The best golf you’ll see in the Chicago area this year begins on Friday when the LIV/Chicago tournament tees off at Bolingbrook Golf Club.
LIV, in its fourth straight year with a Chicago stop, has three events remaining on its 14-tournament season. Last year only 22 of 54 bettered par at Bolingbrook in what then the LIV Individual Championship. Spain’s Jon Rahm won it in a duel with Chile’s Joaquin Niemann, who is the Saudi-backed circuit’s top player this season with five victories.
Tournaments rounds are Friday through Sunday with a $25 million in prize money on the line. The individual winner gets $4 million.
LIV is a very global tour, with its 14 tournaments spread over nine countries and four continents. The last three of this season are in the U.S. with the two following Bolingbrook being in the Indianapolis and Detroit areas.
Niemann may be this year’s star so far, but his two closest competitors this week are Chicago area favorites. Rahm, No. 2 on the LIV point list, won the PGA Tour’s 2020 BMW Championship at Olympia Fields in addition to his victory at Bolingbrook and he had top-five finishes in the BMW Championship of 2017 at Conway Farms and 2019 at Medinah.
Bryson DeChambeau is No. 3 on the point list. He won the U.S. Amateur at Olympia Fields in 2015, notched his first PGA Tour win at that circuit’s only annual Illinois stop – the John Deere Classic – in 2017 and was the champion in LIV/Chicago when it was played at Rich Harvest Farms in 2023.
DeChambeau won nine times on the PGA Tour before moving to LIV. He won the U.S. Open in 2020 and 2024 and was the runner-up twice in the PGA Championship.
LIV’s 13 four-man teams include 14 players who have won major championships, and that group has a combined 28 wins in those four most significant events. The Bolingbrook field also includes high profiles stars Brooks Koepka, Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson and Sergio Garcia.
WESTERN ROMP: The 123rd Western Amateur had two Oklahoma collegians who are from Texas in the tournament final last week, and it turned out a blowout. Oklahoma’s Jase Summy defeated Oklahoma State’s Ethan Fang 6 and 5 at Skokie Country Club in Glencoe. Summy was the first Sooner to win the Western since Charlie Coe in 1950.
The semifinals and finals are held on the same day in the Western, and Summy had to struggle through 19 holes before beating Florida’s Zack Swanwick in his semifinal while Fang had an easy one in that round, beating Notre Dame’s Jacob Modelski 5 and 3.
One of the most physically demanding tournaments in golf, the Western has four rounds of stroke play qualifying to determine 16 finalists for the three-day match play elimination. Summy went into the tournament ranked No. 9 in the World Amateur Golf Rankings.
“It was the biggest win over my life – by far,’’ said Summy. “I knew my game was there, but I hadn’t quite broken through. This time I did.’’
HERE AND THERE: Cousins Jackson Hulsay, of St. Charles, and Joseph Luchtenburg, of West Chicago, teamed up to win the Chicago District Golf Association’s Amateur Four Ball Championship at Eagle Brook, in Geneva.
Roy Biancalana, of The Hawk in St. Charles, posted a 67 for a one-stroke victory over Kyle Bauer, of Glenview, in the Illinois PGA Senior Masters at Onwentsia in Lake Forest.
Stacy Lewis, an LPGA mainstay who won the Women’s Western Golf Association Amateur title in 2006, will receive the WWGA’s Woman of Distinction Award at the group’s annual meeting on Sept. 25 at Sunset Ridge, in Northfield.
The First Tee of Greater Chicago has scheduled its 25th anniversary celebration for Nov. 13 at Venue West, in Chicago.