The future of the Web.com Tour’s Rust-Oleum Championship may be in doubt, but one thing is certain. The $600,000 event, teeing off at Ivanhoe Club on Thursday, has the loyalty of the best local players. This year’s event marks the professional debut of Northbrook’s Nick Hardy and tourney director Scott Cassin also awarded sponsor exemptions…
Daily Herald Columns
Hardy poised to make his debut as a pro in Web.com stop at Ivanhoe
The college season ended for Northwestern after three rounds of the NCAA finals this week in Stillwater, Okla., and Illinois lasted one more round before an 11th place finish in the stroke play portion of the competition wasn’t good enough to get the Illini back in the top eight match play qualifiers. They will decide…
Langer to miss Senior PGA; NU women bow out of NCAA finals
PGA Tour Champions, the circuit for the men stars who have reached their 50th birthdays, have two of their five major tournaments in easy reach of Chicago this year. The first, though, might not quite feel like a major. Bernhard Langer, who has dominated the circuit for years and won all five of those majors…
Can Northwestern make another run at the NCAA women’s title?
Last year the Northwestern women’s team created a Cinderella story. Coach Emily Fletcher’s team, with only one senior, marched all the way to the championship match at the NCAA finals at Rich Harvest Farms in Sugar Grove. A year later, Fletcher says, “we’ll try to do it again.’’ The Wildcats made the 24-team field for…
Flavin delays decision to go pro, will defend his two state titles
The best golfer in Illinois last season has made his decision. Patrick Flavin won’t turn pro – at least for a while. Last year Flavin became the first player in 37 years to win both the Illinois State Amateur and Illinois Open in the same year. Only David Ogrin, way back in 1980, had accomplished…
Kemper Lakes’ Billiter is in the spotlight as Chicago tournament season tees off
Now things get serious. The 67th playing of the Illinois PGA Match Play Championship kicks off a busy five months of tournament play for Chicago’s best golfers. The host professional defends his title and puts his hopes of retaining his IPGA Player of the Year status will be on the line at Kemper Lakes in…
Recent changes have spurred Streelman’s fast start in PGA Tour season
Kevin Streelman won’t declare his hot start to the 2017-18 PGA Tour season as the best in his 11 years on the circuit but all the major changes he made over the last few months are certainly paying off. With top-10 finishes in the last two tournaments — the RBC Heritage Classic in Hilton Head,…
Lake Forest’s Hopfinger is mounting a bid for a PGA Tour card
The Web.com Tour is billed as the pathway to the PGA Tour, and Lake Forest’s Brad Hopfinger is making progress on that journey. Last fall Hopfinger regained his playing Web.com playing privileges with a gutty showing in two stages of the qualifying school. He survived Stage 2 with a 4-under-par final round to make it…
Hardy, Kelly get invites to Rust-Oleum Championship at Ivanhoe
Two of the very best amateurs in the Chicago ranks will play as professionals for the first time in this season’s first local pro tour event. Tee-K Kelly, two-time Illinois State Amateur champion, and Nick Hardy, who whipped Kelly with a record-setting performance in their last meeting in the State Am, have accepted sponsor’s exemptions…
Doug Ghim’s first Masters was something very special
Maybe a tie for 50th place doesn’t sound great – even if it came in golf’s hallowed Masters tournament. Maybe a 74-74 finish in the weekend rounds and an 8-over-par 296 score for the 72 holes wasn’t worthy of much wild cheering at Augusta National. Make no mistake, though. What Doug Ghim did over four…