Small again, after all

Writing from Beach Park, Illinois

Wednesday, August 16, 2023

When you need a golf shot to be made in the state of Illinois, when the pressure is on, when there’s a title on the line, and you’re not sure of your skills or fortitude, there’s someone you should call.

Mike Small.

The Illinois men’s golf coach has been the go-to player in the state since the turn of the century, when he won the 2001 Illinois PGA Championship at Kemper Lakes Golf Course. He was 35 years old, as new to the section as he was new to his job after trying to make the PGA Tour full time. A growing family and the realization that tour life wasn’t for him convinced the Danville native to take the job at his alma mater.

Since then, Illinois has won 13 Big Ten titles, advanced to the NCAA Championship 14 times in the last 15 playings, and piled up every national honor but an NCAA title while sending a busload of players to the pros. Small has built a golf factory in Champaign.

As a player, he’s been a legend in his spare time. Three national club pro titles. Four Illinois Opens. And now, after what he calls “one of the best shots I’ve hit in years,” a 14th Illinois PGA Championship at ThunderHawk Golf Club and 19th state major. Both are records by a light year. His 3-under 69 for 9-under 135 put him over the finish line for the title and $10,000 first-place bounty without need of a playoff.

The innocent bystanders who were the victims this time were Jeff Kellen of Butler National and Andy Mickelson of Mistwood.

Kellen, playing in the penultimate threesome, scored 4-under 68 for 8-under 136, and waited to see what Small and Mickelson did on the home hole, a 600-yard par-5. Mickelson hit his approach to 15 feet and made par for 136 and joint second. Then Small stepped up, 108 yards from the cup. With a 17-mph wind behind him, it played a couple of yards shorter.

“I hit a little three-quarter, less than full, gap wedge,” Small said. “I took the spin off it. It turned out good. When I saw it in the air, I thought it was going to be pretty good. I was just hoping it didn’t spin back.”

Small is modest. It turned out staggeringly good, stopping 12 inches from the cup. A gimme for the championship. The many club pros watching behind the green, fellows who have been beaten by Small more often than not over the past 23 years, could only shake their head. Small had done it again.

“You want to have a putt at it,” Small said, who couldn’t recall hitting a shot that close from that far out on the final hole.

Mickelson was in the hunt all afternoon, making birdies on his first two holes, getting to 9-under through 11 holes with only Kellen, who went five-under in a four-hole stretch around the turn, ahead of him. Back-to-back bogeys on Nos. 14 and 15, the latter thanks to a tee shot on a par-3 that he couldn’t fathom coming up short of the green, set him back.

“It makes no sense,” Mickelson said. “The wind was like nothing. The yardage was right. I still do not understand how it didn’t get there.”

A clutch 15-foot birdie on No. 17 moved the Mistwood master back to 8-under and tied with Small and Kellen. Then came the last, and Small worked his magic again.

“He’s just freakin’ good, man,” Mickelson said. “I love playing with Mike because he never backs down.”

Small birdied the second and third holes – the latter a 30-footer to get to 8-under, when went on a roller-coaster of three birdies and four bogeys in the next nine holes, including a pair of the latter on Nos. 9 and 10 that he rued. The latter put him four strokes in arrears of Kellen.

“From the eighth to the 12th I hit some really poor shots,” Small said. “I was trying to find a rhythm. I found it the last three-four holes there.”

After 13 holes, Kellen was 10-under, Mickelson 9-under, Small 7-under. But Kellen bogeyed the 14th and 15th, falling to 8-under, where he stayed, and Mickelson joined him. Small’s birdie on the par-5 16th brought him back to 8-under and in position to pounce.

“I didn’t know if Jeff was going to make a birdie or not, and when I heard he didn’t, the green light went on,” Small said.

Like a beacon, and like a superhero, Small answered the call. 

Around ThunderHawk

Small added the Illinois PGA title to the Illinois PGA Senior title he won earlier this year, the second time he’s doubled his pleasure. He also did so in 2020, following Gary Groh, who did so in 2002. … Except in 2018, when the tournament was extended to Thursday by poor weather and Small withdrew because it was the first day of practice at Illinois, Small has never finished worse than a tie for seventh in the section championship. … The total purse was $74,000. … Nobody else in PGA of America history has won more than 12 section championships. … Qualifiers for next year’s national club pro championship, aside from Small and Chris French of Aldeen, who were already in the field: Kellen, Mickelson, Kyle Donovan (Oak Park), Matthew Rion (Briarwood), Jim Billiter (Ivanhoe), Chris Green (Glen View), Brian Carroll (The Hawk), John Varner (Beverly) and Steve Orrick (Bloomington).

– Tim Cronin