The 108th PGA Championship – second of the year’s four major tournaments – tees off Thursday at Aronimink, in Pennsylvania, but the Illinois Section of the PGA crowned the first winner of its four majors last week and it was significant.
Andy Svoboda was an immediate contender since joining the IPGA in 2024 after being named head professional at Butler National, in Oak Brook. He was last year’s IPGA Player of the Year, but in his previous two seasons he had yet to win one of the local majors. He played in seven of them and had two runner-up finishes and was in the top three five times.
The winless streak ended in last week’s first major of 2026, the IPGA Match Play Championship at Butterfield, in Oak Brook. Svoboda, now representing Elevation Golf, held off four-time winner and defending champion Jim Billiter, of Ivanhoe Club, 2 and 1 in the title match.
“It was awesome to finally get a win in these majors,’’ said the 46-year old Svoboda, who had success on both the Korn Ferry and PGA tours before joining the club professional ranks. “I’d been close. I’d been in the final a couple years ago and just couldn’t get it done. I had to call a penalty on myself late in that match, which was unfortunate.’’
This time Svoboda stormed into the final with some dazzling performances. He was 8-under par through 15 holes in eliminating Jeff Kellen, of North Shore of Glenview, in the quarterfinals and 5-under through 17 holes in ousting Brian Carroll, of The Hawk in St. Charles, in the semifinals.
“I had an incredible week,’’ said Svoboda. “I played some unbelievable golf and made a ton of birdies but had some tough matches, including those with Jeff and Brian.’’
ON TO ARONIMINK: No Illinois PGA players will be among the 20 club professionals in the national PGA Championship teeing off Thursday, but that field does include Northwestern alums Luke Donald and David Lipsky and Illinois alum Thomas Detry.
Detry is one of 11 LIV Tour players competing at Aronimink. There’ll be 15 past champions including defender Scottie Scheffler in a field that includes players from 29 states and 26 countries.
HERE AND THERE: Illinois is the No. 2 seed and Northwestern is No. 8 in the NCAA regional hosted by the University of Georgia beginning on Monday (MAY 18). The top five teams advance to the NCAA finals at Omni LaCosta in California May 29-June 3.
Brandt Snedeker, who will captain the U.S. team in September’s Presidents Cup matches at Medinah, won his first PGA Tour event in eight seasons last Sunday at the Myrtle Beach Classic. Snedeker, 45, earned a berth in the PGA Championship with his win, and that changed his plans for this week. He had planned to spend a few days at Medinah dealing with Presidents Cup issues but will be at Aronimink instead.
The 11th Chicago District Mid-Amateur will wrap up its three-day run today (WEDNESDAY, MAY 13) with the championship match at Glen Flora in Waukegan.
TPC Deere Run, again the site of Illinois’ only PGA Tour event in July, will host the NAIA college event this week. It concludes on Friday (MAY 15).
University of Illinois golfer Max Herendeen was named for the second straight year to Team USA for the Arnold Palmer Cup matches. They’ll be played in Ireland in July.