The Chicago District Golf Assn. revamped its tournament schedule this year, and the biggest change comes this week when the men’s 83rd Illinois State Amateur tees off a month earlier than previous years. It began a three-day 72-hole run at Aldeen, in Rockford, on Tuesday. After its conclusion on Thursday many of the same players…
Daily Herald Columns
Bradley, bigger foreign contingent give JDC strongest field ever
Zach Johnson’s title defense and three-time winner Steve Stricker’s return to the PGA Tour may be the focal points of the John Deere Classic, which tees off Thursday in Silvis, IL., on the outskirts of the Quad Cities. The 43-year old $4.6 million championship, though, may have its best field ever thanks to the first-ever…
Affrunti must forget critical 4-putt before teeing off in JDC
Good things may still be ahead for Joe Affrunti, who gets back on the PGA Tour at the John Deere Classic in the Quad Cities in two weeks, but the Crystal Lake golfer will have a hard time forgetting what happened to him in his last tournament. Affrunti, who missed half of his rookie season…
Jeray, Harris are U.S. Women’s Open hopefuls
This week’s golf, both nationally and locally, is all about the women. The U.S. Women’s Open tees off on Thursday at Sebonack, a seven-year old New York course co-designed by Tom Doak and Jack Nicklaus. Meanwhile, the Illinois Women’s Amateur begins the match play portion of its competition on Wednesday (TODAY) and concludes on Friday…
Nick Price returns to Champions Tour at Encompass event
Some of Nick Price’s best days in a Hall of Fame career on the PGA Tour came in Chicago, when he won back-to-back Western Opens at Cog Hill in 1993 and 1994. Price’s participation in this week’s new Encompass Championship is big news on the Champions Tour simply because he’s playing again. He hasn’t competed…
Couples, Lehman, two ex-Bulls give Encompass plenty of star power
Everything’s coming together for next week’s Encompass Championship at North Shore Country Club in Glenview. Fred Couples and Tom Lehman have formally entered the first Champions Tour stop in Chicago since 2002, assuring the event one of the strongest fields on the 50-and-over circuit. The 81 starters include all of the top 10 on the…
Wait to get into U.S. Open begins for Medinah’s Travis Johns
Sectional qualifying for the U.S. Open, aptly dubbed “golf’s longest day,’’ was especially long for the Chicago players hoping to land a berth in the Open proper at Pennsylvania’s Merion course in two weeks. None made it through Monday’s 11 nation-wide 36-hole sectionals, and newly named Medinah assistant pro Travis Johns is the only one…
Chicago hopefuls talke U.S. Open dreams to St. Louis’ Old Warson
St. Louis was the site of the Senior PGA Championship, which concluded on Sunday, and it’ll also be the place of choice for the Chicago golfers who survived local qualifying for the 113th U.S. Open, to be played later this month at Merion in Ardmore, Pa. Old Warson Country Club, in St., Louis, will have…
Hallberg has been Chicago’s best ever home-grown golfer
No Chicago-born and raised golfer has accomplished more than Gary Hallberg, and now he’s coming back. Hallberg was a state high school champion at Barrington, an Illinois Open winner twice, an NCAA champion at Wake Forest and the first player to earn PGA Tour playing privileges without going to qualifying school. As a professional he…
Chicago 10 must travel to find a U.S. Open sectional this year
Chicago’s two local qualifying tournaments for the U.S. Open are over. Now comes the hard part for the 10 golfers who survived. They were the lucky ones among the 180 who entered the 18-hole eliminations at Northmoor, in Highland Park, and Seven Bridges, in Woodridge, the last two weeks. Next up is the U.S. Golf…