Emory matches record to take Illinois Open lead

Illinois Open R2 Gamer

Writing from Naperville, Illinois

Tuesday, August 4, 2020

At about 5 o’clock Tuesday afternoon, a golf tournament broke out at White Eagle Golf Club. Until then, the 71st Illinois Open was loping along, a host of contestants unable to challenge Brandon Holtz, the overnight leader who continued to lead.

Then, in short order, the following happened:

• Holtz bogeyed three of his last seven holes to stumble home with a 4-over 76 for 2-under 142 and fall into an eventual tie for fifth with 2018 winner Patrick Flavin.

• Charlie Netzel of Western Springs, with birdies on the last two holes, signed for 2-under 70 and climbed to 3-under 141.

• Tim “Tee-K” Kelly of Wheaton and Ethan Brue of downstate Ashland, both scoring 70, followed Netzel to the 141 neighborhood.

• Bryce Emory of Aurora, banging around the mini tours for close to a decade, played his last 10 holes in 6-under to finish in 6-under 66, matching the course record set by Holtz on Monday to finish at 7-under 137 and grab a four-stroke lead.

All of that thrilled Emory, pleased Kelly and Brue, satisfied Netzel and confounded Holtz. Let’s start with Brandon, who eagled the par-5 sixth hole but bogeyed six others, including the 18th.

“It was rough today,” Holtz said. “I had a lot of control of the golf ball yesterday, putting it where I wanted to, and today was not the case. Looks like I’m still in the mix a little bit.

“You’ve got to play out of the fairway. The rough is ankle-deep and thick.”

Kelly matched Netzel with birdies on the 17th and 18th, two-putting from 15 feet on the par-5 and smoothing a lob wedge closer than 15 at the last.

“Those are the only two putts I had inside 20 feet all day,” Kelly said. “I was scrambling out there, two-putting from 70 and 60 feet. It was the lag-putting Olympics out here today.”

Brue is the mystery man. The Bradley grad plays out of The Rail in Springfield and lives in Ashland, a hamlet of 1,333 souls, but played Tuesday like a big-city pro.

“I had the best ball-striking day I’ve had for weeks,” said Brue, who, along with Netzel, tied for ninth in last week’s Iowa Open. His par save on the par-3 eighth, a 177-yard test, via a flop shot to two inches, was his highlight-reel moment.

Then came Emory, a 29-year-old Northern Illinois grad who plays when and where he can, practices at Aurora Country Club, near his home, and works at Black Sheep in Sugar Grove. He went out in 1-under 35, but raced home in 5-under 31, including an eagle on the par-5 14th and a big par save on the 16th.

The eagle came about via a 200-yard 9-iron that snuggled up to the cup, two feet away.

“That was an added bonus,” Emory said. “This course isn’t yielding many good opportunities, and I was lucky enough to capitalize on them.”

Emory said he’s a good wind player because he hits the ball lower than most people. That was a plus on Tuesday, which began with 15 mph wind that grew to gusts of 28 mph in the middle of his round.

What he hasn’t had was great luck. He’d been on and off the Mackenzie Tour in Canada the last two years, but that circuit was put on hold by the pandemic. They left him to play in state opens and the like this summer, once tournaments began to be played.

“Florida mini-tours, state opens, some events on the Tour Red this summer, which was a great tune-up to this,” Emory said. “Other than that, hanging out.”

At his age, he’s wondering how long he’ll try to break through.

“In all honesty, I kind of thought this could be the last year,” Emory said. “Then throw on the coronavirus stuff and I had time to think about it. You realize there are bigger things than golf. But I’m playing well this summer so I’ll probably play a little big longer.”

In this era of birdie binges on the PGA Tour, Emory’s 7-under score may not impress, but it’s actually stout. The course set up, encouraged by the White Eagle membership, has been difficult. Both Kelly and Flavin considered the pin placements as difficult as what they routinely see on the Korn Ferry Tour, if not more testing.

“The way the pin locations are, you need to be below the hole,” Flavin said. “Otherwise, you’re in jeopardy of putting it off the greens.”

Throw in the wind, four-inch rough and green speeds at 13 on the Stimpmeter, and it’s not for the faint-hearted.

“It’s a championship right now,” Kelly said. “The (pins) are all close to the edge, and they’re not only tough to get to, they’re tough to putt to. The greens here have some pretty big slopes to them. That makes it challenging, but the course is set up awesome. I’ve always played my best golf on really hard setups.”

Such a testing setup should benefit the more experienced tourists among the leaders. Emory, the oldest of the leaders, might benefit most of all, but his last notable victory in Illinois was the 2013 CDGA Amateur. A lot of clubs have been regripped since then.

Around White Eagle

The purse will be $105,000, with first place to be determined.  The cut came at 6-over-par 150, and included 51 players, 31 pros and 20 amateurs. Not inside the select circle: former champions Curtis Malm – White Eagle’s director of golf – Roy Biancalana and Philip Arouca. … Jordan Less of Elmhurst is low amateur with a round to play, tied for seventh overall at 1-under 143 with Garrett Chaussard and Jack Korzon. … The par-72 course averaged 77.34 strokes, with the first hole, a 432-yard par 4 into the wind, averaging 4.87 strokes and yielding only five birdies.

– Tim Cronin