This week’s PGA Tour event, the Valero Texas Open, is the last stop before next week’s Masters and it has some unlikely names in the field. From the national stage there’s Dustin Johnson and Ricky Fowler. Johnson, the world’s No. 1 player, was a late entry. Apparently feeling the need for another competitive tuneup after…
Daily Herald Columns
Match Play might help Streelman get into the Masters
This may be the best week of this golf season. At least those who love match play competition will feel that way. The World Golf Championship-Dell Technologies Match Play tees off on Wednesday on the Pete Dye-designed Austin Country Club course in Texas, .and Wheaton’s Kevin Streelman is in the elite 64-player field. Every player…
Ghim may be closing in on his first PGA Tour victory
Doug Ghim is making progress as a PGA Tour rookie, no doubt about that. The 24-year old who grew up in Arlington Heights and attended Buffalo Grove High School before graduating from the University of Texas made the cut in five of his six tournaments in 2020, his best finish being a tie for 14th…
Rich looks ahead to the return of the Arnold Palmer Cup
Jerry Rich, the owner of Rich Harvest Farms in Sugar Grove, arrived in Florida last week while the Arnold Palmer Invitational was in progress in Orlando and he’s already looking forward to the Arnold Palmer Cup – the first big tournament of the Chicago season. It’ll be played at Rich Harvest from June 11-13. “I’m…
An 11-month layoff is no problem for Illini golfers
This year has been filled with changes for everyone, but some things never change. The University of men’s golf team, for one thing. The Illini had their season halted in March by pandemic concerns, then came the cold weather in the Midwest. Eleven months after their last competition, however, the Illini didn’t miss a beat….
Bernhard Langer signing is a big deal for Tour Edge
Tour Edge, the Batavia-based golf club manufacturer, has thrived in recent years by signing top players on PGA Tour Champions. On Monday Tour Edge president David Glod landed the biggest star on the 50-and-over circuit. Bernhard Langer, still the Champions’ dominant player at 63 years old, has 41 wins on the circuit and that is…
Trip to Hawaii pays off big-time for Nick Hardy
Northbrook’s Nick Hardy and Arlington Heights’ Doug Ghim are among the very best young golfers ever produced in the Chicago area. Ghim is a rookie on the PGA Tour and Hardy in his first season on the PGA’s development circuit – the Korn Ferry Tour. Still, what were the chances that they’d be paired together…
Golf developments in 2020 were shocking, unprecedented
I’ve been reporting on golf for 52 years and never encountered a year like this one. The dreaded pandemic certainly made 2020 infamous in many ways, and that included the golf world. What I’ll remember the most happened on March 12, when PGA commissioner Jay Monahan called a press conference during the first round…
PGA Tour will make Delaware debut at the 2022 BMW Championship
After conducting its premier tournament in the Chicago area for two straight years the Western Golf Association will take the BMW Championship away from the area for at least the next two. The Glenview-based WGA announced Tuesday that the BMW Championship will be played on the South Course at Wilmington Country Club in Delaware…
Streelman missed this year’s Masters but is in position to make it in 2021
The Masters finally tees off on Thursday, but Chicago’s best player – Kevin Streelman – won’t be there. Streelman had a great year and, in a normal season, would have been on the brink of qualifying when he held a No. 49 world ranking entering last week’s Houston Open. In a normal year the top…