Writing from Glenwood, Illinois
    Tuesday, June 18, 2013

    Allison Onest was cruising along in the Girls 13-to-15 Division of the Illinois Golfer Challenge Junior Golf Championship. After a rocky start – double-bogey and quadruple bogey on Glenwoodie’s first two holes – she had settled down to a steady diet of pars and bogeys, and was distancing herself from fellow competitors Emily Schenck and Elizabeth Stalla.
    If there was any doubt the 15-year-old from Dyer was going to score a victory in her first Challenge appearance, it evaporated on the par-4 17th hole, a 238-yard test.
    “I drove it really far,” Onest said.
    As in about 220 yards, for she estimated she had only about 20 yards left for a chip shot.
    Onest placed that five feet from the cup and rammed it home for a birdie 3, the showcase moment of a 21-over-par 93 that earned her the title in the younger division of the distaff half of the Challenge, and with it, the Virginia Van Wie Trophy.
    “The key today was my putting,” Onest said. “I had a lot of two-putts. My scores have dropped a lot this year. I’ve been playing and practicing a lot at Palmira.”
    Onest, crediting Palmira teaching pro Jason Gillespie for the improvement, scored an 11-stroke victory over Schenck. Stalla was 22 strokes back.
    – Tim Cronin