Swartout beats Jeray in Illinois Women's Open playoff

    Writing from Romeoville, Illinois
    Friday, August 2, 2013

    Elise Swartout had a game plan.
    Nicole Jeray had newfound confidence.
    Each played to their strengths Friday in the final round of the 19th Phil Kosin Illinois Women’s Open at Mistwood Golf Club.
    Jeray’s strength got her into a sudden-death playoff with Swartout.
    Swartout’s strength brought her the victory.
    A four-foot birdie putt on Mistwood’s second hole made the difference, earning Swartout the title, the right to hoist the Kosin Cup, and the $5,000 first place check from the purse of $25,000, useful for a young pro who has only conditional status on the Symetra Tour this season.
    “My caddie and I thought we needed 70 today,” Swartout said.
    They were a stroke off, but Swartout’s 3-under-par 69, the best round of the tournament even with a 1-over reading on the last seven holes, placed her at 3-under-par 213 and the clubhouse leader with three twosomes remaining.
    Jeray was in the last twosome, and even par for the day through 15 holes. A three-hour short-game session after the second round with Dr. Jim Suttie, who last week moved his base of operations from Cog Hill’s barn to Mistwood’s Performance Center, was about to pay off.
    Jeray drained a birdie putt on the par-4 16th, came close on the par-3 17th, then dropped an 18-footer for a birdie 4 at the last to climb into the playoff.
    “That was cool,” Jeray said. “It was neat for me, win or lose, to get into the playoff. I started using my feel a little bit more while putting. When you’re nervous, that helps.”
    A generation apart and both looking for better days in their professional careers, they went to the first tee as rain began to fall. Routine par 4s on the first hole sent them to the second, where Swartout’s 82-yard 58-degree wedge shot to four feet essentially won the tournament.
    Before that, she had birdied the first, fifth, 10th and 11th holes, a string of pearls offset only by a bogey on the par-3 14th.
    “I knew I had it going,” Swartout said. “The playoff birdie, it was a typical, standard putt, what I do on the practice green every day.”
    This time, it was for real, and she didn’t flinch, scoring her first victory as a professional in her third year since graduating from Western Michigan. With only conditional Symetra status, Swartout has been playing in state opens and the like – next stop, Ohio. She said she’d been in the top 20 in recent weeks, and now has made it all the way to the top, the fifth IWO winner from Michigan in the last six years.
    “Everything was coming together except winning,” Swartout said.
    Part of her game plan was to pay no mind to what others were doing.
    “I had to keep my head down from the leader board because I like to stay focused,” Swartout said.
    So she didn’t know she was two strokes behind leader Samantha Postillion at the turn, nor that Postillion, the amateur from Burr Ridge, would tumble back to even par with a 40 on the back nine.
    Instead, Swartout looked straight ahead and sank a big-breaking 5-footer for birdie on the par-4 19th and rolled in an uphill 18-footer for a 3 on the par-4 11th to move to 4-under. Soon came word of Postillion’s troubles, a bogey on the par-4 12th and double-bogey on the par-4 13th. Other players made bids – Caroline Powers was briefly 3-under before bogeys on the 13th and 15th, and finished tied for third at 2-under 214 with Chelsea Harris, who played the final 36 holes without a bogey – but it came down to Swartout and Jeray, who was trying to become the first player to win the IWO in three different decades.
    Jeray collected $3,000 for second, and goes back to the tour grind – Semetra in Richmond, Va., first, followed by the LPGA’s Canadian Open and a tournament in Portland – reasomably pleased.
    “These young kids are fearless,” Jeray said of Swartout in particular and her competition, all of which was younger than her, in general.
    Postillion’s 2-over 74 placed her at even-par 216 and earned her low amateur honors. She was hoping to join her mother, three-time winner Kerry Postillion, as an IWO champion.
    “My nerves got me,” Postillion said. “I’m not really used to leading.”
    – Tim Cronin