

The IPGA did have a Golf Pass program that Miller considered “fairly successful’’ for four or five years, but it was discontinued when a consumer golf show was deemed a higher priority.

Miller was also instrumental in making changes in the Illinois Open, the section’s premier event. In January he announced that the event would have a new format and the 54-hole finals would be contested at two courses in an effort to spur more entries.

Under the new format there will be 258 finalists instead of 156 and Royal Melbourne, in Long Grove, and Hawthorn Woods Country Club will share hosting duties for the finals. All 54 holes were played at The Glen Club in Glenview last year. Miller said the changes came after two years of planning.

“I’m saddened that I won’t be here to see that through,’’ he said, “but a lot of good things are in place, the Foundation is strong and the tournament program is one of the best in the country. The timing (for his departure) is good because the busiest time for planning was from October until (the early spring). By April 1 everything was in place. Now it’s just a case of execution.’’

Public golfers can experience a Donald Ross creation at Ravisloe

I guess you can learn something every day. I thought I knew a bit about Donald Ross, the famed golf designer, but I didn’t realize he had designed only one public course in Illinois. That course is Ravisloe in Homewood, which went public when Claude Gendreau purchased the club in 2009.

Cheryl Justak, publisher of Golf Now! Chicago, and I had played Ravisloe during its 107 years as a private club (my lone round there was about 20 years ago). We were duly impressed by our long-planned return visit this week. The course was in great shape, the rough was so thick it was frequently difficult to find your ball and the greens and bunkers were both challenging and fun. The clubhouse was nice, too. All in all, a good experience.

A bit of history, though. Because Ross was such a prolific designer — 413 courses are listed in his portfolio — I just assumed his courses were not unusual in the Chicago area. They aren’t. According to the Donald Ross Society his name is also on Beverly, Bob O’Link, Calumet, Evanston, Exmoor, Hinsdale, Indian Hill, LaGrange, Northmoor, Oak Park, Old Elm and Skokie. All those are private clubs. Only Ravisloe is open to the public.

An old-style course, Ravisloe has modern touches.

Ross wasn’t the original designer of many of those courses, including Ravisloe, but he did perform renovations that – in many instances – led to him being declared the course designer. In the case of Ravisloe the club was founded in 1901. The Society says Ross did his renovation in 1915 but the club claims the bulk of the work was from 1917-19 and his fine-tuning continued until 1924.
You get a cheerful greeting as you enter Ravisloe.

All that is relatively unimportant, but it is noteworthy that public play is available on a course whose designer also created such famous masterpieces as Pinehurst No. 2 in North Carolina, Oak Hill in New York, Inverness in Ohio, Seminole in Florida, and Interlachen in Minnesota. A course he designed from scratch also now bears his name in French Lick, Ind.

You might guess I’ve been a huge Donald Ross fan for a long, long time. He’s by far my favorite of the old-time architects. Ravisloe, a par-70 that measures only 6,321 yards from the tips, has a bit of a quirky design. Nos. 2 and 3 are both par-5s and Nos. 6 and 7 are both par-3s. I can remember only two courses — in my 60 years playing golf — that had back-to-back par-5s and I can’t recall any that had back-to-back par-3s. There’s nothing wrong with either. It was just different, that’s all.

Ravisloe’s clubhouse is one of the very best at Chicago public courses.

Medinah will restore — not renovate — this Bendelow course


For reasons that have long escaped me, Tom Bendelow is still not in the World Golf Hall of Fame. He was the course architect that, perhaps more than any other, got golf started in the United States.

That’s especially evident in the Chicago area. Bendelow’s name has been on about 800 courses that were built from, roughly, 1895 to 1930. Most that have survived have been radically altered, among them Medinah’s famous No. 3 course that has hosted three U.S. Opens, two PGA Championships and the 2012 Ryder Cup matches.

Bendelow was the original designer of all three courses on the Medinah property in the 1920s. The No. 1 layout was renovated last year by Michigan architect Tom Doak. More extensive work has been done on No. 3 over the years to prepare that layout for its big tournaments, and Rees Jones was the latest architect to do the work there.

Superintendent Curtis Tyrrell is tackling another big project at Medinah.

Medinah’s No. 2 course, though, is one of the very, very few unvarnished Bendelow designs anywhere. It was built in 1924 and has been well-maintained – but not altered – since then.

With the Ryder Cup over and Doak’s work well-received on No. 1 – the new model of that course will host this year’s Illinois PGA Championship in August, the club is now focusing on No. 2. It won’t be renovated, though.

The course, little used for non-member play over the years, received somewhat of a last hurrah at this spring’s Medinah Patriot Day. It’ll remain open, as a family course, until late September and then it’ll be closed for over a year for a $3.5 million improvement.

Jones has prepared architectural plans, which didn’t involve the famous architect interjecting his own design style. Now Wadsworth, the long-established golf course construction company, will work with Medinah’s staff, headed by superintendent Curtis Tyrrell, to enhance No. 2. Unlike so many other courses around the country, Medinah doesn’t want to downplay what Bendelow created.

“We’re calling it a modified restoration,’’ said Tyrrell. “This is as true a Tom Bendelow design as you’re going to find. We’ll take some liberties with the tees and bunkers to improve things for today’s game. It’ll be a real thorough project.’’

Before the year is out there’ll be some significant tree removal and storm drainage work done. Things will get more intense next spring when all the greens, tees and bunkers are altered and bentgrass planted. There’s lots to like about what Bendelow created, and that’s to be revived – not replaced.

Even pre-restoration the No. 1 tee box at Medinah No. 2 has a lot to offer visually.

“The greens have shrunk. Due to some maintenance things they’ve been mowed smaller and lost a lot of their character,’’ said Tyrrell. “They’ve gone from intricate, unique shapes to small circles, and a lot of the bunkers have expanded through edging and weathering. They used to have nice movement to them. Now they’re big ovals. They’ve gotten bigger, and the greens have gotten smaller. And some bunkers have been filled in, and others have been added.’’

Jones sorted all that out through the use of old aerial photographs and other archival materials.

Suffice it to say that when the course re-opens it’ll look different – but more like it did in the Bendelow days.

“The greens will be unique,’’ said Tyrrell. “We won’t worry too much about how many hole locations we can get because the greens will almost double in size, and they’ll take on shapes that aren’t customary these days to what modern architects are building. They’ll take on a whole new flare.’’

Even now those greens still have lots of interesting humps and bumps that are largely missing on the Nos. 1 and 3 courses. Those humps and bumps will only be accentuated, Tyrrell said.

Unlike the other courses, there’s no need to change the routing or length of the holes on No. 2. The course will remain about 6,300 yards from the back tees.

“The course won’t get longer, but it will get shorter for certain levels of handicap players,’’ said Tyrrell. “We’ll be more than doubling the amount of tees. It can play as short as 4,000 yards from the junior tees and there’ll be a (tee) option for everybody.’’

The long par-4 eighth hole, with its big green-side bunker, is Medinah No. 2’s No. 1 handicap hole and it will remain a course highlight after the restoration is completed.

Tree removal is inevitable, though Tyrrell isn’t sure how many will come down and says new ones will be planted in some places.

“What we hope to do is open the course up for people to see the great routing rather than get walled off by rows of trees,’’ said Tyrrell. “It’s going to feel more open, and more of the trees that get taken out will be for agronomical purposes rather than restorative purposes.’’

The course has been frequently referred to as the “ladies’ course,’’ but that was never accurate. It was simply shorter than the other two Medinah layouts and therefore preferable for junior and family play.

“Everybody played it,’’ said Tyrrell, and that will continue after the “modified restoration.’’

And in the final days of its present state the No. 2 course will be readily evident to the area’s most devoted junior golfers. Medinah will host the PGA’s Drive, Chip and Putt regional tournament in September. It will send winners to next spring’s national finals prior to the Masters at Augusta National. The Drive, Chip and Putt event will be held on the driving range that is adjacent to the No. 2 course.

Medinah Patriot Day outing was something special

There doesn’t seem to be nearly as many golf charity events as there once was, but the Medinah Patriot Day outing certainly isn’t having any problems. In fact, after six years, it’s growing big-time.

I was among the 140 golfers that participated in Tuesday’s event on Medinah’s No. 2 course. Jim Cornelison highlighted the pre-golf luncheon with his signature rendition of the National Anthem, an experience made even more memorable when done Blackhawk-style in the confines of the club’s ballroom. More money was raised from a spirited auction, one item of which included two paintings.

The golf was delayed twice by rain – once before the round started and once while it was in progress – but the event was still an unqualified success. Mark Slaby, a Medinah member and the event founder, said this latest Medinah Patriot Day will gross over $200,000 to aid military families and that’s up from the $140,000 the event grossed last year.

“For a golf outing that was outstanding,’’ said Slaby. “Our message is being amplified. We sold out (the playing spots) 50 days in advance and I suspect that if you haven’t applied by February next year you’re not going to get in. We’re trying to get people to sign up quick.’’

These paintings were among the most popular items up for auction at the Patriot Day.

Slaby had to work through a Ryder Cup on Medinah’s No. 3 course and a Tom Doak renovation that closed the club’s No. 1 course. Next year No. 2 will be closed for a restoration (I’ll be reporting on the particulars in Facebook/lenziehmongolf).

Medinah Patriot Day, though, has awarded 67 scholarships over its first six years and now has a full-time executive director, Michael Ziener.

“We have an opportunity to take the event to another level,’’ said Slaby. “Next year we’ll be back on the No. 1 course and will try to expand to two courses, and by this time next year we’ll be over 100 scholarships.’’

Players in Medinah Patriot Day spent time on Medinah’s well-decorated putting green before teeing off.

Hallberg in Senior Open qualifier; IPGA competes at Shoreacres

Last week’s Senior PGA Championship in French Lick, Ind., was a big deal, but hardly a season-ender for the best 50-and-over players. Now they’ll compete much closer to home.

Barrington Hills hosts a sectional qualifier for the 36th U.S. Senior Open on Wednesday, and Gary Hallberg will head the field. Though he’s long been a Colorado resident, Hallberg grew up in Barrington before enjoying a successful career as a touring pro.

He’s one of the few players to have victories on the Web.com, PGA and Champions Tours and he qualified for all four rounds at French Lick, finishing in a tie for 58th place that earned him $5,058. Though he now plays a limited tournament schedule Hallberg, 58, has made the cut in all five of his starts this season.

Getting through Senior Open qualifying, though, will be a tough task. As was the case in last week’s U.S. Women’s Open sectional, there’ll only be two spots in the finals offered at Barrington Hills and 82 players are scheduled to compete.

The Chicago sectional is one of 34 held nation-wide to whittle the field from 2,445 entries. Seventy-nine of those entrants are exempt from sectional qualifying, among them Senior PGA winner Colin Montgomerie, Hinsdale Champions Tour regular Jeff Sluman and Tom Lehman, who will defend his title at the Encompass Championship at North Shore in Glenview in July. The Senior Open finals are June 25-28 at Del Paso in Sacramento, Calif.

A present-day Barrington golfer, Doug Bauman, will spend the week making a title defense in the Illinois PGA Senior Match Play Championship at Shoreacres in Lake Bluff. Bauman, the long-time head professional at Biltmore in Barrington, won his first title in the tournament at Merit Club in Libertyville last year.

The IPGA Senior Match Play started on Tuesday and will conclude on Thursday when semifinal matches are scheduled to tee off at 8 a.m. and the championship match at 11 a.m.

A milestone win for Ehrgott

John Ehrgott, from Edwards near Peoria, captured the first Chicago District Golf Association Mid-Amateur Championship conducted in a match play format last week. It had been a flighted tournament the previous 12 years.

Ehrgott cruised past Michael Natale of Indian Head Park 5 and 4 in the title match at Bowes Creek in Elgin. The win also made Ehrgott the first player to notch victories in both the Chicago District and Illinois State Mid-Amateur events.

In addition to the Senior Open sectional the CDGA will conducts its first qualifiers for the Chicago District Amateur this week. Eliminations will be held at both White Eagle in Naperville and Pontiac Elks on Thursday.

Here and there

The Arnold Palmer Cup will remain a men’s only match play battle between the U.S. and Europe when the competition is conducted at Rich Harvest Farms in Sugar Grove from June 12-14, but organizers have announced a change in format for 2018. Then an International side will replace the Europeans and both teams will include women players.

The NCAA Division I women’s tourney is winding down at Concession Club in Bradenton, Fl., and the men begin their six-day competition there on Friday with Illinois among the top contenders.

Elgin’s Carlos Sainz Jr. took a break from the PGA Tour to try to qualify for the U.S. Open at Iowa’s Harvester course. He shot 74 and is second alternate from that site to get into the sectional eliminations.

Golf Channel Academy is now in operation at Cog Hill in Lemont. Cog is one of 57 inaugural locations participating in the launch of the teaching program.

The Chicago Sky has scheduled its first charity tournament for June 15 at Wilmette. It’ll be a four-player scramble that will include a Beat the Pro closest-to-the-pin contest featuring LPGA veteran Nicole Jeray.

Arlington Lakes has announced a June 7 closing. That’s the last of the two-day Arlington Amateur and architect Mike Benkusky will then begin renovation work. The course is expected to re-open in June, 2016. Oak Meadows, in Addison, will close on July 6, setting the stage for a renovation supervised by architect Greg Martin that will likely be completed in the spring of 2017.

Jonathon Parsons has been named general manager at Schaumburg Golf Club.

Sluman’s charge comes up short against Montgomerie

FRENCH LICK, Ind. – Hinsdale’s Jeff Sluman made a run at the title in the final round of the 76th Senior PGA Championship on Sunday. After making five birdies in his first 10 holes Sluman even thought he had a chance to catch front-runner Colin Montgomerie.

“I just played excellent golf, which you have to do here,’’ said Sluman. “I certainly knew I was climbing the leaderboard. It’s a tough golf course, and you know there’s not going to be many people under par so – unless I’m a total idiot –I had to figure maybe I had an outside chance.’’

In the end, though, a 3-under-par 69 was too little too late for Sluman, who climbed from a tie for 24th at the start of the final round into a tie for seventh. He wound up nine strokes behind champion Montgomerie, who also finished with a 69 and won by four strokes over Esteban Toledo. The only lower score in the final round was a 68 by Marco Dawson, who tied for ninth.

The Pete Dye Course proved too much for most of the stars of the 50-and-over circuit. As was the case at the end of the second and third rounds, only five were under par at the end of the fourth. Montgomerie was at 8-under 280 in becoming only the fifth player to successfully defend a Senior PGA title. The other four were Eddie Williams in the 1940s, Paul Runyan (1961-62), Sam Snead (1964-65 and again in 1972-73) and Hale Irwin who enjoyed a three-peat from 1996-98.

A big gallery gathered at the No. 1 tee of the Dye Course as Colin Montgomerie (white shirt) and Bernhard Langer prepared for a duel that didn’t materialize.

Montgomerie had a series of near-misses in major championships during a solid career on the European and PGA Tours but was an instant success since joining the Champions Tour last year. In addition to making the Senior PGA his first major title he also won the U.S. Senior Open. Next year he’ll defend his Senior PGA crown on the same course he won on last year – Harbor Shores in Michigan.

Toledo cut Montgomerie’s three-stroke lead at the start of the day to one twice on the front nine but Montgomerie answered with four of his six birdies for the day coming between holes eight and 12.

“It was a difficult position to be three ahead. There was no place to go but down,’’ said Montgomerie. “It was very tiring mentally but after 12 I felt safe.’’

Another Montgomerie-Langer duel in Senior PGA finale

FRENCH LICK, Ind. – The Senior PGA Championship has been played for 75 years and only four players have successfully defended a title. Colin Montgomerie could be the fifth on Sunday.

The Scotsman enjoyed a solid career on the European and PGA Tours but never won a major title. That changed when he joined the Champions Tour last year. His first major win came at the Senior PGA at Harbor Shores in Michigan and he followed that with a victory in the U.S. Senior Open.

Now a Senior PGA repeat is a distinct possibility as Montgomerie takes a three-stroke lead on German Bernhard Langer into the final round on the tricky Pete Dye Course. They were paired all four rounds at Harbor Shores but Langer didn’t get into the mix here until Saturday when he fired a 3-under-par 69.

“I thought he’d re-appear some time,’’ said Montgomerie. “He’s a very difficult man to dislodge and he’s a very good friend. We’ve had lots of good matches together and I look forward to playing with him again.’’

The girls from the nearby German Cafe were loyal members of Bernhard Langer’s gallery.

Montgomerie was the focal point of Saturday’s third round. He posted a 70, topped off by a three-foot birdie putt on the finishing hole, to hit the 54-hole stop at 5-under 211. That put him in position to join some select company.

Two of the four players who have defended Senior PGA titles were three-peat champions – Eddie Williams (1942,1945 and 1946 — the tourney wasn’t played during World War II) and Hale Irwin (1996-98). The other successful defenses were mounted by Paul Runyan (1961-62) and Sam Snead, who did it twice (1964-65 and 1972-73).

“There’s a long road to go – seven miles in walking terms,’’ said Montgomerie, “and the emotions go up and down like a roller coaster.’’

He’ll have to get by Langer again, and Langer created major excitement on Saturday. He holed a 7-iron shot from 162 yards for eagle at No. 8, then cruised in with a birdie-birdie finish.

Set on the second-highest point in Indiana, the Pete Dye Course offered extraordinary views of the Senior PGA Championship.

Birdies and eagles have been hard to come by on the Pete Dye Course. Only one player was under par in Thursday’s first round and just five were in red numbers after the second, the fewest since 1986. Five were also under par after Round 3.

Scott Verplank, Esteban Toledo and Brian Henninger are one stroke behind Langer. Henninger was tied for the lead until he made triple bogey eight at the par-5 16th. He wasn’t the only one struggling. Reigning Encompass champion Tom Lehman, the 36-hole leader, shot 78 and dropped seven strokes off the pace and into a tie for 17th.

The two Chicago players in the field are further down the list. Hinsdale’s Jeff Sluman shot 73 and is tied for 24th and Lake Forest’s Chip Beck carded a 76 and is tied for 55th.

Lehman leads, Beck, Sluman survive on tricky Dye course

FRENCH LICK, Ind. – Scores were much higher than usual over the first two rounds of the 76th Senior PGA Championship at the Pete Dye Course, but not all the Champions Tour players were suffering.

Tom Lehman, who will defend his title in July’s Encompass Championship at North Shore in Glenview, claimed the 36-hole lead after posting a 5-under-par 67 on Friday and the two Chicago area players on the Champions circuit – Hinsdale’s Jeff Sluman and Lake Forest’s Chip Beck – made the cut in the second major championship of the year in the 50-and-over circuit.

Lack of red numbers on the leaderboard show how tricky Senior PGA players found Dye Course.

Most of the other 153 starters, however, were confounded by the six-year old Dye design that is hosting the event for the first time. Lehman, though, hit the halfway point in the tournament a 4-under 140. Scotland’s Colin Montgomerie, Lehman’s playing partner n the first two rounds and the tourney’s defending champion, is one stroke back

“It’s an incredibly beautiful place,’’ said Lehman, “and an amazing location to have this tournament. What Pete Dye does, more than anything, is challenge you mentally. He forces you to be patient.’’

Beck learned that lesson. He soared to 9-over-par for the tournament after his first nine on Saturday but played his last nine in 4-under-par 32 that included an eagle on the last hole. That put him at 5-over 149 for the first two rounds, which was well inside the cut line. Sluman, who matched Beck’s 73 on Friday, is two strokes better entering Saturday’s third round.

Lehman made five of his six birdies on the back nine to offset his lone bogey at No. 14. He posted a 32 on the back side.

French Lick major precedes North Shore title defense for Lehman

Tom Lehman, a long-time star on the Champions Tour, had plenty on his mind when he visited North Shore Country Club in Glenview this week. He’ll defend his title in the Encompass Championship there in July.

Before the title defense, however, Lehman will compete in three major championships on the popular circuit for 50-and-over players.

Last week he tied for fifth in the first of the five Champions Tour majors, the Regions Tradition in Alabama. This week he’s in the Senior PGA Championship on the Pete Dye Course in French Lick, Ind., and Lehman will also compete in two other designated majors – next month’s Constellation Senior Players Championship in Massachusetts and U.S. Senior Open in California — before returning to North Shore.

The majors are 72-hole tournaments. The Encompass is only 54, but Lehman, the only golfer to be named player of the year on three major tours (PGA, Champions and Web.com) believes North Shore makes the tournament special.

“It feels like a major, almost,’’ said Lehman. “I can’t think of many courses in the world that have what North Shore has in terms of tradition and ambiance.’’

It’ll be much different this week on the six-year old Dye Course at French Lick, which has already challenged the Senior PGA players in practice rounds this week.

Lehman didn’t check out the southern Indiana layout until Tuesday and didn’t go there with any negative thoughts.

“I love Pete Dye. I have a different take on Pete Dye courses than a lot of guys,’’ said Lehman. “I’ve always liked his courses and have always played well on them. When we get a chance to play on something like this one I look forward to it.’’

French Lick, roughly a five-hour drive from Chicago, hosted Walter Hagen’s win in the 1924 PGA Championship and was the site of two majors on the women’s tour – the LPGA Championships of 1959 and 1960. Those three tournaments were held on the resort’s Donald Ross Course. This week’s tourney will be the biggest event yet on the Dye Course.

In addition to his victory in the 1996 British Open Lehman has won three majors on the Champions Tour, among them the 2010 Senior PGA at Colorado Golf Club. Colin Montgomerie is defending champion this week, having won in last year’s staging at Harbor Shores in Michigan.

Hardy advances in U.S. Open

Illinois freshman Nick Hardy, from Northbrook, was the latest of four Illini golfers to earn a berth in U.S. Open sectional qualifying. Hardy advanced through Monday’s local qualifier at Flossmoor Country Club. Teammates Brian Campbell, Thomas Detry and Charlie Danielson survived earlier local eliminations.

As a team the Illini are coming off a victory in last week’s NCAA Regional tourney at Sangamore Club in Noblesville, Ind., where Campbell was the medalist. The Illini will battle for the NCAA title at Concession Club in Florida beginning on May 29.

In addition to Hardy four other Chicago area players qualified for U.S. Open sectional play. Tim Streng of Arlington Heights, Peter Kindstrom of McHenry, amateur Kyle Nathan of Glenview and Chicago’s Clint Rice survived a local elimination at Stonewall Orchard in Grayslake.

Here and there

Tournament director Mike Galeski announced four first-time participations in the Encompass Championship – Ian Woosnam, Marco Dawson, Jesper Parnevik and Jeff Maggert, winner of last week’s Regions Tradition. Celebrities who have committed to the team portion of the event include Brian Urlacher, Johnny Bench, Roger Clemens, Jermaine Dye, Mike Eruzione and Jeremy Roenick.

Club professionals Jim Sobb (Ivanhoe) and Leon McNair (Fox Bend in Oswego) and H. Chandler Egan, an amateur star in the early 1900s, have been selected as the next members of the Illinois Golf Hall of Fame. Induction ceremonies will be held in the fall at The Glen Club in Glenview.

Christina Foster, an amateur from Canada, was medalist in Monday’s U.S. Women’s Open sectional at Westmoreland in Wilmette. The only other qualifier for the July’s Women’s Open finals at Westmoreland was Elizabeth Nagel of DeWitt, Mich.

Pat Hickey is now on the teaching staff at Cantigny, in Wheaton. He had been working with Cantigny’s club-fitting and junior programs.

The Medinah Patriot Day outing is scheduled for Tuesday (MAY 26) on the club’s No. 2 course. Its playing spots sold out long ago but the C.H.A.M.P. Celebrity Pro-Am, on May 27 at Old Orchard in Mount Prospect, still has some playing spots available.

The Chicago District Golf Assn. Mid-Amateur Championship concludes its three-day run at Bowes Creek in Elgin on Wednesday and the Illinois Senior PGA Match Play Championship begins its three-day run at Shoreacres in Lake Bluff next Tuesday (MAY 26).

Billiter survives a week of surprises at IPGA Match Play

Illinois PGA president Jim Opp (left) presents Match Play trophy to champion Jim Billiter on the 18th green at Kemper Lakes.
Jim Billiter, a 10-year assistant pro at the Merit Club in Libertyville, won the 64th Illinois PGA Match Play Championship on Monday, climaxing a week in which nothing went as expected at Kemper Lakes in Long Grove.

The first major tournament of the Chicago season figured to be another duel between Curtis Malm, the head pro at White Eagle in Naperville who was bidding for his fourth straight title, and Medinah teaching pro Travis Johns, last year’s IPGA Player of the Year. Both were eliminated on Wednesday, when Billiter beat Johns and Malm was ousted by Scott Baines, an assistant at Chicago’s Bryn Mawr club.

In fact, none of the top seven seeded players qualified for Thursday’s morning semifinals in which Billiter beat Simon Allan, head pro at Prestwick in Frankfort, and Brian Brodell, new teaching pro at Mistwood in Romeoville, survived a 19-hole match with Kyle Bauer, head pro at Glen View Club.

The Billiter-Brodell final also had a surprise ending on the winner’s 29th birthday. The end came on the third hole of a sudden death playoff that began when Billiter put his 8-iron tee shot in the water on a 171-yard par-3.

That put Brodell in a good spot to close out the match, but he couldn’t do it. His 7-iron tee shot bounded over the green and into thick rough.

“When I shanked it in the water I thought it was over,’’ admitted Billiter, “but then when I saw him hit it long I knew I still had a chance because he had a real delicate shot.’’

Billiter put a 90-yard shot from the drop area to six feet of the cup, then watched Brodell chunk his first chip shot and run his second four feet past the cup. Billiter holed his put for bogey, and that was good enough to win the match after Brodell missed.

“A sad way to end it,’’ said Brodell, who came to Mistwood last September to work with the club’s junior programs after serving as assistant coach for both the men’s and women’s teams at Purdue University. “I hit the same club on that hole as I did in the morning match, the wind was the same and I expected a two-putt uphill and the match was mine. Then all of a sudden my shot flew long and I had one bad chip.’’

Billiter won the Illinois PGA Assistants Match Play Championship last year, which had been his biggest win prior to Thursday. He won the first two holes against Brodell but lost the lead six holes later and needed to sink an eight-foot birdie putt on the last hole of regulation to force the playoff.