Holtz jumps to front in Illinois Open

Writing from Naperville, Illinois

Monday, August 3, 2020

Brandon Holtz keeps coming back for more in the Illinois Open.

A co-runner-up three years ago and solo runner-up two years ago, Holtz took seventh place last year, and some thought his flame was burning out.

Monday, it sparked anew. Holtz, a salesman for a football helmet refurbisher headquartered in downstate Bloomington, splashed nine birdies across his scorecard en route to a course-record 6-under-par 66 at White Eagle Golf Club.

As he was out in the first group, Holtz effectively set the target score for the rest of the 156-man field in the 71st edition. Nobody reached it, and at nightfall, he enjoyed a three-stroke lead over 2017 winner Patrick Flavin of Deerfield, a Korn Ferry Tour semi-regular, and Brian Bullington of Frankfort.

Leads that large after 18 holes in the Illinois Open have only occurred a handful of times.

Amateurs Ricardo Leme of Lake Villa,  Derek Meinhart of Mattoon and Derek Mason of Plainfield and pro Kyle Slattery of Rockford are tied for fourth at 2-under 70.

“From the start, I kind of hit it good,” Holtz said. “Pretty flawless. Had a few mis-hits off the tee that put me in some bad positions, but overall, I’ll take it. The greens were great, the course is phenomenal. A little softer than what I expected but that’s because you had so much rain.”

Director of golf Curtis Malm, who played with Holtz and scored 1-over 73, was hoping for greens more like car hoods, but nature dictated otherwise. Still, when a breeze came up in the afternoon on a 67-degree day in early August, few people got too far under par. Sixteen players were in red numbers, with another five at even-par 72.

Malm watched Holtz’s exploits firsthand.

“He played unbelievably well,” Malm said. “He hit a lot of good golf shots. He missed a couple putts. It could have been 64 pretty easily. It was fun to watch. Really good guy and with a ton of talent.

“He hit it a mile, hits it fairly straight, and has fairly good wedges. He should do well this week. He hit it in the rough twice, had to chip out, got up and down once and not the other time.”

An eagle and five birdies boosted Bullington’s march to his 69, which would have been better but for two bogeys and a double-bogey. He played in the relatively calmer morning.

The fan came on in the afternoon, bringing thoughts of wind-chill factors to the gallery, and Flavin, fresh off being best man for his brother’s wedding in Columbus, Ohio on Sunday – and a 6-hour drive to White Eagle – collected a quartet of birdies before a bogey on his 17th hole dropped him to 3-under. He stayed there after sinking a five-footer to save par on the last, which made him even more eager to get back out at 7:30 a.m. Tuesday.

“I’m feeling really fresh,” Flavin said. “I did a little yoga and I was ready to go. It was fun to be with family. It’s been awesome.”

Opening with three birdies fresh out of the car indicates Flavin didn’t get too carried away as his brother’s best man.

“I was relatively well-behaved,” he smiled. “There were times I was feeling a little tired, but … one shot at a time.”

He judged his birdie on the 202-yard par-3 fifth hole his best of the day, thanks to a 6-iron that missed the cup by a foot on the fly and went all the way to the back fringe. Sinking that got him to 4-under. More shots like that will get him an oversized check and a trophy on Wednesday.

Around White Eagle

Holtz’s 6-under 66 established the course record for the current configuration of the course. It’s about 100 yards shorter since the remodeling by Todd Quitno because of a major realignment of the 10th hole. The record for the original layout, a 5-under 67 which will stand forevermore, was set by then-amateur Tiger Woods in 1994, a few days before his first appearance in the Western Open. … The cut to the low 50 players and ties comes after Tuesday’s round. … Four-time winner Mike Small got off to a rocky start with a 3-over 75, and is tied for 50th, right on the cut line. … Amateur Bill Gneiser, Stan Mikita’s grandson, was high man with a 19-over 91. … Craig Onsrud of Normal was 12-over after 13 holes, and that was enough for him. .. the field averaged 77.25 strokes.

– Tim Cronin