Writing from Glenview, Illinois
Wednesday, July 23, 2014
Brad Hopfinger had been in this position before. Contending for a title in the last round, feeling the pressure, needing to get the job done to lift the trophy.
In Mexico in April, Hopfinger held the lead with a round to play in a PGA Tour Latinoamerica tournament, but stumbled and finished four strokes behind.
Wednesday, he started the final round of the 65th Illinois Open at the windblown Glen Club two strokes behind leader Brian Bullington. But Bullington faded early and the race for the trophy came down to Hopfinger, who birdied three of the first five holes, and Travis Johns, who started the day a stroke back.
“Every time you’re in position, you always learn something,” Hopfinger said. “I learned there along with the other times I’ve been on the leader board.”
He learned well. Even with a bogey at the last, Hopfinger scrambled to a 1-under-par 71 and scored a one-stroke victory with a 54-hole aggregate of 6-under-par 210, a stroke better than Johns, who also bogeyed the par-5 18th.
That was one of the holes where the tournament turned, but the drama began at the first. That’s where Hopfinger, a 25-year-old from Lake Forest in his third full year chasing birdies for dollars following a college career that started at Kansas and finished at Iowa, opened with a two-putt birdie after reaching the green of the downwind par 5 in two with a 5-iron. It’s also where Bullington scored bogey, the first of too many crooked numbers on a card that would eventually total 83. The Iowa senior finished tied for 16th.
Hopfinger, who earned $13,500 from the purse of $66,590, would birdie three of the first five holes to reach 8-under and led Johns by one and Michael Daven of Hoopeston, Kyle English of Bloomington and Max Scodro of Chicago by two at that point. But there was much golf yet to be played, and much wind to play it in. Down the street at Chicago Executive Airport, it was steady from the north-northeast at 16 to 20 mph, and gusted to 28. On certain points of The Glen Club, it was stronger. In the wind tunnel that is the 17th tee, for instance, might have gotten to 35 mph.
“It’s hard from a timing standpoint,” Hopfinger said. “And putting in the wind is as hard as it gets.”
Twice, Hopfinger backed off a par putt on the eighth green because of the gusty conditions, and then sank it. He led Johns by two strokes at the turn, then bogeyed the par-3 11th. When Johns birdied the par-4 12th, the game was afoot. But Hopfinger knew nothing of his status.
“I actually never looked,” he said. “Not until 15, when I asked my caddie where I stood and shouldn’t have, because I made five.”
That bogey moved him back to 7-under. Johns, the teaching pro at Medinah Country Club, had played the 12th through 15th in 1-under and also stood 7-under in the group behind. but Hopfinger made only more more mistake down the stretch, bogeying the 18th thanks to a plugged lie in a greenside bunker with his third shot. Johns made a pair of mistakes.
“I was hitting it everywhere on the back nine,” Johns said. “Exciting, fun to watch.”
The par-3 17th was into the teeth of the gale. Johns wanted to be below the hole, and was, but also off the green and facing a difficult chip. He got to the proper level of the green, but tried to adjust his par putt to account for the wind, and missed it.
Johns was bogeying the 17th and dropping to 6-under the same time Hopfinger was bogeying the 18th to get to 6-under.
“I knew I had a shot,” Johns said. “I’d heard he was 7-under. I was not going to do anything but try and birdie. I’m not going to bank on him bogeying. And I’m fairly aggressive.”
Johns took a mighty blow and hooked his shot into the right fescue, a swing so hard his hat blew off.
His next tee ball found the middle of the fairway. An approach got him to wedge range, and he took dead aim.
“It must have come pretty close,” Johns said of the shot that finished about four feet behind the cup.
He made that, knowing it was for bogey. Hopfinger, watching with his family, also knew.
“My little brother was scouting for me,” he said of Mitch. “I knew that four-footer was for a 6. But I didn’t want to celebrate until it was official.”
It will soon be back to the Latinoamerica Tour for Hopfinger, where a good finish will get him exempted to the second stage of Q school and a potential shot at the web.com Tour in 2015.
“There are lots of scenarios,” Hopfinger said.
Most all of them good. Hopfinger, who captured the Illinois Amateur in 2011, is the seventh player to win both state titles. The others: Roy Biancalana, Gary Hallberg, Mark Hensby, Bill Hoffer, David Ogrin and Gary Pinns.
Michael Davan had the best round of the day, a 2-under-par 70 highlighted by an eagle 2 on the par-4 15th, which was drivable thanks to the use of a forward tee. That vaulted Davan into third place at 4-under 212. Kyle English, at 2-under 214, was the only other player to finish under par.
The low amateurs were Brian Payne of Flossmoor and Daniel Stringfellow of Roselle, among those tying for fifth at even-par 216.
With the wind, the field of 57 averaged 77.46, higher than the first two rounds, when the full field of 156 competed in relatively docile conditions. Among the 15 players shooting 80 or more: four-time champion Mike Small, whose 77-66-80 reading for 7-over 223 and a tie for 23rd was the most topsy-turvy of the championship.
Defending champion Joe Kinney tied for 16th at 4-over 220.
– Tim Cronin