Deerfield product Vince India has been struggling as a rookie on the PGA’s satellite Web.com Tour this year, but he didn’t struggle on Monday in a local qualifier for the U.S. Open.

The former University of Iowa golfer shot a 10-under-par 61 to earn medalist honors in a local qualifier at Waterlefe, in Sarasota, FL. India played there because it was close to his new residence in Lakewood Ranch, FL. India moved there after obtaining playing privileges at the Concession Club, the site of the annual Big Ten Match Play Championship.

Concession is also the home course for former PGA champion Paul Azinger and Tony Jacklin, the former U.S. and British Open champion. The name of the course was inspired by Jacklin, in honor of a memorable Ryder Cup moment when Jack Nicklaus conceded him a short putt that led to the competition between the U.S. and Europe ending in a tie in 1969. Last month Concession hosted a new team event, the Concession Cup, which pitted amateur teams from the U.S. and Europe against each other.

“This is my third winter (at Concession), and Paul Azinger’s been quite the mentor to me,’’ said India, the Illinois Amateur champion in 2010. “It’s helped for me to play at a facility that’s in major championship condition every day.’’

India didn’t survive the 36-hole cut in the rain-hampered South Georgia Classic, last week’s Web.com Tour event at Kinderlou Forest in Valdosta, Ga.. He spent time with Azinger working on his alignment after heading to Florida and it paid off in the Open qualifier.

“I’d rather have the 61 in a tournament where they pay some cash out,’’ said India. “I’ve been struggling to post a number like this on the Web.com Tour this year.’’

Still, the hot round was six strokes better than his nearest rival and put him in the sectional stage of U.S. Open qualifying. Survivors of the 36-hole sectionals advance to the U.S. Open proper at Pinehurst, N.C., next month.

Malm bids for an historic three-peat

Curtis Malm became the first player in 25 years to defend a title in the Illinois PGA Match Play Championship last year. His task will be even more historically significant when he goes for the three-peat beginning on Monday at Kemper Lakes in Long Grove.

The first of the IPGA’s four major tourneys was first held in 1952, and only two players have won three times in a row. The last was the late Bill Ogden, the long-time pro at North Shore in Glenview, who enjoyed his three-peat from 1970-72. Bob Harris, at Sunset Ridge in Northbrook, won six straight from 1958-63.

Malm is also bidding for his third straight IPGA Player-of-the-Year title. The only two who have won three straight in that category were Aurora’s Bob Ackerman (1987-89) and Steve Benson, then at Hillcrest in Long Grove (1980-82).

“A lot of neat stuff can happen this year,’’ said Malm. “This year could be fun.’’

He’s already leading the 2014 Player of the Year race after finishing third in both the season-opening Pro-Pro event and the Pekin stroke play. Next week, though, will be huge for Malm. Anticipating a first-round bye on Monday in the Match Play, he opted to enter the U.S. Open local qualifier that day at Knollwood in Lake Forest. Matches run at Kemper Lakes through Thursday.

Malm could have competed in Chicago’s other Open local, on Monday at George Dunne in Tinley Park, but preferred Knollwood after playing in the Royal Cup matches against Wisconsin’s assistant pros there last October. The George Dunne layout proved a tough test on Monday, with Garrett Chaussard, a teaching pro at Cog Hill in Lemont, the only player under par with a 1-under-71.

He led five qualifiers into next month’s sectional eliminations while Malm prepared for his big week. Though a top local player since winning the Illinois Open in 2000, Malm has yet to qualify for a U.S. Open.

A sidelight to Malm’s bid for local golf history this season also involves a job change. He was an assistant at St. Charles Country Club the last two years before taking the head job at White Eagle in Naperville during the winter.

“I’ve just been trying to get used to a new place,’’ he said, “but the members have been great. They’ve embraced my playing ability and tournament schedule.’’

Illini going to Rich Harvest

Illinois’ men couldn’t extend their Big Ten title run, finishing second to Minnesota in the league tournament at Indiana’s French Lick course on Sunday, but the Illini were awarded a good location for NCAA regional play on Monday. The Illini were assigned the No. 2 seed in the May-15-17 elimination at Rich Harvest Farms in Sugar Grove.

The top five teams at that 54-hole test will advance to the finals May 23-28 at Prairie Dunes in Kansas. Illinois (No. 8) is the only nationally-ranked team in the Big Ten. Coach Mike Small’s team finished second to Alabama in last year’s NCAA finals.

Northwestern was given the No. 10 seed in the regional at Briggs Ranch in San Antonio, Tex. Notre Dame’s Niall Platt was named one of five individual qualifiers at Rich Harvest.

Medinah event sold out

The fifth annual Medinah Patriots Day outing on May 27 is already a sellout. Tournament chairman Mark Slaby said over 200 players will participate on Medinah’s No. 2 course.

“The event’s growing, and we’re already taking reservations for next year when we go to Course One,’’ said Slaby. Medinah’s No. 1 layout is being renovated and won’t open until June.

Medinah Patriots Day is held to support families of Illinois military service men and women who lost their lives or were disabled in service to their country. Sixty-two scholarships and over 4,000 backpacks have already been provided to needy families thanks to proceeds from the event.

The PGA Tour changed its qualification procedures last year, relegating its brutal 90-hole fall Q-School tournament to offering only spots on the satellite Web.com Tour in 2014. The new format, though, resulted in unprecedented success for Chicago players.

Rarely did a local golfer make it through Q-School to the PGA Tour under the older format, but three – Vince India (Deerfield) Andy Pope (Glen Ellyn) and Carlos Sainz Jr. (Elgin) — survived under the new one. They entertain hopes of playing their way on to the big circuit in 2015 via the Web.com circuit.

The trio has been in all seven Web.com events this year, five of which were held outside the U.S. border, and had only modest success. Pope, who attended Glenbard West and Xavier University, had the best tournament showing with a tie for 15th in last week’s weather-shortened WNB Classic in Midland, Tex. His payday there accounts for $10,200 of his $12,325 season winnings.

India, who won the 2010 Illinois Amateur at Chicago’s Beverly Country Club and was the Big Ten’s player-of-the-year for Iowa in 2011, has been the most consistent. He made the cut in five of the seven tournaments but has faltered on the weekends. His $8,673 in winnings is good for only 108th on the tour’s season money list, 14 spots behind Pope.

Sainz, from Larkin High School and Mississippi State University, was the best of the trio at Q-School with a 10th place finish. He was a hot player at the right time in late 2013 when – in a month’s stretch – he won The Players Cup on the PGA’s Canadian Tour, lost the Illinois Open title in a playoff at The Glen Club in Glenview and then won the Chicago Open at Cantigny in Wheaton, where he had worked the pro shop during his college days.

Those strong showings gave him momentum for Q-School, where he shot a final-round 63, but it didn’t carried over to 2014. Though he’s made only three cuts and $5,248 in seven starts Sainz made Web.com history when he holed a 250-yard second shot for a double eagle in the first round of the Chile Classic. It was the first albatross in the tourney’s three-year history.

All three players will be in the field for this week’s South Georgia Classic, played for the last seven years on one of the tour’s most respected courses – Kinderlou Forest in Valdosta, Ga. The field will be stronger, too, with John Daly and Lee Janzen – both winners of two major championships – joining such veteran tourists as Billy Mayfair, Jesper Parnivik, Dicky Pride, Hunter Haas and Rod Pampling.

Bob Spence, the first head professional at Kemper Lakes in Long Grove, supervised the building of Kinderlou Forest – a Davis Love III design that opened 10 years ago. Spence, back at Kinderlou for another design project, greeted the Chicago area trio upon their arrival.

Upgrades at Royal Melbourne

Jay Blasi, who assisted famed architect Robert Trent Jones Jr. on the construction of Chambers Bay – the new Washington course that will host the U.S. Open in 2015, is overseeing renovation work at Royal Melbourne in Long Grove. Tweaks are being made at the Nos. 8 and 17 holes but the most work is coming on the practice range.

A 4,200 square-foot green, a new green-side bunker and more fairway and rough turf are being added to allow for practice on longer approaches to the green. The work, to be completed by July 15, will permit more short-game instruction for both members and non-members at the Royal Melbourne Golf Academy.

The home explosion that damaged several homes near the course last week was only a minor problem for golfers. One nine was closed for a day to allow for removal of debris but it opened the following day.

Here and there

Northwestern, third in the Big Ten women’s tournament on Sunday, was given the No. 7 seed in the NCAA West Regional on Monday. NU will join defending NCAA champion Southern California in the 24-team field. Also headed to the West, to be played at Washington’s Tumble Creek course, are Wisconsin, seeded No. 16, and Notre Dame, No. 18. Illinois’ Amber Schuldt was given an individual berth in the Central Regional.

Two new charity events have been scheduled for May – the Wake Up Narcolepsy outing on May 10 at Whisper Creek in Huntley and the Champ Community Project Celebrity Pro-Am on May 28 at Old Orchard in Mt. Prospect. LPGA Tour player Nicole Jeray, who has coped with narcolepsy, will be featured at Whisper Creek.

The Golfsmith Demo Day will be held at Downers Grove Golf Club from 11 a.m.-3 p.m. on Saturday, and it’ll be followed by the nine-hole Spring Swing Scramble tournament.

A two-month series of fitness workshops hosted by Dr. Paul Callaway will begin at Cantigny next Tuesday.

Chicago golfers beware. In most years virtually all Chicago courses are in full swing by the time the Masters tournament tees off in April. This year that wasn’t the case, and that’s not all.

The Midwest Golf Course Superintendents Assn. is conducting a survey of its courses this week and executive director Luke Cella doesn’t expect the results to be encouraging.

“We estimate that 80 percent of the courses in the area have suffered some turf loss, some significant,’’ said Cella. “The area, like much of the country, experienced a record cold winter. As spring slowly churns its way out we are finding turf that did not survive. It won’t be uncommon for this damage to be apparent while superintendents and their staffs begin the recovery process.’’

Cella says that winter ice caused the problems easily visible on the courses that have opened, particularly those that have Poa annua on the greens. Those with bentgrass fared better.

“This ice lasted for more than 60 days – a length of time that was too long for Poa annua to survive,’’ said Cella. “Even though the plants are dormant in the winter, they still need oxygen to survive. When ice encases the plant for extended periods of time there’s a buildup of deadly gasses that suffocate the plant. Even courses that employed the use of covers on their greens experienced ice buildup underneath the covers. Those (courses where workers) went out to break the ice and remove it from the putting surfaces experienced damage, too.’’

The problems encompass both public and private courses. Temporary greens were in evidence at some of the courses while others delayed their openings. At least two of the most prominent – one public, one private – aren’t even open yet. Mistwood, the Romeoville home of the Illinois Women’s Open, won’t open until April 25. North Shore, the Glenview home of Chicago’s only pro tour stop of the year, has set a May 1 opening. That private facility will host the Champions Tour’s Encompass Championship beginning June 16.

According to a report issued to member clubs in the Chicago District Golf Association’s Illinois Turfgrass program last month, some courses are as much as a month behind in their preparations and most won’t be in optimal playing shape until June.

Conway Farms names Slowinski

The offseason has led to some major changes in the club professional ranks. The biggest has Matt Slowinski, the long-time assistant at Glen Oak in Glen Ellyn, moving to Conway Farms in Lake Forest as the head man. Slowinski won two of the Illinois PGA’s major tournaments while at Glen Oak and was the section’s Assistants Player of the Year in 2013.

Harlan Chemers, who had been Conway’s head professional, will join Wildcat Golf Academy founders Pat Goss and Jeff Mory in the expansion of that highly-successfully junior program. A move to The Glen Club in Glenview has allowed them to take students beyond the junior level.

In other pro changes Josh Pius, a former North Shore assistant, is the head man at Inverness; Reagan Davis is in charge at Eagle Ridge, in Galena; and Mike Hainline has taken over at Ravisloe, in Homewood.

Here and there

A major change in the superintendents ranks has Scott Pavalko leaving Cog Hill, in Lemont, for Bob O’Link, the all-male club in Highland Park. Chris Flick came from Ohio to replace Pavalko at Cog Hill. Other superintendent changes have Michael Paciga moving from an assistant at Biltmore in Barrington to the head job at Kemper Lakes in Long Grove; Jeremy Duncan going from assistant at Cantigny in Wheaton to head man at Fox Run in Elk Grove; Brian Stout being promoted to the head job at Edgewood Valley in LaGrange; and Mike Mumper landing the head job at Villa Olivia in Bartlett.

The first event on the Illinois PGA schedule, Monday’s Pro-Assistants Championship at Naperville Country Club, was cancelled. The IPGA has a Pro-Pro event on tap at Chicago’s Harborside International next Monday. The Chicago District Golf Assn. opens its season with its first Better Ball of Pairs event next Tuesday at The Glen Club.

The Golfers on Golf radio show will unveil the first of 21 weekly broadcasts at 9 a.m. on Sunday. It’ll be carried on WSBC (1240-AM) and WCFJ (1470-AM) with Rory Spears, Ed Stevenson, Bill Berger and Mike Munro again co-hosting.

The 80th playing of the Masters tournament, beginning on Thursday at Georgia’s Augusta National, won’t be like any previous stagings of golf’s first major championship of the year.

This one won’t have Tiger Woods, back surgery a week ago forcing his withdrawal, and the landmark Eisenhower Tree left of the No. 17 fairway is gone, the victim of a February ice storm. The start of Masters festivities was different, too.

Augusta National opened its gates on pre-Masters Sunday for the first time to host a youth Drive, Chip and Pitch competition, but then had to close the gates for the first time since 2003 on Monday because of a heavy rainfall.

The Masters, more than any of golf’s four major tournaments, has a tradition of high-profile champions but that could change this week with Woods out and defending champion Adam Scott, Rory McIlroy and Phil Mickelson all winless in 2014.

Slow starts for those stars could be encouraging for Luke Donald, Kevin Streelman, D.A. Points and Steve Stricker – the players with Illinois connections in the field – but none have done much recently to suggest they’ll contend this week.

Northwestern alum Donald, once the game’s No. 1-ranked player, could be the best bet of the locals. He had two top-10s on the Florida swing of the PGA Tour and a tie for 24th in the Shell Houston Open on Sunday.

Wheaton resident Kevin Streelman, adjusting to life as a parent after the birth of daughter Sophia on Dec. 26, missed his first cut of the season at Houston and hasn’t cracked the top 20 in his nine appearances since starting the season with a tie for third in the Hyundai Tournament of Champions in January.

Illinois alum Points has had a terrible year, missing the cut in his last three starts and finishing no better than a tie for 28th in his 10 tournaments in 2014. Another ex-Illini, Steve Stricker played in only his third tournament of the season at Houston. He tied for 24th with his focus not entirely on golf. A Madison, Wis., resident, he ducked out of Houston after his Saturday round to watch Wisconsin play in the Final Four that night, then got back in time to finish the tournament on Sunday.

The possibility of a Masters rookie winning is the best story-line going into this year’s championship and none would make for a better one than Kevin Stadler. He and his father Craig form the first father-son combination to play in the same Masters.

Craig won the Champions Tour’s Encompass Championship at North Shore Country Club in Glenview last June but has played in only three events this year. He won his Masters in 1982. Qualified only as a past champion, Craig claims this — his 38th Masters — will be his last appearance at Augusta National. He’s been waiting for Kevin to qualify, and it finally happened when he won the Waste Management Open a few miles from his Scottsdale, Ariz., home in February. It came in his 239th career start on the PGA Tour.

“He’s getting a little too old (60) to compete (at Augusta),’’ said Kevin. “He’s told me that for about five years. He loves going back, but that course seems to be a little too tough for him these days. It’ll be great to spend some time with him on the course when I never, ever play golf with him.’’

The last Masters rookie to win the title was Fuzzy Zoeller 35 years ago. Prior to that the last rookie winner was Gene Sarazen in 1935 – the second year the tournament was contested. That year the tourney had 23 rookies, not surprising for a tourney that young. Horton Smith, then the head pro at Oak Park Country Club, won the first tournament (when it was known as the Augusta National Invitational) in 1934 and also took the third in 1936. The only competitor still alive from the first Masters is Errie Ball, long-time head pro at Oak Park Country Club and the first director of golf at Butler National in Oak Brook. Ball, now 103 years old, is still teaching golf in Stuart, FL.