The college season ended for Northwestern after three rounds of the NCAA finals this week in Stillwater, Okla., and Illinois lasted one more round before an 11th place finish in the stroke play portion of the competition wasn’t good enough to get the Illini back in the top eight match play qualifiers. They will decide…
Author: lenz
Langer to miss Senior PGA; NU women bow out of NCAA finals
PGA Tour Champions, the circuit for the men stars who have reached their 50th birthdays, have two of their five major tournaments in easy reach of Chicago this year. The first, though, might not quite feel like a major. Bernhard Langer, who has dominated the circuit for years and won all five of those majors…
Louisiana’s Audubon Golf Trail is a winner for more than just golfers
Lots of states have golf trails, and some of them have received more recognition than Louisiana’s Audubon Trail. That’s unfortunate, because the Audubon offers much more than the others if your golf trips take into account non-golf attractions. Make no mistake, the 15 courses on the Audubon Golf Trail are good. The trail was named…
Can Northwestern make another run at the NCAA women’s title?
Last year the Northwestern women’s team created a Cinderella story. Coach Emily Fletcher’s team, with only one senior, marched all the way to the championship match at the NCAA finals at Rich Harvest Farms in Sugar Grove. A year later, Fletcher says, “we’ll try to do it again.’’ The Wildcats made the 24-team field for…
Flavin delays decision to go pro, will defend his two state titles
The best golfer in Illinois last season has made his decision. Patrick Flavin won’t turn pro – at least for a while. Last year Flavin became the first player in 37 years to win both the Illinois State Amateur and Illinois Open in the same year. Only David Ogrin, way back in 1980, had accomplished…
Kemper Lakes’ Billiter seeks repeat as Illinois PGA Player of the Year
The Illinois PGA has been awarding its Bernardi Trophy to the section’s Player-of-the-Year for 46 years, and Jim Billiter has been a factor in two of the more interesting races. Understandably, more Bernardi points are available in the section’s four annual major championships – the IPGA Match Play, the Illinois Open, the IPGA Championship and…
Kemper Lakes’ Billiter is in the spotlight as Chicago tournament season tees off
Now things get serious. The 67th playing of the Illinois PGA Match Play Championship kicks off a busy five months of tournament play for Chicago’s best golfers. The host professional defends his title and puts his hopes of retaining his IPGA Player of the Year status will be on the line at Kemper Lakes in…
The story behind `Caddyshack’ rivals the movie itself
`Caddyshack’ may not be my favorite sports movie. I still lean towards `Chariots of Fire.’ `Caddyshack’ isn’t even my favorite golf movie. I give the nod there to `The Greatest Game Ever Played.’ Still, there’s no movie I’ve watched more times than the classic golf comedy that was filmed nearly 40 years ago. I had…
Recent changes have spurred Streelman’s fast start in PGA Tour season
Kevin Streelman won’t declare his hot start to the 2017-18 PGA Tour season as the best in his 11 years on the circuit but all the major changes he made over the last few months are certainly paying off. With top-10 finishes in the last two tournaments — the RBC Heritage Classic in Hilton Head,…
Lake Forest’s Hopfinger is mounting a bid for a PGA Tour card
The Web.com Tour is billed as the pathway to the PGA Tour, and Lake Forest’s Brad Hopfinger is making progress on that journey. Last fall Hopfinger regained his playing Web.com playing privileges with a gutty showing in two stages of the qualifying school. He survived Stage 2 with a 4-under-par final round to make it…