Kinney comes through in Illinois Open playoff

    Writing from Glenview, Illinois
    Wednesday, July 24, 2013

    An hour before Joe Kinney won the 64th Illinois Open in a three-man, three-hole playoff, Michael Davan had to lose it.
    And he did, comprehensively. But we’ll get to him later.
    First, the exploits of Kinney, whose game was flawless down the stretch of the third round at the Glen Club, and again in the playoff.
    This is how to win the tournament: Birdie the 10th hole, par the last eight in regulation, then birdie the par-5 first and par the last two while your competitors fold like road maps.
    That works. It worked for Kinney, a 26-year-old mini-tour player from Antioch who parred the last two holes of the playoff and scored an aggregate 1-under-par 12, to the 1-over 14 of amateur Dustin Korte and the 4-over 17 of Carlos Sainz Jr. And Wednesday’s winner was very happy to be the winner.
    “The Illinois Open means the world to me,” Kinney. “I mark it on my calendar as ‘Do not miss.’ This is a first class golf tournament and as good as it gets.”
    It was Kinney’s first win as a professional, and earned him $17,500. More than that, it earned him personal brownie points.
    “I had a lot of success in junior golf and amateur golf, but this – there are a lot of good golfers in this state.”
    He beat two of them head-to-head-to-head in the playoff. Kinney, who had opened with a 7-under-par 65 on Monday but sailed to a 76 on Tuesday. On Wednesday, he scored 2-under-par 70, with birdies on two of the first three holes, a bogey at the par-4 seventh, and then the bird on the 10th, followed by par after par to finish at 5-under-par 211. He was hoping for better.
    “I thought 7-under would be the number (to win),” Kinney said.
    It would have been until Davan imploded. But those two were among six players who led or shared the lead in the course of the wild closing round.
    “On the putting green (after finishing), I thought it was game, set, match,” Kinney said.
    Instead, he was in a playoff with Korte and Sainz, and quickly, he was ahead. Hitting third on the first hole proved to be an advantage when Korte found the fescue and Sainz’s shot stopped in the right rough. Kinney smoothed one to the middle of the fairway and was on his way to a two-putt birdie on the 566-yard par-5.
    “That first putt was 75 feet, and might have been my best shot of the playoff,” Kinney said.
    It stopped 2 1/2 feet from the cup for a kick-in birdie. Korte scrambled for par and Sainz bogeyed, which gave Kinney the honor on the 190-yard par-3 17th. He played a fade, aiming right, and the ball stopped six feet short of the cup for an easy par. Kortz three-putted from 35 feet while Sainz flew into the fescue to the left of the green for a double-bogey. That meant Kinney was 1-under with a hole to play, Korte 1-over, Sainz 3-over.
    Kinney caddie, Sunset Ridge Country Club caddiemaster Greg Kunkel, had one instruction for his player on the tee as he handed him driver: “Hit the fairway.”
    Kinney obayed. He found the fairway and played a smart second shot well left of the water on the par-5 18th. One smart wedge to the middle of the green later, it was all over but the trophy presentation.
    “I was playing as far away from the water as I could,” Kinney said.
    One would hope Davan was watching and learned from that.
    Kinney, Korte and Sainz ended the regulation 54 holes at 211, which wasn’t going to be a playoff-making score until Davan, the pride of Hoopeston, played the last two holes as if he was two strokes behind on the 17th tee.
    He wasn’t. He was two strokes ahead, sitting in the catbird seat at 7-under-par. He had birdied the 14th and 15th holes and had a two-stroke lead over Kinney and Korte, who were in the clubhouse at 5-under.
    Then he came to the 17th tee and decided to hook a shot into the wind on the downhill short hole, where a pond encroaches on the left side of the green.
    Aiming directly for the pin, he hit his hook. And it hooked dutifully, landing on the back left corner of the green and one-hopping into the hazard. Davan was fortunate to scramble for a bogey 4 and stood on the 18th tee, and then in the middle of the 18th fairway on the par-5, at 6-under, still a stroke ahead.
    But he didn’t know. And unlike Sainz, who was in the final threesome with Davan and asked what the low score was, Davan did not.
    “I figured I had to make eagle,” Davan said.
    He was wrong. Par, by playing the hole the way Kinney played it in the playoff, would have earned him the title. A 6-iron to the fairway left of the pond hugging the front of the green, a wedge on, and two putts equaled Davan holding the trophy.
    Instead, he pulled a 3-wood from his bag. Back by the green, Kinney saw that and later said, if he was in the same position, his caddie would have broken the club over his knee.
    Davan was 256 yards from the flag, against the wind, with a pond to clear first. The ball never got there, slicing wildly to the right.
    “I just slid on it a little bit and lost it,” Davan said. “But I can’t hang my head. You’ve got to lose some to win some sometimes, so it’s good experience for me here.”
    Korte, hanging around in case the impossible happened, couldn’t believe what he saw.
    “The kid was 7 (-under after 16). Bogey-par wins it,” Korte said. “I saw him pull a 3-wood in the fairway.”
    His tone was that of a man trying to describe a unicorn after it passed by.
    Kinney goes back on the NGA Tour now, hoping to make some money and use that to fund his next crack at PGA Tour qualifying.
    Davan goes back to the drawing board.

    Around the Glen Club

    Korte, who scored 1-under 71 in the final round, finished as the low amateur, and plans to turn pro before next year’s Illinois Open. “I’m kind of disappointed to play (the last two playoff holes each) 1-over,” Korte said. ... Sainz and amateur Andrew Godfrey of Homewood shared the round of the day, 3-under-par 69. ... Overnight leader Vince India double-bogeyed the first hole and faded to a tie for ninth with a 77 for 2-under 214. ... Defender Max Scodro finished at 3-over 219. ... The field averaged 74.50 in the third round, exactly 2.5 strokes over par. Each of the last three holes were about a quarter-stroke over par, but the 13th through 15th each played under par, making for a busy leaderboard.
    – Tim Cronin