No sooner will this week’s Western Amateur at Skokie Country Club wrap up on Saturday than the 68th Illinois Open will tee off at two other north suburban locations next week. The Illinois Open remains a 54-hole affair for 264 finalists, the survivors of eight state-wide qualifying rounds. The first two rounds of the finals,…
Author: lenz
Flood concerns led to Chicago getting an intriguing new golf course
Finally, after several years of political debate and two years in the construction phase, The Preserve at Oak Meadows is ready to welcome golfers. Economic conditions being what they area, new golf courses are a rarity anywhere and the wait to see how The Preserve would turn out has been a tantalizing one. “We looked…
This could be last shot for Ghim, Hardy to win the Western Amateur
The history-rich Western Amateur isn’t always played in the Chicago area, but in recent years it has been – and that’s a good thing. It merits a prominent place on any golf calendar because it brings together the very best amateurs in the world — not just those from the United States. Next week’s 115th…
Flavin overcomes Hahn’s 61, wins Illinois State Amateur
What a difference a day makes. On Wednesday Jordan Hahn shot a 61 – the lowest round in the 87-year history of the Illinois State Amateur as well as the best ever recorded at Calumet Country Club, which opened its doors in 1901. On that magical day Hahn, a University of Wisconsin golfer from Spring…
IWO champ Farnsworth followed in her coach’s footsteps
Aimee Neff had good memories from winning the Phil Kosin Illinois Women’s Open as an amateur in 2008 and 2009. Now an assistant coach at Vanderbilt University, she suggested that one of her players, Alexandra Farnsworth, use the IWO as a tuneup for her senior season at the Nashville, Tenn., school. Farnsworth took Neff’s advice…
IWO, State Am titles will be decided in a two-day stretch
The biggest glut of tournament golf in the Chicago area in many years reached the overload stage this week with two of the most important championships sharing almost identical dates. The 23rd Illinois Women’s Open concludes its three-day run on Wednesday at Mistwood, in Romeoville, and the 87th Illinois State Amateur wraps up its three…
DeChambeau is the latest first-time winner of the JDC
SILVIS, Ill. – Illinois golf and Bryson DeChambeau seem to be a perfect fit. DeChambeau won the U.S. Amateur at Olympia Fields in 2015 and now he’s also the champion of the John Deere Classic. The JDC, in fact, produced his first victory on the PGA Tour. Few doubted that DeChambeau would be a budding…
Streelman, Hardy are lurking behind Rodgers in John Deere Classic
SILVIS, Ill. – If local players should shine at any PGA Tour event, it’d be at the John Deere Classic – the only annual stop on golf’s premier circuit in Illinois. Two are doing just fine through three rounds of this year’s $5.6 million tournament that concludes today. Whether either Wheaton’s Kevin Streelman or Northbrook’s…
Trish Johnson is wire-to-wire winner of first Senior LPGA Championship
FRENCH LICK, Ind. – The first Senior LPGA Championship presented by Old National Bank had a lot of things – historical significance. television coverage, beautiful weather. The Pete Dye Course at French Lick Resort received the world-wide attention it has long deserved. What the inaugural staging didn’t have was suspense. England’s Trish Johnson, winner of…
Moore returns to PGA Tour in hopes of defending JDC title
The John Deere Classic, Illinois’ only annual PGA Tour event, tees off for the 47th time on Thursday at TPC Deere Run in Silvis, on the outskirts of the Quad Cities. For defending champion Ryan Moore that means a return to the PGA Tour at the course that took his career to a new level…