Illinois PGA: Small thinking big again

    Writing from Chicago
    Sunday, August 24, 2014

    Mike Small has won the Illinois PGA Championship 10 times.
    By Wednesday afternoon, that sentence may have to be revised.
    Small starts his defense of title No. 10 at 9:10 a.m. Monday at Stonewall Orchard Golf Club in Grayslake.
    To say he is the favorite is obvious. In reality, because of the way he’s played in the championship of the section – as opposed to the Illinois Open, this is the Illinois Closed, with only PGA of America members eligible – he is the overwhelming favorite.
    “This is the one that means a lot to be because we’re PGA members, and this is a big deal to us,” Small said on the scoring porch after winning by four strokes at on the South Course at Olympia Fields Country Club last year.
    A four-stroke victory is a runaway, but it pales to other of Small’s efforts in grabbing the Jim Kemper Trophy. He won by an Illinois PGA Championship-record 11 strokes at Olympia Fields in 2010. He beat Jim Sobb by six strokes at Stonewall Orchard in 2009. He was 14 under par when he triumphed at Stonewall Orchard in 2007.
    His 8-under-par 63 on Olympia Fields South in 2010 set the course record for the just-refurbished layout and established a new Illinois PGA mark for low total: 200.
    String together all 10 victory marches, do some math, and one discovers that Small is an aggregate 68 under par across 30 rounds in those championships, with a 40-stroke victory margin.
    About the only thing Illinois Golf Hall of Famer Small doesn’t own is the single round Illinois PGA record. That belongs to the estimable Bob Harris, the Sunset Ridge flash who pounded Arlington Country Club to the tune of a 9-under-par 62 in the final round of the 1959 edition. Harris needed most every stroke to beat Tony Holguin by two.
    Nobody else has won more than six. Johnny Revolta did that, including a Small-like five in seven years, when he was the sage of Evanston Golf Club. (Until recently, Revolta was thought to have won five times, but it was discovered that he wasn’t credited with his 1942 title on the original Willie Marshall Trophy. E.J. “Dutch” Harrison was, and he wasn’t even based in Illinois at the time. So Small actually broke Revolta’s record at Medinah in 2008, not at Stonewall Orchard in 2007.)
    Small will try to run away and hide, but others will be chasing him with the same idea. Steve Orrick, the 2012 champion, is up from Decatur with an eye toward annexing his second title in three years. Midlothian’s Frank Hohenadel, the winner on Medinah No. 1 in 2011, will start early on Monday, before the heat takes full effect.
    Last year’s runners-up, Matt Slowinski, Curtis Malm and Travis Johns – all of whom have come in second alone in the previous three years – are also expected to be heard from.
    Small won $10,000 last year. The purse is expected to be announced on Monday morning.

    – Tim Cronin