The national championships in Division I college golf are on the line the next two weeks, and — in these parts, at least – it’s all about Illinois and Northwestern.
Coach Emily Fletcher’s NU women are the defending champion on the women’s side. They won their first title last year at Omni LaCosta Resort in Carlsbad, Calif., and chase a repeat there beginning on Friday (MAY 22).
Fletcher’s team is in the finals for the fourth straight year, and standout Diana Lee has played on all four teams. Last year’s scored a dramatic win over Stanford in the match play climax to the event.
While this year’s team made it back to LaCosta the Wildcats aren’t a good bet to repeat. They finished fourth in the Michigan Regional — trailing Southern California, Ohio State and Duke – and that came after a 10th place finish in the 18-team Big Ten tournament.
The men will decide their national champion at LaCosta as soon as the women conclude theirs on May 27 but both the Illini and Wildcat men have to survive the 54-hole Georgia Regional, which concludes its three-day run on Wednesday, to get to LaCosta. Illinois went in as the regional’s No. 2 seed and NU as No. 8.
U.S. OPEN: The last of the three 18-hole local qualifiers in Illinois are over, and the last one – at Flossmoor Country Club – had a most unusual survivor. Chicago’s Campbell Wolf shot a 1-under-par 71 to share medalist honors with amateur Dujuan Snyman of South Africa.
Wolf was born and raised in Pennsylvania but his game started getting good at not just one Illinois college but two. He started at DePaul, saw improvement in two seasons with the Blue Demons and decided to transfer to East Tennessee State. After two seasons there he opted to use his COVID season for a final year of college eligibility at Northern Illinois.
“I had a different college experience than most, but I wouldn’t change it,’’ said Wolf. “I learned what it takes to play at the top levels of the sport, and it gave me confidence that I’d be able to do that.’’
So, Wolf stuck around Chicago and is now the director of events and an instructor at The Warehouse Golf Club in Burr Ridge. Now comes the hard part. He has to survive one of the 36-hole final qualifiers to make it into the 156-man field for the Open proper June 18-21 at Shinnecock Hills, in New York.
PETER DE YOUNG: The long-time. tournament director of the Western Open has passed on in Pinehurst, N.C. He was 78.
DeYoung directed the Western from 1977 to 1993. The PGA Tour event shifted from Butler National, in Oak Brook, to Cog Hill, in Lemont, during DeYoung’s time on the job.
He later had leadership roles with two other Chicago pro tour events — the Ameritech Senior Open on PGA Tour Champions and the LaSalle Bank Open on what is now the Korn Ferry Tour. DeYoung also developed the Nike Winter Nationals junior event after moving to Pinehurst.
HERE AND THERE: Robert Dofflemyer, of Loves Park, won the first Chicago District Golf Association tournament of the season – the CDGA Mid-Amateur at Glen Flora, in Waukegan. The CDGA’s second big event, the Senior Amateur, concludes its four-day run at Hawthorn Woods on Thursday (MAY 21). The quarterfinals and semifinals are on Wednesday (TODAY) and the championship match on Thursday….The second event of the Illinois PGA’s Open Series will be played at Flossmoor on Wednesday (TODAY).