Anybody who follows golf in Illinois shouldn’t be surprised when Mike Small gets into contention in a tournament, but when he puts himself in position to win a major title on PGA Tour Champions, well, that’s another matter. The Illinois men’s coach did just that on Saturday, shooting a third-round 66 at Exmoor Country Club…
Author: lenz
Pavel leads latest of Champions’ bunched up major tourneys
The Constellation Senior Players Championship, in progress at Exmoor Country Club in Highland Park, could be the last major golf championship in the Chicago area for quite awhile. None of the pro tours have such a tournament scheduled here after the last putt drops at Exmoor on Sunday. On PGA Tour Champions, however, majors are…
Illini coach Small shares first-round lead at Senior Players tourney
Illinois coach Mike Small started Friday’s second round of the Constellation Senior Players Championship in a tie for the lead and then made birdies on his first two holes. The good times didn’t last for long, however. Small dropped back after that and finished with a 71. That didn’t knock him out of contention going…
Crosby is a surprise leader after Round 1 of Senior Women’s Open
Scotland’s Trish Johnson is the only woman to have won a major senior tournament. She won the only one – the first Senior LPGA Championship last fall – and she got off to a good start on making it two-for-two in Thursday’s first round of the inaugural U.S. Senior Women’s Open at Chicago Golf Club…
Socializing is over; now things get serious at first U.S. Senior Women’s Open
So far the inaugural U.S. Senior Women’s Open has been a feel-good story — the long-overdue creation of a national championship for women golfers who have passed their 50th birthday. They’re delighted the U.S. Golf Association added the event to its schedule, and it’s brought a lot of former professional and amateur competitors together again….
Chicago schedule nightmare ends with Singh’s victory at Exmoor
HIGHLAND PARK, IL. – PGA Tour Champions is a funny circuit, especially when it comes to scheduling its major championships. While the other pro tours spread their majors throughout the schedule, the 50-and over men bunch theirs up. That’s not all bad, just weird compared to the other pro tours. There are five majors for…
U.S. Senior Women’s Open at Chicago Golf Club is a real feel-good story
WHEATON, IL. –The inaugural U.S. Senior Women’s Open, which teed off on Thursday in the Chicago suburb of Wheaton, has been a celebration of women’s golf. It resembled a high school reunion, too, with the best pros and amateurs of the past re-connecting during three days of practice rounds and pre-tournament activities. More than anything,…
Conway Farms pro carries Chicago hopes in U.S. Senior Women’s Open
The only Chicago area qualifier for the inaugural U.S. Senior Women’s Open at Chicago Golf Club is also the youngest in the 120-player field. Gurnee’s Jamie Fischer, who got in through the sectional qualifying round at Conway Farms, in Lake Forest, turned 50 on May 13. Fischer grew up in Ohio and qualified for three…
Small will compete in Senior Players while 2 ex-Illini stars are in JDC
It isn’t that Mike Small hasn’t gotten into big golf tournaments before. The super successful men’s coach at the University of Illinois has remained a competitive player in large part by taking advantage of sponsor’s exemptions. Small didn’t get an invitation to this week’s Constellation Senior Players Championship, which tees off at Exmoor Country Club…
John Deere Classic is a throw-back to the PGA Tour from decades ago
Golf-wise, this little community on the outskirts of the Mississippi River towns of Moline and Rock Island in Illinois and Davenport and Bettendorf in Iowa is a phenomenon. A PGA Tour event has been played here every year since 2000, and the entire area known as the Quad Cities has commanded a tournament for 47…