Katalnic's 75 makes a splash, earns Dann Trophy

    Writing from Glenwood, Illinois
    Tuesday, June 24, 2014

    Maybe it was the double-bogey on the par-3 third hole, caused by his tee shot kicking back into the water, that kicked Orland Park’s Brett Katalnic in the behind.
    From that point on, the 15-year-old, who’ll be a junior at Sandburg in the fall and presumably advancing from the junior varsity to the varsity, played a soggy Glenwoodie Golf Course in 1-over-par., including back-to-back birdies on the seventh and eighth holes. His total of 3-over 75 was a sparkling score and enabled him to collect a 12-shot victory over Alex Schiene of Mokena, whose 15-over 87 from the white tees would have won several other editions of the Boys 13-to-15 Division of the Illinois Golfer Challenge Junior Golf Championship.
    “I was very focused, and trying to bring it home,” Schiene said. “I could have done better, but I’m happy.”
    As well he should have been. But Katalnic was otherworldly.
    “I missed making birdies on the first two holes, and that was a tough double-bogey on No. 3,” Katalnic said. “But after the birdies on 7 and 8, and I knew I had a good score going.”
    The brace was accomplished when he sank a 20-footer on the seventh hole and a 15-footer after a saucy lob wedge approach on the eighth. It was his last birdie, but only one more bogey, a 6 on the 486-yard 16th followed. Otherwise, it was par after par, and in the Challenge, par is a meaningful score.
    And it’s not as if Katalnic was really prepping for the Challenge. It was his first tournament of the summer. And presto, he wins the Marshall Dann Trophy, named after the Challenge’s first rules official.
    Michael Stanton of Chicago, a Brother Rice student, took third, scoring 91, the highlight an up-and-down from a greenside bunker on the 17th hole.
    – Tim Cronin