Play in next week’s Illinois PGA Championship won’t resemble the birdie blitz that was witnessed by visitors to the PGA Tour’s BMW Championship at Medinah last week, but this IPGA has been conducting the event since 1922 and the golf is plenty good. Since 2001 the IPGA Championship has been dominated by University of Illinois…
Daily Herald Columns
WGA reaches a milestone in caddie scholarships
No matter what happens in the BMW Championship at Medinah the week will have been a success as far as John Kaczkowski, the Western Golf Association president and executive director, is concerned. “We’re thrilled to announce that we have achieved our goal of having a record 1,000 caddies enrolled in college,’’ Kaczkowski told a gathering…
This Illinois Open field is filled with proven competitors
The 70th Illinois Open, always the premier event of the season for local players, tees off next week with a field that resembles a walk down memory lane. There’ll be seven past champions among the 156 starters, and they have combined to win 11 titles. The last two amateurs to win the coveted title –…
New look will soon be unveiled at the Weibring course at ISU
D.A. Weibring is certainly well known as a player within the Illinois ranks. He won the John Deere Classic three times and scored an unusual victory in the 1987 Western Open, a tournament that was split between two courses, Butler National and Oak Brook Golf Club, after flooding left Butler with only nine holes playable….
Women’s Western Amateur, IWO go head-to-head
This is the most recent instance for unfortunate tournament scheduling. The two biggest women’s tournaments of the Chicago season are going head-to-head this week. The 119th playing of the Women’s Western Amateur began Tuesday at Royal Melbourne, in Long Grove, and the Illinois Women’s Open began its 25th anniversary celebration on the same day at…
Frittelli looks like a Spieth replica in winning his first JDC
SILVIS, IL. – Jordan Spieth was one of the most popular champions in the history of the John Deere Classic. Spieth won ii in 2013 when he was just 19 and took the title again two years later. Spieth has never been back, but one of his teammates on the University of Texas’ national championship…
Dylan Meyer gets into this JDC thanks to a hot round in qualifier
Dylan Meyer, the former University of Illinois star, has been basically mediocre since turning professional at the 2018 U.S. Open. He took a big step forward on Monday, however, when he shot a 7-under-par 65 to survive the qualifying round for the John Deere Classic, this week’s PGA Tour stop at TPC Deere Run in…
Defending JDC champion hopes to end streak of missed cuts
The PGA Tour returns to Illinois next week and will stage two tournaments in the state in a six-week span. The 49th John Deere Classic is up first. Pre-tournament festivities begin Monday at TPC Deere Run in Silvis, on the outskirts of Moline. Then the final BMW Championship, a FedEx Cup Playoff event, comes to…
Nicklaus (Gary, not Jack) spices up the field in U.S. Senior Open
The U.S. Golf Association doesn’t bring nearly as many of its championships to the Chicago area as it once did. That’s why this week’s U.S. Senior Open is worth savoring. It’ll begin its four-day run on Thursday at Notre Dame’s Warren course in South Bend. Jeff Sluman, the only Chicago regular on PGA Tour Champions,…
Woodland is just the latest Wilson staff player to win a major title
The 119th U.S. Open ended on Sunday, but it won’t be forgotten – certainly not at Chicago’s biggest golf equipment company. Tim Clarke, who heads Wilson’s golf division, added Gary Woodland to the company’s player ambassador staff last winter and Woodland delivered big time. Woodland won the title at Pebble Beach, and that should pay…