In pandemic, without defending champ, Illinois Open goes on

Reporting from Naperville, Illinois

Sunday, August 2, 2020

The 71st Illinois Open almost didn’t happen this year.

The reason? The coronavirus pandemic that has upended every other part of the world.

“I would say very close,” said Illinois PGA executive director Carrie Williams. “We were looking at precedent around the country, in other states that opened up before Illinois did. We were very concerned, trying to project what phase we would be in. And not only for the golf but the other elements that make the players feel welcome.

“We made the determination we could condense the championship to one site, have it highly-staffed and administer it in a way that would be safe for the field.”

Thus, go on it will beginning Monday morning, thanks to creative planning by the Illinois PGA and host White Eagle Golf Club in Naperville and Aurora, a recently-tweaked Arnold Palmer design.

The recent two-course concept, which allows a larger starting field, has been shelved in favor of a standard 156-player field. Stonebridge Country Club, a few miles away, will likely be brought back another year. Qualifying tournaments were rescheduled to comply with the various phases in which Illinois has moved closer to normal.

The usual large player hospitality area, a hangout with a buffet, has been split into rooms that hold no more than 50 people to adhere to state guidelines, and the buffet is gone. White Eagle members will have their own tent, placed well off the 17th fairway to watch the action, with closed-circuit television of eight holes.

All that will allow something close to a normal three-day tournament, with the winner earning the trophy on Wednesday afternoon.

The field was expected to be headed by defender and two-time champion David Cooke, who is chasing a Tour card and recently has been caddieing in recent weeks for Chesson Hadley. When Hadley missed the cut in Memphis, it was expected Cooke would get back to town and even have time for a practice round, but his name was replaced on the pairing sheet on Sunday evening with amateur Will Stewart.

Local contenders include the dynamic duo from Mistwood, Andy Mickelson, who won a stroke-play tournament at Onwentsia Club last Monday, and Frank Hohenadel, who tied for fifth at Riverside Golf Club two weeks ago.

Other notables include past champions Patrick Flavin (2017), Philip Arouca (2011), and four-time winner and perennial Mike Small (2003, 2005-07).

A strong amateur contingent is headed by Crystal Lake’s Ethan Farnam, last year’s Illinois Amateur champion – and still the champ as that storied competition was canceled by the CDGA this year. Jordan Hahn, the Illinois Am winner two years ago, is also in the field, this time chasing the money and the title.

Missing this year are Brad Hopfinger, Vince India and Nick Hardy, who have grabbed Korn Ferry Tour membership and thus are out of town. That could open the door for a true club professional to win, which hasn’t happened since Todd Tremaglio edged then-amateur D.A. Points in a 1999 playoff. (When current White Eagle director of golf Curtis Malm won in 2000, he was still an amateur.)

When White Eagle agreed to host, club brass and the Illinois PGA agreed to set up the course hard.

“It wasn’t what is the Illinois Open going to do for us, it’s what can we do to make it better,” Malm said. “Rarely do we get a club that really opens their club.”

Thus, superintendent Jeff Cameron had let the rough grow to four inches by Friday, and while the weekend rain might soften the greens a bit, the rough is still growing. Cameron says he’s gotten the green speeds to as high as 13 on the Stimpmeter, which will make putting on the undulating surfaces challenging.

The club will show off the renovation by Todd Quitno of Lohmann-Quitno Design, which involved lowering the number of bunkers at the 27-hole complex from 81 to 56 and placing them where hackers usually won’t find them but fine players might.

“The positioning is ideal for championship golf,” Malm said. “This is the championship event for Illinois, and we need to make it as hard and fair as possible.”

“The membership has embraced this championship,” Williams said, noting a large volunteer corps from the membership. “It’s been really refreshing and positive how the membership has gotten behind this event.”

Last year’s purse was a record $106,500. This year’s will be announced Monday. No one would be surprised if, given the small number of entrants, it was smaller. No one should complain, either.

– Tim Cronin

Thibault takes Women’s Western Am title back to Canada

Saturday, July 25, 2020 

That the mastery of golf is a fool’s wish was proven again on Saturday at Prestwick Country Club in Frankfort. The day before, Jackie Lucena of Chico, Calif., could do no wrong in routing her semifinal opponent by a 7 and 6 margin.

One sunrise later, she had to work for everything she got. It wasn’t enough to overcome Brigitte Thibault of Rosemere, Quebec, who scored a 4 and 3 victory in the championship match of the 120th Women’s Western Amateur to take the crown back to Canada for the second time in four years.

Thibault, who never trailed, broke open the tight match by winning the 13th and 14th holes with pars and the 15th with a clinching birdie 4 to earn the right to lift the W.A. Alexander Cup.

The native of suburban Montreal, too, suffered from the vagaries of the game. It took her 21 holes to oust her semifinal foe on Friday, and she led 2 up after seven holes against Lucena, but a combination of bogey and double-bogey on the eighth and ninth holes brought Lucena back to square the match.

“I didn’t want to get my hopes up, because I know that my game right now is kind of on a rollercoaster,” Thibault said. “I feel like I gained a lot of momentum from yesterday. I just kept the faith. I kept fighting and didn’t give up.”

Thibault parred No. 10, taking the lead when Lucena couldn’t save par. A change in attitude also helped.

“I think it was just like a switch,” Thibault said. “I had missed a lot on the front, and I could feel how close I was to hitting it really good. I just switched it in my head and went into full focus mode.”

She had plenty of previous successes to draw on. The 21-year-old Fresno State senior had won the Mountain West Conference title and the Ontario Women’s Amateur last year, and was part of Canada’s bronze medal team at the 2019 Pan American Games in Peru.

Scoring par at No. 13 to Lucena’s bogey and par at No. 14 to Lucena’s double-bogey moved Thibault 2 up with four holes to play. The birdie at the 15th settled the issue.

In contrast to Friday’s semifinal romp, Lucena, a sophomore at California-Davis, never was better than level with Thibault.

“It was definitely a grind,” Lucena said. “I wasn’t having my best game. I was just trying to roll with what I had, and it ended up not working out.

“I definitely realized that I wasn’t as free and as comfortable as in my previous rounds. Besides today, I felt phenomenal this week.”

Such is golf. Just in making the final, she and Thibault were awarded exemptions to the U.S. Women’s Amateur, slated for Aug. 3-9 at Woodmont Country Club in Rockville, Md. Thibault was already in the field on her world ranking.

“I had a lot of confidence in my game coming into this, and I think I wavered a little bit (in the final match) when I hit some bad shots,” Lucena said. “I was just so excited to make it to the finals.”

The worldwide pandemic has, like with the rest of the world, left more question marks than answers in golf. That leaves Thibault’s schedule in doubt.

“I’ll go to the U.S. Women’s Am, and then it depends on school,” Thibault explained. “If school is back, then I’ll be competing in college. If not, I’ll be heading to Europe for the British Am.”

Most likely, someday soon, also to the LPGA Tour. 

Around Prestwick

In two years, Prestwick will host the Women’s Western Junior. It will then be 50 years since the club hosted the 1972 edition, won by 15-year-old Nancy Lopez. … When Canada’s Maddie Szeryk won at River Forest Country Club in 2017, it was the first time a Canadian captured the WWGA’s amateur title. … Thibault had advanced to the quarterfinals at Mistwood two years ago and was knocked out by eventually winner Emilee Hoffman.

– Tim Cronin

Lucena romps, Thibault battles for finals berth

Writing from Frankfort, Illinois

Friday, July 24, 2020

Often in a tight match, it isn’t one brilliant shot that wins, but an error that turns the tide.

So it was in Friday’s second semifinal in the 120th Women’s Western Amateur at Prestwick Country Club, where Sophie Burks of Tallassee, Ala., rinsed her tee shot on the 21st hole, effectively handing a berth in Saturday’s championship match to Quebec City’s Brigitte Thibault.

Before that, a pair of brilliant shots kept Thibault in the match. She had driven to the left rough on the first extra hole, the ball nearly against the base of a tree. A daring sweeping cut shot not only got her to the green, but over it, into thick rough. Then a brilliant touch lob – hit just hard enough to float into the air, and not too much to run away – to three feet set up a routine par. Thibault lived on, halved the 20th hole with a par, and won with par on the 21st.

The dramatic unscheduled golf came after 18 holes that featured five lead changes in the first 15 holes, and a series of up-and-down par saves by Thibault down the stretch. Her 60-foot two-putt on the 18th might as well have counted as a par save.

“From 13 on, a made a bunch of them that were kind of crazy,” Thibault said. “A made one from a ledge, another from 25 yards out. But that one was definitely crazy because I was so close to the tree. But I could see an angle, I was playing a cut, and if it didn’t, it was in a bunker – and I like bunkers. I was fine with that.

“I felt I made so many up-and-downs, it was just meant to be.”

Burks, a senior at Middle Tennessee State, said she did all she could against the Fresno State senior.

Her miscue on the 21st, a pulled tee shot that tumbled into Hickory Creek along the left side of the fairway, came after Thibault had belted a tee shot straight down the middle to the edge of where the fairway stops and the creek crosses. It had the gallery of about 40 Prestwick members in awe.

“Just got outplayed, which is always how you want to go down,” Burks said. “I played well all week, so I can’t be disappointed about that.

“She had been making some great up-and-downs all day.”

Thibault’s reward for the performance is a match with Jackie Lucena of Chico, Calif, whose 7 and 6 dissection of Chelsea Dantonio had her back and the clubhouse while the second semifinal was still on the 13th hole. The margin was the largest in a Women’s Western Am semi since eventual winner Meredith Duncan’s 6 and 5 romp over Katie Futcher in 2000 at Flossmoor.

Lucena won the first four holes, then birdied the eighth and 10th holes to go 6-up. A par on the par-3 12th finished Dantonio off. 

“I’ve been playing great the whole tournament,” Lucena said. “I knew that if I stayed consistent and didn’t back off when I got to an early lead, I could get it done quickly. I knew I didn’t need to do anything more than what I was doing, so I just stuck with it."

Dantonio had eliminated Mary Parsons of Delta, B.C., in the morning quarterfinal, ending the possibility of an all-Canadian final.

Should Thibault win, she’ll be the second Canadian to win the title in four years. Dual citizen Maddie Szeryk of London, Ont., and Tyler, Tex., triumphed at River Forest Country Club in 2017.

The two finalists guaranteed themselves berths in the upcoming U.S. Women’s Amateur with their victories. Thibault said she was already in the field, but Lucena’s romp earned her a spot.

Lucena’s tough match was in the morning, a 20-hole test against 16-year-old Taylor Kehoe. She moved on by making a birdie on the par-5 second hole. Kehoe missed a four-footer to tie and extend the battle.

Thibault was eliminating Ellen Secor of Portland, Ore., 6 and 4, while Burks took the measure of two-time USGA champion Erica Shepherd, 3 and 2.

Thibault made it to the Women’s Western Am quarterfinals at Mistwood two years ago, but was knocked out by eventual champion Emilee Hoffman.

– Tim Cronin

Worldwide field seeks Women's Western Am title

Writing from Frankfort, Illinois

Friday, July 17, 2020

The Women’s Western Amateur has played through a pair of world wars and is now about to play through its second pandemic. Few other tournaments on the planet’s golf calendar can boast that, and none have the stature of the Women’s Western Am.

This will be the 120th soiree, all in a row, and despite the inconveniences of the day, from masks to relative isolation, should be one befitting the pedigree of the past.

This is, effectively, a good chunk of an LPGA field five or six years from now. One is tempted to tout the combatants who will take to the Prestwick Country Club course in the manner of a ring announcer, but more than four corners are needed.

There’s Antonia Matte of Santiago, Chile, who was runner-up in last year’s Women’s Western Am at Royal Melbourne in Hawthorn Woods. There’s Erica Shepherd of Greenwood, Ind., and Duke University, who already has two USGA titles – including the 2017 U.S. Girls Junior – to her name.

There’s Tristyn Nowlin of Richmond, Ky., the Illinois grad who was runner-up at Mistwood in the 2018 Women’s Western Am. From closer to home comes Lemont’s Lauren Beaudreau, the Notre Damer who captured the IHSA Class 2A title in 2019 and has already set records for low tournament score for the Fighting Irish. And don’t forget Sarah Arnold of St. Charles, last year’s Illinois Women’s Amateur champion.

It’s a worldwide field, including players from Guatemala, Peru, Spain, Japan and Canada, along with Matte, the Chilean. Handicaps range from plus-4 up to 5.

“Given all the (pandemic) conditions, this is the best field we’ve ever had,” said Susan Buchanan, the WWGA’s tournament chair. “They’re looking for something to play in, because so many tournaments have been canceled.”

Buchanan, from Athens, Ga., was in the Prestwick clubhouse on Friday, organizing the tournament headquarters. By the weekend, the field, fittingly totaling 120, will have joined her at Prestwick, located on the far south side of Frankfort, a leafy, sprawling suburb on the south edge of the metropolitan area. You don’t have to go far from Prestwick to find cornstalks growing robustly after a spring of heavy rains. Superintendent Tim White, who worked on Dave Ward’s crew at Olympia Fields during the 2003 U.S. Open, has the rough up as well.

The course dates to 1964, a Larry Packard design that fits snugly into a residential community of golf lovers, many of them members. It’s not long by tournament standards – only 7,024 yards from the tips – but need not be for the ladies, who will play from a maximum of 6,374 yards to a par of 72.

A Prestwick member contemplates his approach options on the uphill par-4 13th hole, the first of the course's six difficult finishing holes. (Tim Cronin / Illinois Golfer)

Prestwick member Tim Gowen’s guided tour revealed the course may be largely between homes, but the residences don’t come into play for anyone. Packard fashioned a shot-placement course where one must think before taking out the driver on the tee, or taking aim on the second shot.

The par-4 16th is a great example. Likely a 369-yard test for the ladies, the tee shot appears to lead to a left-hand dogleg. Instead, it leads to a right-hand dogleg and a moderately narrow green. And that hole follows the No. 4 and No. 2 handicap holes on the course, and before that the uphill 342-yard par-4 13th, making for six really solid tests in a row coming home.

There are birdies out there, especially for the long hitters, but woe on anyone who is above the hole on an approach or on the wrong side of the many hogbacks running through the middle of the putting surfaces. They’re subtle, but they’re there, and if the greens are up to speed – 11 might be the magic number – par will be a meaningful score in the qualifying session, and “You’re away” will be the last thing someone wants to hear in match play.

Hostilities commence Tuesday with the first of two qualifying rounds. The top 32 players after 36 holes begin match play on Thursday morning. The championship match, trimmed to 18 holes last year, is set for Saturday morning. The winner and runner-up are expected to be invited to play in the U.S. Women's Amateur, which will also have its 120th playing this year.

– Tim Cronin

Renaming Horton Smith Award is hasty, ill-informed

Commentary by Tim Cronin

Thursday, July 2, 2020

Segregation in golf was and is abhorrent and has lasted for more than a century. It continues at many country clubs in this country and abroad.

In short, it has mirrored and continues to mirror society as a whole. This is not to accept it, but to understand the deep hole golf’s early leaders dug for themselves and which more recent leaders have tried to climb out of.

In climbing, there is sometimes a misstep. The PGA of America’s decision Thursday to rename the Horton Smith Award to the generic PGA Professional Development Award is one.

The association explained none of their reasoning, merely announcing the move “based upon review of its namesake” and saying the award had “racial ties.”

Instead, PGA president Suzy Whaley said “the PGA of America is taking ownership of a failed chapter in our history that resulted in excluding many from achieving their dreams of earning the coveted PGA Member badge and advancing the game of golf. We need to do all we can to ensure the PGA of America is defined by inclusion.”

Smith, fighting uphill, was trying to do just that. If anything, his cohorts failed to follow his lead.

He was one of the few in golf who tried to move golf forward before it was fashionable. A sensation early in his career – he was added to the Ryder Cup team after winning seven times as a 22-year-old rookie – Smith, raised in Joplin, Mo., won the first and third Masters while associated with Oak Park Country Club, and largely on that basis was elected to the Illinois Golf Hall of Fame in 2017.

There was another reason his induction was welcomed. When he was president of the PGA of America in 1952, in those years when the body of golf pros was staunchly all-white, to the point where its by-laws said “only members of the caucasian race” could be members, Smith tried to bend the curve.

The stage was the 1952 San Diego Open. Bill Spiller and Joe Louis had entered at the invitation of the tournament organizers. The PGA of America tournament committee turned them down because of their race. Spiller, a prominent black pro, threatened a lawsuit. Louis, the former heavyweight champion and a fine amateur golfer, compared Smith to Hitler, saying “Horton Smith believes in the white race (the way) Hitler believed in the super race.”

Smith was stuck with upholding his association’s rules, but wanted to defuse the controversy. The week before Louis’ comments, he’d told Chester Washington, Louis’ secretary, that he was sympathetic with opening tournaments to all, and that he expected a resolution to strike the caucasian-only clause would be introduced at the next PGA annual meeting.

Alas, it took until 1961 – after the PGA was forced to move the 1962 PGA Championship from California because of the clause – for the association to see the light.

Smith was ahead of his peers by nine years, but knew those peers would not be easy to convince. Reported Golf World in its Jan. 18, 1952, issue, “Smith said he favors ‘evolution’ as the proper method for the Negro golfers to proceed, and that he objected to ‘revolution.’ He urged Washington not to press the PGA at present because a controversy would injure rather than help the Negro cause.”

So Smith brokered a compromise, putting Louis in the field because he was an amateur and thus wasn’t subject to PGA of America by-laws. Spiller was steamed, stood in front of the first tee before the first round to hold up play, but eventually relented at Louis’ behest. Louis played with Smith, and while neither made the cut, the point was made.

Smith went further. He set up a committee of leading black golfers, including Spiller, Louis and Ted Rhodes, to create an “approved list” of black players for tournaments, and got the PGA of America Tournament Committee to recognize their list by a 6-0 vote, with one member unable to be reached by phone.

That opened the way for Rhodes, Spiller and Eural Clark of Los Angeles to play the Phoenix Open the following week. Louis failed to qualify, though he, Rhodes and Charlie Sifford played in Tucson the week after. (Louis opened with a 69.)

The one setback Smith couldn’t overcome was the ability of tournament sponsors and host courses to bar blacks. That continued, but Smith in the space of a couple of weeks did more to advance integrating the tournament circuit, and thus golf in general, than anyone had in the previous 64 years the game had been played in the United States.

Despite the above facts, on Thursday, the PGA of America decided to take Horton Smith’s name off the award given annually by the national body and its 41 regional sections since 1965 to someone who has advanced continuing education for fellow professionals.

In its release, the PGA called Smith “a defender of the ‘Caucasian-only’ membership clause,” failing to note his actions, detailed above, in beginning to lift the ban. They were hardly those of a defender.

Recognizing the shortcomings of an organization’s past is welcome, and usually leads to an enlightened future. Acting in ignorance of the facts and painting with a broad brush often obscures the details. Such is the case in the PGA’s action. Smith should not be pilloried as one of the many in golf who were against integration, but celebrated as one of the few who had the courage to do something.