The second induction class in the Illinois Junior Golf Hall of Fame will be enshrined tonight at Cantigny, in Wheaton. As was the case with last year’s first class, this one will be headed by a local golfer who went on to win multiple times on the PGA Tour.
Last year it was Wheaton’s Kevin Streelman, who blossomed as a junior player at Cantigny before winning twice on golf’s premier circuit. This year it’s Gary Hallberg. He came out of Barrington to win back-to-back Illinois State Amateur titles in 1978 and 1979, starred collegiately at Wake Forest, captured the Illinois Open as both an amateur (1977) and professional (1982) and then won three tournaments during a solid PGA Tour career.
Hallberg, 65, lives in Colorado now. He was inducted into the Illinois Golf Hall of Fame in 2017.
The IJGA Hall of Fame recognizes individuals who contributed to the game in a variety of other ways than playing, and that’s underscored by this year’s class:
The Makray family has hosted the Illinois State Junior Amateur since 2007 at its course in Barrington.
Betty Kaufmann, former coach of the DePaul University men’s team, was an IJGA board member from 1994 to 2015.
Bruce Slovitt, who passed away in 2006, served in a variety of roles on the IJGA board and the Illinois Junior Amateur winner receives the Slovitt Cup in his honor.
Roger Ulseth was the first paid executive director of the IJGA in 1992 and the final tournament of the IJGA season is dubbed “The Rog’’ in his honor.
Kevin Weeks, a renowned teaching professional at Cog Hill in Lemont, has been a particularly ardent supporter of junior golfers. He’s helped 95 of them earn Division I college scholarships since 2000.
A shot for the ages
Timmy Crawford, who starred as an amateur at St. Viator High School and as a collegian at both Loyola and Illinois, is trying to make it in the professional ranks now and had a spectacular start at the Korn Ferry Tour’s Ascendant Championship in Colorado.
Crawford needed to survive a nine-man playoff at a Monday qualifier to get into the field. Then, in the third round of the tournament, he pulled out his driver on the 365-yard third hole in hopes of cutting a dogleg on the par-4. As it turned out, he did more than that.
His shot hit the green, bounced twice and then rolled into the cup for a hole-in-one. It was the fifth par-4 ace in the history of the PGA Tour’s alternate circuit and the first since 2012.
Crawford wound up fifth in that tournament, then played in four more events including last week’s first of the four playoff events in Boise, Idaho, without making another cut.
HERE AND THERE
Two local titles will be decided today (WEDNESDAY, AUG. 28). The Illinois PGA Championship wraps up its three-day run at Elgin Country Club and the inaugural Illinois Super Senior Women’s Open concludes its two-day stint at Pine Meadow, in Mundelein.
Amateurs held the first four places in the men’s Illinois Super Senior Open last week. Dave Esler, of St. Charles, shot 67-71 to win the title by two shots over Algonquin’s Gary Hanson. Ted Pecora, of Winnetka, and John Haffner of Winfield, tied for third. Esler, a course designer, was the tourney’s first amateur winner since Jim Kennedy took back-to-back titles in 2013 and 2014.
The University of Illinois men’s schedule was announced this week, with coach Mike Small celebrating the start of his 25th year at the helm with an especially busy September that includes two stops at Chicago area courses. The Illini, who led the 72-hole stroke play portion at last year’s NCAA finals, open with the nationally-televised Folds of Honor event in Michigan Sept. 9-11, then host their Olympia Fields/Fighting Illini Invitational Sept. 20-22 and compete in Northwestern’s Windon Memorial at Conway Farms, in Lake Forest, Sept 29-30.