Northbrook’s Nick Hardy has had better seasons as a golf touring pro. The former Illinois star was a PGA Tour regular and even won a tournament – the Zurich Classic of New Orleans team event in 2023 – but he’s struggled this season on the Korn Ferry Tour.

Hardy, 30, survived the 36-hole cut in four of his six starts but his best finish was only a tie for 36th on the PGA’s alternate circuit, but good days may be returning. On Monday he qualified for the U.S. Open for the the fifth time thanks a tie for third in the final qualifier played at Springfield Country Club in Ohio.

Five berths in the 156-man finals at New York’s Shinnecock Hills in two weeks were on the line at Springfield. Hardy used that course as a road to his previous Opens and made a big splash in the tournament proper with a tie for 14^th in 2022 at The Country Club in Brookline, Mass.

Hardy survived “Golf’s Longest Day’’ – when 10 final qualifiers are staged around the country — for the first time in 2015. This time he shot 65-68 to share third with PGA Tour veteran Billy Horschel and Northwestern alum Dylan Wu in the 36-hole competition. They were are 7-under-par 133. Neal Shipley, from Pittsburgh, and Zac Blair, of Orem, Utah, matched the day’s low scores at 8-under 132.

There were only nine Illinois-connected players in Monday’s final qualifiers.  Other than Hardy and Wu, only Andy Svoboda, the recently-crowned Illinois PGA Match Play champion, came close to surviving.  He was the second alternate in the elimination at Purchase, N.Y.

This year’s Open had 10,201 entries, one shy of the tournament record set in 2025. Most had to survive 108 local qualifiers — 18-hole eliminations held between April 20 and May 18 — to compete on Monday. Entrants had to either be professionals or have a handicap index that didn’t exceed 0.4 to enter the U.S. Open.

ILLINOIS PGA:  Vince India, a long-time Korn Ferry Tour member now working at North Shore Country Club in Glenview, won the Section’s Assistants Championship at Bryn Mawr, in Lincolnwood.  He tied the course record with an opening round 10-under-par 62 and finished the 36-hole competition at 18-under 126.

“It’s nice to play competitive golf,’’ said India, a two-time winner of the Illinois Open.  “The less golf I play, the more I appreciate it, and the more fun I have.  It was nice to play good golf for the first time in a long time.’’

India held off Briarwood’s Matthew Rion for the title with Conway Farm’s Crimson Callahan holding off defending champion Kyle Donovan, of Oak Park, in a playoff for the third and final berth in November’s PGA Professional Assistants Championship in Florida.

ILLINOIS WOMEN’S AMATEUR: Gracie Piar, of East Alton, won the 93^rd annual championship by beating Naperville’s Lisa Copeland, an incoming freshman at University of Illinois, in a three-hole playoff at Elgin Country Club.

Piar, who played collegiately at California State Northridge, was an Illinois high school champion in 2021.  Her win qualified Piar for the U.S. Women’s Amateur at The Honors Course in Tennessee in August, and she plans to turn pro in September at the LPGA Qualifying School.

U.S. WOMEN’S OPEN:  Addie Dobson was the only Illinois qualifier for last week’s U.S. Women’s Open.  A resident of downstate Jacksonville and a senior at the University of Missouri, she missed the cut at Riviera in California.

 

 

Very few of the big Illinois golf tournaments have undergone as many recent changes as the Illinois State Women’s Amateur.

The downstate-based Illinois Women’s Golf Association conducted the tournament for 90 years, then passed it on to the Chicago District Golf Association in 2024. The tourney was played in a match play format through 2023, then the CDGA went to a three-day 54-hole stroke play format in 2024.

Last year the tourney champion was awarded an exemption into the U.S. Women’s Amateur for the first time and a separate division for players 25-and-over was added, creating an Illinois Women’s Mid-Amateur Championship as well.

This year’s 93^rd championship will have a site change.  After four years at The Grove, in Long Grove, the tourney will be played at Elgin Country Club starting on Monday. Barrington’s Bridget Butler is the defending champion.

Butler helped Barrington to the Illinois 2A high school state championship in 2021 and was a member of four straight Mid-Suburban Conference championship teams before starting her college career at Stetson, in Florida.

Her win at last year’s State Am was noteworthy because Butler had gone 11 months without playing in a tournament.  She had transferred to Nebraska and had taken a redshirt season there but still posted a 4-under-par 212 winning score, three strokes better than Northbrook’s Alexis Myers and Rockford’s Kayla Sayyalinch. They tied for second and both will be back in the tournament next week. Myers is paired with Butler in the first round.

Tee times start at 8 a.m. each day and only the low 20 and ties will compete in the final round.

COLLEGE:  Illinois Wesleyan was the runner-up for the second straight year in the NCAA Division 3 finals. Wesleyan was edged by California’s Claremont-Mudd-Scripps in a sudden death playoff at Mission Inn Resort & Club in Florida. Palatine sophomore Pablo Carstro was the top Wesleyan player, finishing in a tie for seventh.

Northwestern’s men finished tied for eighth and Illinois tied for 11^th in the NCAA’s Georgia Regional, so neither made it to the NCAA finals at Omni LaCosta, in California. Illinois’ Ryan Voois, though, was named one of three finalists for the Byron Nelson Award, given annually to college golf’s outstanding scholar-athlete. The winner will be announced June 15 and Illinois’ Jackson Buchanan was the first Illini winner last year.

HERE AND THERE:  Brandt Snedeker, captain of the U.S. Presidents Cup team, has named his first two assistant captains —  Keegan Bradley, the most recent U.S. Ryder Cup captain, and Jim Furyk, the winning U.S. captain in the Presidents Cup played at Montreal two years ago.

Hawthorn Woods member Jerry White won the 24^th CDGA Senior Amateur on his home course, beating Bloomington’s Mike Henry in a sudden death playoff.

The 36^th Thompson Cup matches, pitting the Illinois PGA’s top senior players against the top area amateurs, will be played at Chicago’s Ridge Country Club on Thursday (MAY 28). The IPGA Assistants Championship will be conducted at Bryn Mawr, in Lincolnwood, on Monday.

Carrie Underwood will be the featured performer at the John Deere Classic’s concert series on the Fourth of July.

 

 

 

 

The national championships in Division I college golf are on the line the next two weeks, and — in these parts, at least – it’s all about Illinois and Northwestern.

Coach Emily Fletcher’s NU women are the defending champion on the women’s side.  They won their first title last year at Omni LaCosta Resort in Carlsbad, Calif., and chase a repeat there beginning on Friday (MAY 22).

Fletcher’s team is in the finals for the fourth straight year, and standout Diana Lee has played on all four teams.  Last year’s scored a dramatic win over Stanford in the match play climax to the event.

While this year’s team made it back to LaCosta the Wildcats aren’t a good bet to repeat.  They finished fourth in the Michigan Regional — trailing Southern California, Ohio State and Duke – and that came after a 10^th place finish in the 18-team Big Ten tournament.

The men will decide their national champion at LaCosta as soon as the women conclude theirs on May 27 but both the Illini and Wildcat men have to survive the 54-hole Georgia Regional, which concludes its three-day run on Wednesday, to get to LaCosta.  Illinois went in as the regional’s No. 2 seed and NU as No. 8.

U.S. OPEN:  The last of the three 18-hole local qualifiers in Illinois are over, and the last one – at Flossmoor Country Club – had a most unusual survivor.  Chicago’s Campbell Wolf shot a 1-under-par 71 to share medalist honors with amateur Dujuan Snyman of South Africa.

Wolf was born and raised in Pennsylvania but his game started getting good at not just one Illinois college but two.  He started at DePaul, saw improvement in two seasons with the Blue Demons and decided to transfer to East Tennessee State.  After two seasons there he opted to use his COVID season for a final year of college eligibility at Northern Illinois.

“I had a different college experience than most, but I wouldn’t change it,’’ said Wolf.  “I learned what it takes to play at the top levels of the sport, and it gave me confidence that I’d be able to do that.’’

So, Wolf stuck around Chicago and is now the director of events and an instructor at The Warehouse Golf Club in Burr Ridge. Now comes the hard part.  He has to survive one of the  36-hole final qualifiers to make it into the 156-man field for the Open proper June 18-21 at Shinnecock Hills, in New York.

PETER DE YOUNG: The long-time. tournament director of the Western Open has passed on in Pinehurst, N.C.  He was 78.

DeYoung directed the Western from 1977 to 1993. The PGA Tour event shifted from Butler National, in Oak Brook, to Cog Hill, in Lemont, during DeYoung’s time on the job.

He later had leadership roles with two other Chicago pro tour events — the Ameritech Senior Open on PGA Tour Champions and the LaSalle Bank Open on what is now the Korn Ferry Tour.  DeYoung also developed the Nike Winter Nationals junior event after moving to Pinehurst.

HERE AND THERE: Robert Dofflemyer, of Loves Park, won the first Chicago District Golf Association tournament of the season – the CDGA Mid-Amateur at Glen Flora, in Waukegan.  The CDGA’s second big event, the Senior Amateur, concludes its four-day run at Hawthorn Woods on Thursday (MAY 21).  The quarterfinals and semifinals are on Wednesday (TODAY) and the championship match on Thursday….The second event of the Illinois PGA’s Open Series will be played at Flossmoor on Wednesday (TODAY).

 

The 108th PGA Championship – second of the year’s four major tournaments – tees off Thursday at Aronimink, in Pennsylvania, but the Illinois Section of the PGA crowned the first winner of its four majors last week and it was significant.

Andy Svoboda was an immediate contender since joining the IPGA in 2024 after being named head professional at Butler National, in Oak Brook. He was last year’s IPGA Player of the Year, but in his previous two seasons he had yet to win one of the local majors. He played in seven of them and had two runner-up finishes and was in the top three five times.

The winless streak ended in last week’s first major of 2026, the IPGA Match Play Championship at Butterfield, in Oak Brook. Svoboda, now representing Elevation Golf, held off four-time winner and defending champion Jim Billiter, of Ivanhoe Club, 2 and 1 in the title match.

“It was awesome to finally get a win in these majors,’’ said the 46-year old Svoboda, who had success on both the Korn Ferry and PGA tours before joining the club professional ranks. “I’d been close.  I’d been in the final a couple years ago and just couldn’t get it done.  I had to call a penalty on myself late in that match, which was unfortunate.’’

This time Svoboda stormed into the final with some dazzling performances. He was 8-under par through 15 holes in eliminating Jeff Kellen, of North Shore of Glenview, in the quarterfinals and 5-under through 17 holes in ousting Brian Carroll, of The Hawk in St. Charles, in the semifinals.

“I had an incredible week,’’ said Svoboda.  “I played some unbelievable golf and made a ton of birdies but had some tough matches, including those with Jeff and Brian.’’

ON TO ARONIMINK:  No Illinois PGA players will be among the 20 club professionals in the national PGA Championship teeing off Thursday, but that field does include Northwestern alums Luke Donald and David Lipsky  and Illinois alum Thomas Detry.

Detry is one of 11 LIV Tour players competing at Aronimink.  There’ll be 15 past champions including defender Scottie Scheffler in a field that includes players from 29 states and 26 countries.

HERE AND THERE: Illinois is the No. 2 seed and Northwestern is No. 8 in the NCAA regional hosted by the University of Georgia beginning on Monday (MAY 18). The top five teams advance to the NCAA finals at Omni LaCosta in California May 29-June 3.

Brandt Snedeker, who will captain the U.S. team in September’s Presidents Cup matches at Medinah, won his first PGA Tour event in eight seasons last Sunday at the Myrtle Beach Classic. Snedeker, 45, earned a berth in the PGA Championship with his win, and that changed his plans for this week.  He had planned to spend a few days at Medinah dealing with Presidents Cup issues but will be at Aronimink instead.

The 11^th Chicago District Mid-Amateur will wrap up its three-day run today (WEDNESDAY, MAY 13) with the championship match at Glen Flora in Waukegan.

TPC Deere Run, again the site of Illinois’ only PGA Tour event in July, will host the NAIA college event this week. It concludes on Friday (MAY 15).

University of Illinois golfer Max Herendeen was named for the second straight year to Team USA for the Arnold Palmer Cup matches.  They’ll be played in Ireland in July.

 

 

 

This week’s two PGA Tour stops are the final warmups for the year’s second major tournament – the PGA Championship. The top stars will be at the Truist Championship at Quail Valley, in Charlotte, N.C., which tees off on Thursday.

World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler, the runner-up in his last three tournaments, won’t be there but Cameron Young – the winner of the Cadillac Championship last week – and Rory McIlroy, winner of the Masters the last two years, will.

The PGA’s under card event, the ONEflight Myrtle Beach Classic at The Dunes Club in North Carolina and also tees off on Thursday. Itis unique, though.  It represents one of the few times the bulk of the Illinois-connected tour players will be playing in the same tournament.

Illinois alum Adrien Dumont de Chassart, Arlington Heights’ Doug Ghim, Northbrook’s Nick (also an Illinois alum), Wheaton’s Kevin Streelman and Northwestern alum Dylan Wu  are all in the field.

Hardy and Wu have spent most of this season on the Korn Ferry Tour.  Dumont de Chassart was on the developmental circuit last year but earn his PGA Tour card for 2026 after finishing in the top 20 on the Korn Ferry circuit in 2025.

Streelman, 47, has made 407 cuts and is a two-time winner on the premier circuit since earning his PGA Tour card in 2008 but surgery to repair a torn meniscus has cut into his playing time the last two years.

No doubt all would prefer to play in the Truist this week . It has a $20 million purse while only $4 million will be on the line at Myrtle Beach. That tournament, though, does have one very big name.  Five-time major champion Brooks Koepka is paying the price for defecting to the LIV Tour. Though a past PGA Championship winner, he was given only alternate’s status in the Truist so opted to take a spot at Myrtle Beach rather than sit out this week.

U.S. OPEN: University of Illinois alum Jackson Buchanan dominated the second of three local qualifiers, shooting a 7-under-par 64 on Monday at Illini Country Club in Springfield.  Illini hosted a local Open elimination for the 45^th consecutive year, and Buchanan  had a six-stroke edge on runner-up Luke Gannon of downstate Monticello.

Buchanan, from Dacula, Ga., qualified for last year’s U.S. Open and missed the 36-hole cut. He’s been playing on the Korn Ferry Tour this year. The third and final Chicago area local qualifier with be at Flossmoor Country Club on May 11.

COLLEGE:  The Illinois men’s team, ranked No. 12 nationally, gets its NCAA regional assignment at 1 p.m. Wednesday on The Golf Channel.  Coach Mike Small’s Illini, runner-up to UCLA last weekend in the Big Ten Championship at Pumpkin Ridge, in Oregon, will be in the NCAA tourney for the 18^th consecutive year.

The men’s regionals are May 18-20 at six sites, the closest being on Ohio State’s course in Columbus. The finals are May 29-June 6 at Omni LaCosta Resort, in California.

NCAA regional assignments are already set for the women’s teams. Illinois is headed for the Stanford course in California and Northwestern will play in Ann Arbor, Mich.,  Both those regionals begin a three-day run on May 13.  The women’s finals will also be played at LaCosta, from May 22-27.

WESTERN GOLF: The Western Golf Association has selected five future sites for its Western Amateur tournament, and four of them are in the Chicago area – Knollwood (Lake Forest), 2027), Conway Farms (Lake Forest), 2029, Glen View Club (2030) and Skokie (Glencoe), 2032.

Baltimore Country Club will host in 2028. This year’s Western Am is at Chicago’s Beverly Country Club from July 27 to Aug. 1.

 

 

 

 

Last week’s first of three Illinois local qualifiers for the U.S. Open hardly went according to form.

Evanston amateur Lester Low, the reigning Illinois high school champion,  posted the best score – a 7-under-par 65 at Stonewall Orchard, in Gurnee, and that was two strokes better than veteran tour player Andy Svoboda, the head professional at Butler National in Oak Brook.

Svoboda, who came to Butler in 2024, was the Illinois PGA’s Player of the Year the last two years.  Now 46, Svoboda qualified for five U.S. Opens and won three times on the Korn Ferry Tour.

Low, 16, shot 65-72  as a sophomore en route to winning last year’s prep title at The Den at Fox Creek in Bloomington.  Evanston was the team runner-up the last two years and Lester’s brother Kieran was also part of the team.  Kieran will be a freshman at Boston College in the fall. Both brothers were grant recipients from the U.S. Golf Association for its National Development Program.

The Stonewall Orchard local advanced four players to the final Open qualifying stage, and another amateur – Ben Patel, of North Aurora – joined Low and Svoboda in advancing. The 36-hole final stage qualifiers will be held around the country between May 18 and June 8 to determine the 156 starters in the Open proper June 18-21 at Shinnecock Hills in New York.

PGA TOUR: Arlington Heights’ Doug Ghim, partnered with Jeffrey Kang, tied for sixth in the Zurich Classic of New Orleans.  It was Ghim’s best finish of the season, produced his best payday of the year ($185,250) and boosted his FedEx Cup ranking 20 positions to No. 114.

Northbrook’s Nick Hardy paired with Davis Riley to finish in a tie for 20^th.  Hardy and Riley won the event in 2023. Hardy has spent this season on the Korn Ferry Tour where he made four cuts in six starts.

SENIOR PGA: Fifteen players advanced to the final qualifier for the U.S. Senior Open, to be played July 2-5 at Scioto in Ohio. Mike Carbray, of Glen Ellyn; amateur Glenn Przybylski,  Frankfort; Andy Walker, Phoenix, Ariz; and Bradley Lanning, Horotonville, WI., all shot 2-over-par 74 – the low score in a local qualifier at Kemper Lakes in Kildeer.

Roy Biancalana, of St. Charles, earned the last qualifying spot in the final qualifier at Kemper by surviving a four-man playoff involving players who posted 77s.

HERE AND THERE: Both Illinois tournaments on the Korn Ferry Tour schedule – the Memorial Health Championship, June 25-28 at Panther Creek in Springfield and the Evans Scholars Invitational  July 23-26 at The Glen Club in Glenview — will be part of the new four-event $100,000 bonus pool called Route 66 Cup. The player topping the point list after the four events will get $66,000.

The Presidents Cup has, in partnership with the George and Cindy Rusu Family Foundation, contributed $150,000 to the Midwest Shelter for Homeless Veterans. The Presidents Cup  will be played Sept. 22-27 at Medinah Country Club, and the donation  is part of a commitment to invest in local communities and build a lasting legacy for the event.

The Western Golf Association has announced a one-year agreement with Inspire 11, establishing the business and technology consulting firm as the presenting sponsor of the 124^th Western Amateur at Chicago’s Beverly Country Club from July 27 to Aug. 1.

Nominations are now being accepted for the Illinois Golf Hall of Fame induction class of 2027.  Application forms are available on the Illinois PGA website.

 

 

This month’s Masters was the first of the year’s four major championships and – with just a 91-player field – was the smallest of those events.  The biggest of the majors is the U.S. Open which officially started on Monday (APRIL 20) with the first of 109 local qualifiers.

Illinois will again have three such eliminations,  the first of which is April 22 at Stonewall Orchard, in Grayslake. The other two are at Illini Country Club, in Springfield, on May 4 and May 11 at Flossmoor Country Club.

Stonewall, an Arthur Hills design, previously hosted Open qualifiers in 2003, 2005, 2009 and 2015.  The course has also hosted qualifiers for the Korn Ferry Tour six times. This year’s Open elimination tees off at 8 a.m. with 78 players battling for four berths in the final qualifiers.

Illini CC was founded in 1906 and its course was designed by Tom Bendelow.  A prolific architect, his other creations include the original No. 3 course at Medinah Country Club. Illini will host a U.S. Open local for the 45^th consecutive year.

The Open is a massive annual event, and this year’s version had 10,201 entrants.  That’s one less than the record turnout set last year when the 72-hole finals were held at Oakmont, in Pennsylvania. It’s the fifth time the entries have topped 10,000.

This year’s entrants ranged in age from 13-year old Californian Niko Ameredes, a two-time finalist in the Drive, Chip & Putt competition, to 71-year old New York club professional Mike Caporale. Entries came from all 50 states and 49 foreign countries.

The 126^th playing of the U.S. Open concludes June 18-21 at Shinnecock Hills, a New York layout which is similarly rich in history as Oakmont, but there will be lots of competition between now and then as the field is determined.

Entrants must either be declared professionals or amateurs with a handicap index not exceeding 0.4.  Only 51 entrants are currently exempt from full qualifying thanks to past performances. One is two-time Open winner Brooks Koepka who was the champion the last time the finals were played at Shinnecock in 2018.

Another is Brandon Holtz, a 39-year old former Illinois State basketball player who works in real estate in Bloomington, IL.  He received exemptions to both the Masters and U.S. Open after winning last year’s U.S. Mid- Amateur title.  Holtz missed the 36-hole cut at the Masters.

Most all of the others must survive qualifying events to be among the156 players who get to tee off at Shinnecock.   The local eliminations will determine who qualifies for the thirteen 36-hole final qualifiers, staged in 10 U.S. locations, England, Japan and Canada between May 18 and June 8. None of those will be played in Illinois.

HERE AND THERE: Including the three U.S. Open locals the Chicago District Golf Association will conduct 21 qualifiers for U.S. Golf Association championships this year. Next is the one for the U.S. Senior Open. It’s on April 27 at Kemper Lakes in Kildeer.

The Illinois PGA Open Series begins on April 27 at the Glen Club in Glenview.

With coach Mike Small competing in last weekend’s Senior PGA Championship in Florida his University of Illinois team concluded its regular season with a second-place finish in the Hoosier Collegiate in Indiana. An Illini player, Freddie Turnell, was the individual champion while Kansas State took the team crown. Illinois begins postseason play at the Big Ten Championships May 1-3 at Pumpkin Ridge in Oregon.  Illinois has won the title 14 times in the last 17 years.

 

 

 

IN SELECT COMPANY: Illinois men’s coach Mike Small (right) was paired with two former major champions in the first round of the Senior PGA Championship.  Henrik Stenson (left) won the 2016 British Open and John Daly captured titles in both the 1991 PGA Championship and 1995 British Open. Stenson shot 72, Daly 73 and Small 79.  (Joy Sarver Photos)

BRADENTON, FL. –Playing on any PGA Tour is no easy task.  Neither is coaching at the major college level.  Very few have done both, but Mike Small continues to both coach the University of Illinois men’s team and compete on PGA Tour Champions when possible.

This week is one of those rare times when it’s possible. Small is in the field for the 86^th Senior PGA Championship at the Concession Club, It teed off on Thursday while his Illini were concluding their regular season in Indiana’s Hoosier Collegiate. His assistants are coaching the team in that tournament.“They’re excited and my team needs a break from me,’’ said Small. “Our administration was fine with it.’’

Small will return as coach for the biggest events of the college season.  The Big Ten championships, which the Illini have won 13 times in his 25 seasons as head coach, are May 1-3 and NCAA tournament play begins May 18. The Illini have reached the NCAA tournament 16 of the last 17 years and won seven regional titles.

This year’s team won three tournaments and is ranked No. 10 in one national collegiate poll and No. 12 in the other.

While Small has survived cuts in 15 of 34 PGA Tour events and 18 of 19 Champions Tour starts since he began coaching, he has played in the Senior PGA only once.  He missed the cut at Harbor Shores in Michigan in 2022.

“It was always played opposite the national (NCAA) championships,’’ said Small.  “This year there was a date change.’’

Small qualified for a spot in the field by finishing 25^th in the PGA National Club Professional Championship.  He’ll go head-to-head with the best 50-and-over professionals beginning on Thursday at Concession, a Jack Nicklaus design that will host the event through 2028.

Illinois won the Big Ten title in 1988 when Small and Steve Stricker were the team’s stars. They stood up at each other’s weddings, then both spent time on the PGA Tour before Small turned to coaching.

Stricker, now one of the best senior tour pros, also qualified for the Senior PGA but withdrew on Sunday.

Small has won 14 Illinois PGA titles, four Illinois Opens and three Illinois Senior Opens. He also won three times in the PGA National Professional Championship and was low professional at two PGA Championships, but a few years have passed since then.  He’s 60 now and figures to be rusty in a field that includes tournament-tough stars like Stewart Cink, John Daly, Ernie Els, Padraig Harrington, Bernhard Langer, Colin Montgomerie and Vijay Singh.

Thursday’s first-round leaders were Brian Gay, Steve Allan, Bernhard Langer and Miguel Angel Jiminez.  All shot 6-under-par 66.

“I’ve been hitting balls for a week,’’  said Small, “but the first practice round (at Concession on Monday) was the first time I walked 18 holes since last summer.’’

HERE AND THERE: Countryside, in Mundelein, will host the first qualifying round for the 11^th Chicago District Mid-Amateur Championship on Tuesday (APRIL 21).

KemperSports has taken over the management duties at Village Greens of Woodridge.

The CDGA has announced that the Chicago Adaptive Open, scheduled for June at Fox Bend, in Oswego, already has a full field of 84 players. Fox Bend will host through 2030 and Illinois Bone & Joint Institute will be the sponsor.

Pinseeker Media will sponsor Dave Lockhart’s Golf 360 when the long-running TV show begins broadcasting in June. Dan Roan will host.

 

 

 

 

 

Next week it’s on to Augusta, Ga., for the 90th Masters tournament. (Joy Sarver Photos)

 

All the professional tours have been in full swing for several months, and so have most of the college teams.  That said, golf excitement doesn’t really kick in until next week’s 90th playing of the Masters tournament.

It’s the first of the year’s four major championships and the first time the top players from the PGA Tour and LIV Golf League finally get together again. The upstart Saudi-backed LIV circuit has yet to have Masters winner since the break from the PGA Tour five years ago.

This could be the year, though.  Scottie Scheffler, the world’s No. 1 player is struggling and LIV has 11 players in this year’s Masters field and six won the Masters back when they were PGA Tour members.  In fact, those six have combined to win nine times.  Phil Mickelson is a three-time champion and Bubba Watson has won twice. Other LIV members with Masters titles are Sergio Garcia, Dustin Johnson, Charl Schwartzel and Jon Rahm.

None of those players  may be the circuit’s best bet to win in 2026, though.  That has to be Bryson DeChambeau after his playoff win over Rahm in a rousing tournament in South Africa in the most recent LIV event.

There won’t be a player with even remote Illinois connections in the field at Augusta National unless Doug Ghim, Kevin Streelman, David Lipsky, Dylan Wu or Adrien Dumont de Chassart win this week’s PGA Tour stop – the Valero Texas Open.

ALSO ON THE SCENE:  The Masters competition is the main attraction during the week of the tournament, but it’s not the only one.  Both the Augusta National Women’s Amateur and the Drive, Chip & Putt finals are side attractions with Chicago area representation.

The 54-hole ANWA event, first played in 2019, has two Northwestern players – Californians Diana Lee and Ashley Yun – in the 72- player field.  The 54-hole event conducts its first two rounds at the nearby Champions Retreat course before the final round is played at Augusta National.

Drive, Chip & Putt has the survivors of nation-wide qualifying tournaments held in late 2025.  Four Chicago area youngsters qualified in the Upper Midwest Regional played last September at Whistling Straits in Wisconsin.

Patricia Kittivat of Schaumburg will be in the Girls 7-9 division with Oswego’s Lucy Wiertal in the Girls 10-11, Streamwood’s Vihaan Patel in the Boys 10-11 and Hinsdale’s Carter

Bird in the Boys 14-15. While the Masters is the main attraction, the ANWA and Drive, Chip & Putt participants will get some TV air time, too.

DOWN THE ROAD:  This may be just the start of the Chicago golf season, but the President’s Cup climax in September has already been a topic for discussion on the PGA. Brandt Snedeker, who will captain the U.S. team in the President’s Cup matches at Medinah, shook off a slow start to this season with a strong showing in the Valspar Championship last month in Florida.

Snedeker played in the last twosome on Sunday before fading on the back nine.  His playing partner, Matt Fitzpatrick, won the title but Snedeker was still a subject of discussion.

The President’s Cup captain is frequently a contender for that same role at the next Ryder Cup, but Snedeker would have little to say about that.

“There’s no chance. Let’s not event talk crazy here.  There’s no chance, no chance,’’ he said.  The next Ryder Cup is in 2027.  That’s a long way off, but the Peresident’s Cup isn’t. Medinah will see a lot of Snedeker in the next few months.

“I’m going up there is less than a month, spend a few days and check everything out,’’ he said. “There’s lots of logistical stuff now, lots of behind-the-scenes stuff to make sure we’re ready to go. As the summer ramps up and the team takes shape we’ll do more and more.’’