The star of last year’s Chicago golf season is about to strike again. While University of Illinois friends Nick Hardy and Dylan Meyer opted to turn pro as soon as the NCAA tournament ended in June, Highwoods’ Patrick Flavin decided to wait a while. Now it’s his turn to take the spotlight.

Last year Flavin, who played collegiately at Miami of Ohio, became the first golfer in 37 years to win both the Illinois State Amateur and Illinois Open in the same year. David Ogrin, in 1980, is the only other one to do it.

Now Flavin wants to do something Ogrin didn’t do — defend both titles — and he also wants a final crack at winning the prestigious Western Amateur and U.S. Amateur as well.

Flavin opened defense of his Illinois State Amateur crown on Tuesday, posting a 1-over-par 71 at Bloomington Country Club. There’ll be another 18-hole round there today before Thursday’s 36-hole session decides the champion.

Bloomington, interestingly, is where Ogrin completed his sweep of the state’s premier titles. He won the Illinois Open there before becoming a journeyman on the PGA Tour from 1983-99. The highlight of his pro career was a victory in the 1996 LaCantera Texas Open, when he whipped Tiger Woods in one of Woods’ first tournaments as a pro.

Flavin wants to take his game to the premier pro tour eventually, but there’s some work to do first.

On Monday he will try to qualifying for the U.S. Amateur at Sand Creek, in Chesterton, Ind., and the week after that he’ll be a featured performer in the 116th Western Am at Sunset Ridge in Northfield. The Illinois Open title defense comes at The Glen Club, in Glenview, and Ravinia Green, in Riverwoods, from Aug. 6-8.

Flavin says his game is solid after spending the summer playing in some of the top amateur events around the country, so he has no regrets about remaining an amateur a little while longer.

“Definitely it was a difficult decision. What it really came down to was, there’s just so much more to play as an amateur,’’ said Flavin. “I’m trying to think about it in the long run. If I put myself in position to make the Sweet 16 of the Western Am or defend my title in the Illinois State Am or Illinois Open, that would be a great experience for me. In the long run it would really pay off. I’m going to give it a shot, for sure.’’

The U.S. Amateur final is at California’s famed Pebble Beach from Aug. 13-19. Assuming Flavin qualifies, that’ll be his last amateur event. He would turn pro in time to play in the Web.com Tour qualifying school starting in late September. While admittedly looking forward to playing at the next level Flavin has no regrets about spending another summer as an amateur.

“Some of my best buddies, like Nick Hardy and Dylan Meyer, are already out playing on the PGA Tour and playing well,’’ said Flavin. “That gives me some ants in my pants to get out there, too. But I’m really happy, really enjoying it.’’

Kim leads in IWO

Hannah Kim, the former Northwestern star, takes a six-stroke lead into today’s final round of the 23rd annual Phil Kosin Illinois Women’s Open at Mistwood, in Romeoville. Kim is at 11-under-par 133 after rounds of 68 and 65 in the first two rounds of the 54-hole tournament.

Amateur Tristyn Nowlin, a University of Illinois golfer who was the runner-up in the Women’s Western Amateur at Mistwood last month, is Kim’s closest pursuer after rounds of 71 and 68.

Crystal Lake’s Lexi Harkins and Samantha Postillion, of Burr Ridge, are another stroke back in a tie for third and two-time champion Nicole Jeray, of Berwyn, is alone in sixth at 141. Jeray is a member of the LPGA’s Legends Tour.

This IWO also has a celebrity caddie. PGA and Champions Tour veteran Steve Stricker has also been on the bag for his daughter Bobbi.

llini Meyer is cashing in

Dylan Meyer is adding quickly to his fast-growing bank account since finishing his collegiate eligibility at Illinois.

Meyer tied for 46th place at the John Deere Classic on Sunday, which meant an $18,096 paycheck. That boosted his winnings in three tournaments since turning pro to $236,569. He also just signed a contract to join Callaway’s Tour Staff.

“I played with Callaway equipment in college and amateur golf, and I know that this is the best decision for me,’’ said Meyer. “It was a natural choice to join Callaway.’’

Hardy, his Illini teammate the last four years, is four-for-four in surviving the cuts in pro events. He received invites to two tournaments on the PGA Tour and two on the Web.com circuit, and his winnings in barely a month as a pro is $37,671.

Meyer, Hardy and Stricker all finished at 10-under-par in the John Deere Classic. Stricker, also an Illinois alum, won that tournament three times and opted to return to the Quad Cities’ PGA Tour stop rather than play in the PGA Tour Champions major – the Constellation Senior Players Championship – at Exmoor.

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 U.S. Women’s Opens — the first when she was just 18 – and four LPGA Championships. Her mother, Andy Cohn-Fischer, played on the LPGA Tour in the 1960s after her graduation from Northwestern.

“When my mother went to Northwestern they had a girls’ team, but it wasn’t run the way the college teams are today,’’ said Fischer. “The Gleacher Center (the indoor practice facility for NU golf teams now) was a swimming pool back then. My mother had a different experience than the kids have today.’’

Jamie went to Texas on a golf scholarship and was an assistant women’s coach at Northwestern under then-head coach Chris Regenberg for several years before beginning her 11-year stint as director of instruction at Conway Farms.

While she has rarely competed in recent years, Fischer decided to try it after learning the Senior Women’s Open was coming, and it didn’t hurt that a sectional qualifier was at Conway Farms either. She shot 77 to finish third to claim one of the 62 finalists’ berths awarded to sectional qualifiers. Both her parents will be attending the finals.

In addition to the tournament practice days Fischer played Chicago Golf Club twice with members in recent weeks. Her mother played against Senior Women’s Open entrants JoAnne Carner, Hollis Stacey and Pat Bradley during her time on tour and Jamie has two college teammates in the field who also survived sectional qualifiers in Sue Ginter and Lisa DePaolo.

Oldest player in the field is Murle Breer, who is 79. Carner, the only woman to win the U.S. Girls Junior, U.S. Amateur and U.S. Open titles, is also 79. Carner will hit the first tee shot off the No. 1 tee at 7 a.m. on Thursday. The field includes players from 12 countries. Ten are 65 or older, and 29 are amateurs.

Bullington, India in JDC

Frankfort’s Brian Bullington and Deerfield’s Vince India survived Monday’s final qualifying round to earn spots in the PGA Tour’s John Deere Classic. Illinois’ only annual PGA Tour event begins its four-day run at TPC Deere Run in Silvis on Thursday.

JDC qualifying has become a popular affair. An abundance of entrance necessitated two pre-qualifiers being held last week before Monday’s final elimination at Pinnacle Golf Club in Milan. Bullington was low man with an 8-under-par 63 and India tied for second after posting a 65. Both played collegiately at Iowa and have been struggling to get into tournaments on the Web.com Tour this season.

The PGA Tour also announced its 2018-19 schedule on Tuesday and it produced no change for the JDC. It will be held July 8-14 and remain the week before the British Open. As expected, the BMW Championship, which returns to the Chicago area in 2019 — but at Medinah instead of Conway Farms — shifts from September dates to Aug. 12-18 as the second event of the FedEx Cup Playoffs.

Here and there

The U.S. Golf Association will collaborate with the Chicago District Golf Association and Illinois Junior Golf Association on a Play9 Community Day on Saturday at Cantigny’s Youth Links in Wheaton. There’ll be a nine-hole round in the morning and a clinic for the participants at Chicago Golf Club from noon-2 p.m. while the Senior Women’s Open is in progress.

Tournament play won’t stop after the Senior Women’s Open and Constellation Senior Players Championship at Exmoor, in Highland Park, end on Sunday. The 24th Illinois Women’s Open begins its three-day run at Mistwood, in Romeoville, on Monday and the three-day 88th Illinois State Amateur starts the following day at Bloomington Country Club.

The Illinois PGA Senior Masters tournament will be held on Monday at Onwentsia, in Lake Forest. This year’s honorees are Don Habjan, from Makray Memorial in Barrington, and Ron Skubisz, from Pottawatomie in St. Charles.

This is an ideal time for the top college golf stars to get a jump-start on their professional careers, and Illinois’ Dylan Meyer has already done just that.

After four years of stardom for the Illini Meyer made his professional debut at the U.S. Open. After surviving sectional qualifying he finished in a tie for 20th place, and that was worth $122,387. Then, like many of the top collegians, he received a sponsor’s exemption into a PGA Tour event, last week’s Quickens National. He tied for 17th and picked up another $96,086.

Meyer has at least one more chance to cash in next week, along with former Illini teammate Nick Hardy and Arlington Heights resident Doug Ghim – the national collegiate player-of-the-year for Texas. They are among the invitees to Illinois’ only annual PGA Tour stop, the John Deere Classic at TPC Deere Run in Silvis, Ill.

The JDC, in its usual spot on the PGA Tour schedule – a week before the British Open, has a $5.8 million purse on the line for its July 12-15 tournament rounds.

Hardy, who survived the 36-hole cut at last year’s JDC while competing as an amateur, is three-for-three in making cuts since turning pro at the Rust-Oleum Championship last month at Ivanhoe Club. Combining his invites to two Web.com Tour events and the PGA Tour’s Travelers Championship Hardy has pocketed $19,575 in his first month as a pro.

Ghim, who played in the U.S. Open as an amateur, earned his first check at the Quicken Loans National — $13,987 for a tie for 71st. Sponsor’s exemptions are an annual sidelight to the JDC, as tournament director Clair Peterson pays special attention to the collegiate ranks in awarding his invitations.

This year, though, the young pros will be part of one of the strongest fields in JDC history. Bryson DeChambeau is the defending champion, and he’s adjusted quickly to the professional ranks after winning the 2015 U.S. Amateur at Olympia Fields. He claimed his second professional victory last month at the Memorial tournament and is already a strong contender to make the U.S. Ryder Cup team for this fall’s matches in France.

Steve Stricker, who won the JDC three times before turning 50 and eligible for PGA Tour Champions, has opted to return the John Deere rather than play in the Constellation Senior Players Championship – one of the five majors on the 50-and-over circuit. It’ll be played at Exmoor, in Highland Park, the same days as the JDC.

In addition to veterans like Zach Johnson, Davis Love III, Ryan Moore and Kevin Streelman, the JDC has picked up Brandt Snedeker, who tied for second in his last appearance in the tourney in 2009, and two notable foreign stars – Italy’s Francesco Molinari and 19-year old Chilean sensation Joaquin Niemann. Molinari claimed his first win on the PGA Tour at the Quicken Loans National last Sunday.

Young at heart

Ellen Port, who has won four U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur titles and three U.S. Women’s Senior Amateur crowns, competed against much younger players in last week’s Women’s Western Amateur at Mistwood in Romeoville. The St. Louis resident did it for one big reason – she wanted to get ready for the inaugural U.S. Senior Women’s Open, also July 12-15 at Chicago Golf Club.

Port, 57, hadn’t played in the Western Amateur since 2005 and her 119 rivals were mainly elite college players. Port had won the St. Louis Women’s Metro Championship for the 17th time before heading to Mistwood, because she needed a bigger challenge to tune up for the Senior Open.

“Every tournament is big, and the Women’s Western Amateur is wonderful,’’ said Port, a high school teacher and coach for 32 years before spending the last three as the women’s golf coach at Washington University. “But the inaugural U.S. Women’s Senior Open – there’s only one of them, so it’s a big one. I love the Western, and I’ve jumped into events before that I wasn’t really ready for. That’s why I got as good as I was as quickly as I did.’’

Posting scores of 78 and 81 on a par-72 course set up at 6,131 yards, Port wasn’t among the 32 players who qualified for the match play portion of the Western Am but she’s excited about competing against legendary touring pros like Pat Bradley, Jane Blalock, Juli Inkster and Jan Stephenson on a par-73 course 46 yards shorter than the one she played at Mistwood.

Exmoor update

The third event sharing the July 12-15 dates, the Constellation Senior Players Championship, is the second of three consecutive majors for PGA Tour Champions players. David Tomas won the U.S. Senior Open at The Broadmoor in Colorado on Sunday and the British Senior Open follows the Exmoor stop from July 23-29 at St. Andrews, in Scotland.

The Western Golf Association will conduct the Exmoor tourney, the first major in the Chicago area for senior men since the 1997 U.S. Senior Open at Olympia Fields. Gates at Exmoor open to the public on Wednesday, July 11 for the Accenture Pro-Am, and the tournament rounds will be held the next four days.

An imposing weather forecast for Sunday will create a viewers’ headache for the climax to the 64th KPMG Women’s PGA Championship, and that’s a shame. The expected duel for the title between Korean So Yeon Ryu and Canadian Brooke Henderson should be a dandy, based on how both performed in Saturday’s third round.

Normally players are sent off in twosomes off the No. 1 hole in major tournaments, but that won’t be the case Sunday. With heavy afternoon rain expected tournament officials opted to get both players and spectators off the Kemper Lakes course as early as possible.

So, players will be sent off in threesome off both the Nos. 1 and 10 tees. Starting times will run from 7:19 to 9:31 a.m. and both NBC Sports and Golf Channel apps and digital platforms will stream the action live from 11:45 a.m. to 2:45 p.m. NBC will provide taped coverage, as originally planned, at 2 p.m.

There’s always the possibility of a player charging into contention after starting the round well before the leaders, but there was no indication that would happen on Saturday. The same three players that shared the 36-hole lead still hold the top three positions on the leaderboard. There’s just no longer a tie at the top.

Ryu, who shot the best score in Round 3 – a 5-under-par 67 – owns a three-stroke lead on Henderson, who posted a 70 after fading in the late stages of the back nine on Saturday. Ryu stands at 11-under 205 for the 54 holes.

Henderson led for most of the day, and the only other player to get to the top of the leaderboard was Sun Hyun Park, another Korean who started the day tied with Ryu and Henderson for the top spot. Park claimed it for herself after making a 12-foot birdie putt at No. 1. That triggered a day of momentum shifts, and Park – one stroke behind Henderson – could also be a factor on Sunday.

Henderson pulled even with Park with an eight-foot birdie putt at No. 2 and took solo possession of the lead with two more birds at Nos. 6 and 7. At the turn she owned a two-stroke lead on Ryu and kept it for four more holes.

Though Henderson stayed in front, a key moment came at the par-5 11th. Ryu got up-and-down for birdie from a green-side bunker, sinking a 15-foot putt.

“That was really, really important momentum for me,’’ “ said Ryu. “After that I felt more comfortable on the putting greens, and I was able to make some birdies.’’

Once Ryu’s putter started working Henderson’s didn’t. She had an eight-footer for eagle on No. 11 but missed so her lead remained at two, and it stayed there when Henderson missed a five-birdie try at No. 12.

With those opportunities to pad her lead gone, Henderson struggled. A birdie by Ryu and a bogey by Henderson at the short par-4 14th created a two-shot swing that created a tie at the top of the leaderboard and Ryu took sole possession of the lead when her 20-foot putt dropped for birdie on its last revolution at No. 15. Henderson couldn’t answer, missing her 15-footer for bird.

Ryu added two strokes to her advantage on the three holes of The Gauntlet – the toughest finishing stretch in Chicago golf. A par was good enough to add a stroke to her lead at No. 16 because Henderson missed her par putt from five feet. Then Ryu made a spectacular birdie at the finishing hole, smacking a perfect drive around the dogleg left before putting her approach to five feet.

Henderson, playing with a new putter this week, missed from 10 feet before Ryu finished off her birdie. She needed only 12 putts on the back nine.

“I struggled with my putter, which is disappointing, but hopefully I can just get better in my mind and go out tomorrow and make some birdies. Hopefully I can get the speed of the greens down in the morning and get confident with my putting again.’’

Henderson has the better record in the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship. She tied for fifth as a sponsor’s exemption in 2015, won it in 2016 and was runner-up last year at Olympia Fields.

Ryu, seven years older after celebrating her 28th birthday on Friday, has the better overall record. She has won two of the women’s majors – the 2011 U.S. Women’s Open and 2017 ANA Inspiration. She’s also been second in the Evian Championship, third in the British Open and fourth in the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship. That was in 2016.

With those near-misses, Ryu is starting to think about winning the women’s Grand Slam.

“Winning this tournament would be huge,’’ she said. “I’ve started to dream about becoming a Grand Slammer and right now I’m in a good position to achieve another dream (winning the second-oldest tournament in women’s golf). I definitely want to be part of the history.’’

There are four players named Park on the Ladies PGA tour roster, and they’re all good.

The best known in Inbee Park, three-time winner of the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship and the current No. 1-ranked player in the Rolex World Rankings. Hee Young Park has won twice on the circuit and Jane Park calls Chicago her hometown though she lives in Georgia. She has career winnings over $2 million.

It was Sung Hyun Park who ruled the day in the first round of the 64th KPMG Women’s PGA Championship at Kemper Lakes, however. A late starter, she toured the course that also hosted the 1989 men’s PGA Championship in 6-under-par 66.

This Park, 24, won the 2017 U.S. Women’s Open en route to becoming the first player to win Rookie of the Year and Player of the Year awards in the same year since Nancy Lopez in 1978. She also became the fastest player in LPGA history to reach $2 million in career earnings, doing it in 19 starts spanning barely seven months.

A change in putters triggered Park’s hot round. She changed TaylorMade models, switching from a Spider to a Black version that – at 34 inches – is an inch longer than the one she had been using.

“It’s going to get hotter and more difficult as the rounds go on,’’ said Park. “It’s a major tournament and I’m getting more nervous, but I’m doing my best.’’

Softened by four inches of rain earlier this week, Kemper was somewhat of a walk in the park for the 156 women who teed off in the LPGA’s third major championship of 2018.

Park, born in Korea but residing in Orlando, Fla., held only a one-stroke lead on five players headed by Canadian Brooke Henderson. Only 20, Henderson already has a sterling record in the tournament, finishing fifth while playing on a sponsor’s exemption in 2016, winning the title in 2017 and finishing one stroke behind winner Danielle Kang last year at Olympia Fields.

Henderson, also an afternoon starter, came charging midway through her round. She made birdies on seven of her last 10 holes to pull into a tie with long-hitting American Jessica Korda and Jaye Marie Green, who said she’s struggling with “family troubles at home’’ but wouldn’t elaborate further. Another American, Brittany Altomare, joined the group at 5-under late in the day.

The low scoring – 50 players bettered par — was no surprise. The softened greens were helpful, there was little wind and the course setup was 102 yards shorter than the listed tournament yardage. Henderson said she had mud balls on “like every hole’’ but the lift, clean and place rule wasn’t in effect.

Despite the array of low scores, none of the three players in the featured group – Inbee Park, Ariya Jutanugarn and Kang – could finish in red numbers. Inbee and Jutanugarn are 1-2 in the Rolex World Rankings. Jutanugarn’s sister Moriya finished at 4-under and in a four-way tie for sixth.

Though Lexi Thompson and Brittany Marchand makes holes-in-one and Michelle Wie had a hot streak with four birdies in a five-hole stretch, it was Henderson who made the fastest climb up the leaderboard after a slow start.

She missed the fairway on her first tee shot and missed the first two greens, leading to a pair of quick bogeys, but she recovered quickly. She shot 30 on her back nine (actually holes 1-9 because Henderson started play at No. 10).

“That gives me a lot of confidence and momentum going into (Friday), which is nice,’’ she said. “I was just trying to have a really good, solid score but — starting the first two holes like I did – that drops your momentum. Brit (her sister and caddie) helped me through it. We started grinding away, then slowly things started to turn around.’’

The turn-around was climaxed by a 50-foot birdie putt at No. 9, the last hole of her round. Like Sung Hun Park, Henderson benefitted from a putting change made this week. It worked playing with men pros in a Rhode Island exhibition on Monday and there was a carryover to her play at Kemper Lakes.

“One putter was a blade and this one is a mallet, so it was a pretty big change,’’ said Henderson. “The one I’m using now might be an inch or two longer and has a different grip. It’s like everything is different, which is a good thing.’’

The world’s No. 1-ranked woman’s golfer has barely played half the tournaments as her leading rivals have, but don’t worry about Korean Inbee Park heading into Thursday’s start of the 64th KPMG Women’s PGA Championship.

Park has played in only nine tournaments this season, and that was by design. At 29 she’s learned that her body is more vulnerable to injury than it was from 2013 to 2015 when she won this – the second-oldest tournament in women’s golf — three years in a row. Sweden’s Annika Sorenstam, retired since 2008, is the only other player to win three in a row, pulling off the feat from 2003-05.

With 19 career wins on the LPGA tour, including seven major titles, Park was unquestionably the dominant player in women’s golf during her three-year hot streak.

But that was then, and this is now.

“I learned an expensive lesson the last couple years. I just can’t play every week now,’’ said Park during a break in Wednesday’s last day of pre-tournament preparation for the 156 starters. “A couple of injuries the last couple of years got me worried and more cautious of what I can play. Scheduling-wise I didn’t want to push myself so hard.’’

Her tournaments leading in to the third of the LPGA’s five annual majors may only number nine, but they’ve been a good nine. She’s yet to miss a cut and has five top-10 finishes which include a win at the Bank of Hope Founders Cup and a runner-up at the ANA Inspiration — one of the other majors.

Park will be in the featured group on Thursday, teeing off with No. 2-ranked Ariya Jutanugarn, the U.S. Women’s Open champion from Thailand, and defending champion Danielle Kang, who became the first American winner in the tourney in seven years when she triumphed last year at Olympia Fields.

“I’m really happy to play with them,’’ said Park. “They both have good momentum going into this week, and momentum is always a good thing to have in a group.’’

Park and Jutanugarn are among only three players who have top 10 finishes in both of the two majors contested so far this year. In addition to her runner-up finish in the Inspiration Park was ninth in the U.S. Open. Jutanugarn, who tied for fourth in the Inspiration, is the only player to win twice in the LPGA’s first 16 tournaments of 2018.

The only other player to crack the top 10 in the year’s first two majors was England’s Charley Hull, who tied for sixth in the Inspiration and tied for 10th in the Open.

Park, Jutanugarn and Kang will go off Kemper’s No. 1 hole at 8:10 a.m., and tee times will run though 2:40 p.m. so it’ll be a long day of challenging golf. All the players have shown respect for the 39-year old Kemper Lakes course that hosted the late Payne Stewart’s victory in the men’s PGA Championship of 1989.

“It’s a true major championship golf course setting,’’ said Park. “Even par all week is going to be a very good score. I really love this golf course.’’

Park fears that this week’s heavy rains will soften the Kildeer layout and give an advantage to longer hitters like Jutanugarn, but that isn’t really her major concern. Park’s Las Vegas home was burglarized last week. That’s been a bigger worry than the golf tournament.

“I’ve been really stressing about that the last four days,’’ said Park. “Talking to the police, it’s so hard trying to figure out what’s lost when you’re not there — but this is the life we get on the road. A lot of our things are in Korea, so we have to figure that out a little more.’’

Returning to competition at least provides a respite from that problem.

This year’s field is again the strongest and deepest in women’s golf. For the third straight year it includes all of the top 100 money-winners on the LPGA tour this season. It also includes 29 winners of major championships, and those 29 have combined to claim 62 such titles.

Besides Park three of the other starters have won this tournament multiple times – Laura Davies (1994 and 1996), Juli Inkster (1999 and 2000) and Yani Tseng (2008, 2011).

The tourney was known as the LPGA Championship from 1955 until 2016, when KPMG took over sponsorship duties and the PGA of America replaced the LPGA as tournament organizer. Prize money is up to $3,650,000 and Sunday’s champion will pocket $547,500.

How time flies. In 2011 Thailand’s Ariya Jutanugarn won the U.S. Junior Girls tournament at Olympia Fields. Now she’s one of the very best players in women’s golf with a No. 2 world ranking, winner of nine LPGA tournaments the champion in two majors including this year’s U.S. Women’s Open.

Olympia wasn’t so kind to Jutanugarn in last year’s KPMG Women’s PGA Championship, however. After finishing third in the tourney in 2016 she missed the cut at the south suburban private club and her prospects in this week’s staging of the tournament at Kemper Lakes in Kildeer are precarious at best.

On Monday she played the back nine – her first look at the course that hosted the men’s PGA Championship in 1989 – and on Tuesday her afternoon pro-am round was delayed by heavy morning rains.

Her first comparison of the two Chicago area courses hosting the event in consecutive years suggests a tough week is ahead.

“I didn’t play much golf in this tournament last year – only two rounds,’’ she said. “Both the courses are pretty hard, but this one is even harder. The fairways are really tight. The rough is really thick and the greens are very, very big and really slow. Actually, everything is pretty hard.’’

Already she’s decided that the driver won’t be in her game plan for the start of tournament play on Thursday.

“No chance,’’ she said. “I can’t hit it here. I’m just going to keep hitting 2-iron and 3-wood.’’

She quickly came to appreciate The Gauntlet, the name the Kemper membership recently gave to the last three holes. Nos. 16, 17 and 18 are considered the toughest finishing stretch in all of Chicago golf and Jutanugarn won’t argue with that.

“Every hole is pretty tough, and the last three are really, really tough,’’ she said. “It’s going to be a really great finish because of that.’’

Here and there

Arlington Heights resident Doug Ghim, the collegiate player-of-the-year at the University of Texas, played his first event as a professional with a new caddie. Lance Bennett was on Ghim’s bag at last week’s Travelers Championship in Hartford, Ct., and will carry for him again this week in the Quicken Loans National in the Washington D.C., area. Bennett had previously carried for Matt Kuchar, Bill Haas and Daniel Berger on the PGA Tour while Ghim used his father Jeff as his caddie when he played as an amateur.

The Illinois PGA had not one but two near-misses in last week’s PGA Professionals Championship in Oregon. The top 20 in the field earned berths in August’s PGA Championship at Bellerive in St. Louis. Brian Carroll, head professional at Royal Hawk in St. Charles, and Dakun Chang, assistant pro at Twin Orchard in Long Grove, were in a nine-way tie for 16th place. Both were eliminated in a playoff for the final five spots in the field reserved for club professionals.

Weather problems severely hampered last week’s major amateur events. The 101st Western Junior at Evanston Golf Club in Skokie was reduced from 72 to 36 and Jeff Doty of Carmel, Ind., was awarded the title by virtue of being the 36-hole leader. In the 99th Chicago District Amateur the final between Illinois State teammates David Perkins of East Peoria and Trent Wallace of Joliet was reduced from 36 to 18 holes. Perkins won on the fifth extra hole.

PGA Tour player Kevin Streelman will host a day of stories, golf and fun for junior golfers at Cantigny, in Wheaton, on July 9. Pre-registration is required.

The renovation of the Players Nine at Schaumburg Golf Club has been completed and those holes will re-open on Saturday.

Kemper Lakes has a rich history for hosting men’s tournaments. With the women it’s a little different.

This week’s KPMG Women’s PGA Championship is by far the club’s biggest ever. The only one that comes close was 26 years ago when Kemper was still a public facility. In 1992 the U.S. Women’s Amateur was played there. It had a famous finalist, with Annika Sorenstam losing 1-up to the dominant amateur of that era, Vickie Goetze.

Consider how much women’s golf has changed since then. Kemper went fully private 15 years later. Goetze, after a winless 18-year career as an LPGA Tour player, is now the president of the LPGA Players Association and – in the most meaningful change of all – Sorenstam is retired as a player after a Hall of Fame career.

The LPGA’s most dominant player since Kathy Whitworth, the Sweden-born Sorenstam won 72 LPGA tournaments (a record 90 internationally as a professional) and over $22 million in prize money.

When Sorenstam competed at Kemper she was a promising 21-year old senior at Arizona, having won the 1991 NCAA title and making the cut in the 1992 U.S. Women’s Open.

“Other than the NCAA, that was my first really big tournament,’’ recalled Sorenstam. “She was No. 1 amateur then. I was just arriving, but I remember Kemper Lakes as a good match play course and playing there was a big deal for me – a big tournament in a big city on a big stage. I had zero expectations.’’

She handed the title to Goetze with a water ball on the 18th hole after battling back from 2-down with three holes to play to get the match back to all square

“I vividly remember that match. In the last four holes I felt that I was leaking oil, but it wasn’t so much that,’’ said Goetze (now Vickie Goetze-Ackerman). “Annika was taking the match away. It all worked out well for me in the end, and it was such a good match. At that time the U.S. Women’s Amateur matches weren’t televised. After that they were, and I felt that part of the reason was that ours had been such a good one.’’

Sorenstam fared better when she returned to Chicago as a professional. She won back-to-back titles in the Kellogg-Keebler Classic, an LPGA tour event played at Stonebridge Country Club in Aurora in 2002 and 2003. The first of those wins was by an 11-stroke margin.

No player dominated women’s golf the way Sorenstam did. She triggered a power shift to on the circuit after American players had dominated for four decades. Now only one American (No. 9 Jessica Korda) is among the top 10 on this year’s money list.

The first non-American superstar in women’s golf, Sorenstam was player-of-the-year eight times in 11 years from 1995 to 2005. No American has been player-of-the-year since 1993 and only Mexico’s Lorena Ochoa has approached Sorenstam’s record. Ochoa was player-of-the-year four straight times from 2006-09 as Sorenstam was winding down her career. She stepped away from the game in 2008.

The LPGA has also thrived in its numerous returns to Chicago. Australian Karrie Webb won the U.S. Women’s Open at Merit Club, in Libertyville, in 2000 and Danielle Kang took the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship at Olympia Fields last year. Those were the only two women’s majors played in the Chicago area since Kemper hosted the Goetze-Sorenstam duel 26 years ago.

A bigger impact for women’s golf came in 2009, when Rich Harvest Farms, in Sugar Grove, hosted the Solheim Cup matches. That emerged as a rousing battle with the U.S. team beating its European counterpart. Another team event, the fledgling UL International Crown, was also played at the Merit Club in 2016 but with far less fanfare.

While Sorenstam’s appearance at Kemper this week is doubtful, Goetze-Ackerman will be there. She retired as a player in 2009 and three years later became the president of the LPGA Players Association. It takes her to half of the LPGA tournaments in North America each year and a few others overseas.

Goetze-Ackerman has been reluctant to attend major championships, believing that players would rather concentrate on their games at those crucial times of the season rather than discuss political issues. She was, however, at Olympia Fields for last year’s KPMG Women’s PGA Championship and will be at Kemper Lakes as well. Pre-tournament activities start on Tuesday and the 72-hole competition on Thursday.

“I’m looking forward to coming back and looking at the golf course,’’ she said. “ At Olympia Fields I never set foot on the course, but I’ll be walking around Kemper Lakes. I will have to spend some extra days there.’’

Golf’s only major championship presently scheduled at a Chicago area course tees off next week when the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship comes to Kemper Lakes in Kildeer.

The event, one of five majors on the Ladies PGA Tour, was played at Olympia Fields last year with Danielle Kang the champion. Based on what’s been happening on the LPGA circuit the last few weeks this year’s tourney may have a different cast of leading characters when it comes to Kemper starting on June 26.

Canadian Brooke Henderson was the defending champion at Olympia, but she finished runner-up to Kang. Both pulled out of tournaments in the last two weeks for what was initially declared “personal reasons.’’

Henderson was a WD from the biggest event — U.S. Women’s Open — and it was later revealed that her grandfather had died. She was back in action as the defending champion at last week’s Meijer Classic in Grand Rapids, Mich., but wasn’t her usual sharp self, finishing in a tie for 44th place.

Kang played well in the U.S. Women’s Open, finishing fourth behind champion Ariya Jutanugarn of Thailand, but she pulled out of the Meijer Classic after playing 11 holes. No reason for that withdrawal has been given, though Kang said she’d return to the tour for the Northwest Arkansas Championship, this week’s LPGA stop, which begins its 54-hole run on Friday.

Meanwhile, Jutanugarn ‘s play tailed off after she won the most recent of the LPGA majors. She was in a tie for 56th place after three rounds of the Meijer tournament a week later but caught fire in the final round, shooting a 10-under-par 62 that included a 29 on the front nine. She finished the event in a tie for 12th.

Also showing at least some good form in the Meijer event was the best American player, Lexi Thompson. She shot 67-67 in the weekend rounds, but that wasn’t good enough to keep up with South Korean So Yeon Ryu. She posted a sizzling 21-under-par over 72 holes at Blythefield Country Club.

Last year Ryu moved to No. 1 in the Official World Golf Rankings prior to hitting her first tee shot at Olympia Fields. The rankings have changed a bit since then, however. Ryu is now No. 5 behind Korean Inbee Park, Jutanugarn, Thompson and China’s Shanshan Feng. Ryu may be ready to make a move back to the top spot at Kemper Lakes, however.

Her victory in Michigan was her sixth career win on the LPGA Tour, but her first of this season. She is the defending champion in the Northwest Arkansas Championship and – unlike virtually every other player in the field – Ryu has already paid a visit to Kemper Lakes to get ready for the next major championship.

Here and there

Japan’s Eriko Gejo was the only player under par in the Chicago qualifier for next month’s inaugural U.S. Senior Women’s Open. She shot a 1-under 70 at Conway Farms in Lake Forest on Monday. Conway’s only Chicago area qualifier for next month’s finals at Chicago Golf Club in Wheaton was Lake Forest’s Jamie Fischer, who shot 77 to finish third.

Norridge’s Sabrina Bonanno, a recent graduate of Arkansas-Little Rock, is the new Illinois State Women’s Amateur champion. She defeated defending champion Kelly Sterling of Mokena for the title at Rockford’s Aldeen course. Bonanno led the stroke play qualifying with a 67 and none of her matches went beyond the 15th hole.

The Chicago area has a second qualifier for next week’s U.S. Senior Open at The Broadmoor in Colorado. Gary March, a teaching professional at Mount Prospect, was co-medalist in a qualifier at the Warren course in South Bend. He joins Roy Biancalana, who survived an early elimination at Village Links of Glen Ellyn.

Maddie Szeryk won’t defend her Women’s Western Amateur title next week at Mistwood in Romeoville. She’ll compete in the British Ladies Amateur instead but her sister Ellie will be in the field at Mistwood.

The Kids Golf Foundation, based at Rich Harvest Farms in Sugar Grove, has announced its large single donation to date — $1 million from the Hansberger family. The Hansbergers had guided Ram, a long-time golf equipment manufacturer.

The 57th Radix Cup at Oak Park Country Club last week ended in a 10-8 win for the Chicago District Golf Association’s amateur team over the Illinois PGA’s best professionals, and the competition had some individual highlights. Jim Billiter, the Kemper Lakes pro, holed a 260-yard 3-wood shot for the first albatross in Radix history. Taylorville amateur Dave Ryan made a hole-in-one and Matt Murlick of Winnetka Golf Club, chipped in three times for the amateurs.

The 99th Chicago District Amateur concludes Thursday at Briarwood in Deerfield. So does the 101st Western Golf Association’s Junior Championship, which is being played at Evanston Golf Club in Skokie.

The 118th U.S. Open tees off on Thursday at New York’s Shinnecock Hills course with the usual representation of Chicago players among the 156 starters. This year it’s a little different, however, because two of local hopefuls are amateurs.

For Arlington resident Doug Ghim it’ll be his last event before turning pro. He got into his first U.S. Open the same way he got into his first Masters in April. Both spots were due to his runner-up finish in last fall’s U.S. Amateur and Ghim needed to maintain his amateur status to take advantage of the invite to Shinnecock.

Ghim did well in the Masters. He was only amateur to make the cut, finishing in a tie for 50th place and making three eagles along the way to earn some crystal souvenirs. Once his last putt drops at Shinnecock Hills Ghim will shift his focus to playing for money.

Thanks to his sterling record as an amateur – he won the Ben Hogan Award as the nation’s best collegiate player in his senior season at Texas – Ghim has already been awarded sponsor’s exemptions to three PGA Tour events – next week’s Travelers Championship in Hartford, Ct.; the Quicken Loans Invitational in Potomac, Md., the following week and the John Deere Classic in downstate Silvis next month.

Ryan Lumsden, who just completed his junior season at Northwestern, also will play in the U.S. Open as an amateur. Lumsden, from Scotland, survived the sectional qualifying tournament in Columbus, Ohio, but he has another year of collegiate eligibility remaining.

Dylan Meyer, who concluded his collegiate eligibility at Illinois, qualified for the U.S. Open with a second-place finish in the Springfield, Ohio, sectional. The U.S. Open will be Meyer’s pro debut, and he also has secured sponsor’s invites to play at Harford and Potomac.

Meyer will join his former Illini teammate, Nick Hardy, at Hartford. Hardy didn’t attempt to qualify for the U.S. Open, a championship he played twice as an amateur. He made his pro debut at last week’s Rust-Oleum Championship, a Web.com Tour stop at Ivanhoe Club, and earned $3,070 for a tie for 33rd place.

Hardy also has invites to play in Illinois’ other Web.com event – the Lincoln Land Championship at Panther Creek in Springfield – and the PGA Tour’s John Deere Classic in downstate Silvis., Ill. He also was invite made the cut at TPC Deere Run in 2017 athe Chicago area. Jon Jennings, the Shinnecock course superintendent since 2012, came to New York after serving in a similar position at Chicago Golf Club in Wheaton from 2000 to 2012.

Radix Cup on tap

The Radix Cup matches between the stars of the Chicago District Golf Association and the Illinois PGA will be played for the 57th time Wednesday (TODAY) at Oak Park Country Club in River Forest.

While the CDGA’s amateur stars won last year’s competition 10-8, that team will have eight Radix Cup rookies in its 12-man lineup this time. The CDGA unit has two veterans, however. Taylorville’s Dave Ryan is making his 15th appearance and Bloomington’s Todd Mitchell his 14th.

The IPGA has a notable Radix veteran as well. Medinah teaching pro Rich Dukelow has played in the matches 12 times, counting both his time as an amateur and a professional.

There’ll be six better ball matches, the first going off at 12:45 p.m. Though the IPGA owns a commanding 35-19-2 lead in the series the teams are both 4-4 in matches played over the last eight years.

Here and there

The 85th playing of the Illinois Women’s State Amateur concludes on Thursday at Aldeen in Rockford.

Chicago’s qualifying round for the first-ever U.S. Senior Women’s Open will be played on Monday (JUNE 18) at Conway Farms in Lake Forest. Thirty-three players will battle for five berths in the championship proper July 12-15 at Chicago Golf Club.

The 101st Western Golf Association Junior Championship begins its four –day run on Monday at Evanston Golf Club in Skokie. William Mouw of Chino, Calif., is the defending champion. Past titlists include PGA Tour mainstays Ricky Fowler, Jim Furyk and Hunter Mahan.

The Golf Scene, hosted by Steve Kashul, celebrated its 25th year on Sunday in its first show of this season. It’s the longest-airing golf show in the nation.

Entries are still available for the Blackberry Oaks Amateur, June 23-24 in Bristol.