Repeat after Mike: Small wins again

    Writing from Grayslake, Illinois
    Wednesday, August 27, 2014

    Steve Orrick knew it was a tall order, trying to chase down Mike Small in the final round of the 92nd Illinois PGA Championship.
    “Five shots is a lot to make up,” Orrick said more than once after the final putt had dropped.
    Just how much was reinforced when he birdied the second, third, fourth, fifth and eighth holes of Stonewall Orchard Golf Club and only closed the gap on Small by two strokes.
    “He’s not going to make many mistakes,” Orrick said. “So you’ve got to make zero mistakes.”
    That was not to be where Orrick was concerned. He bogeyed the par-5 10th hole and Small birdied it. The two-shot swing, coupled with Small’s birdies on the 11th and 12th – the latter a chip-in – sealed the deal. Both Orrick and Small fired final rounds of 6-under-par 66, but Small’s record-tying total of 200, and his record of 16-under in relation to par, earned the head men’s golf coach at Illinois a five-stroke wire-to-wire victory and an unfathomable 11th Illinois PGA crown.
    “He caught my attention,” Small said of his fellow downstater. “But I played solid. I had two bogeys all week and both were three-putts.”
    Orrick, the head pro at the Country Club of Decatur, finished at 11-under 205. That would have won all but a handful of Illinois PGAs, Small being the roadblock often of late.
    “I had some momentum on the front nine, but the 10th hole was tough,” Orrick said. “I’m in position to make a (birdie) 4 and I make a 6.”
    Small made a 4 instead, which was not unusual. Small played the par-5s in 10-under for the week, while Orrick was 3-under on them.
    Small thought his birdie on the par-5 eighth was key.
    “He’s already made birdie,” Small said. “That stretch (from the eighth through 12th) was important.”
    It’s Small’s first win in an Illinois PGA Section tournament since last year’s IPGA, and, to him, a return to form.
    “ It feels good to play good golf again,” Small said. “I was strong (mentally) this week. I didn’t let (things) bother me. And he (Orrick) motivated me to play better.”
    Small earned $8,000 from the purse of $50,815. That was $2,000 less than he won last year, because about 40 fewer players entered the tournament.
    “I feel like I won the second flight,” Cog Hill teaching pro Garrett Chaussard said after finishing tied for third, closing with a 69 for 4-under 212 and a deadlock with Curtis Malm of White Eagle Golf Club. “I don’t know what course Mike and Steve were playing.”
    In his 11 victories, Small is 84-under-par and has a total victory margin of 45 strokes.

    – Tim Cronin