Gejo leads windblown U.S. Senior Women’s Open qualifying

Writing from Lake Forest, Illinois

Monday, June 18, 2018

Eriko Gejo hails from Kawasaki, Japan, is a veteran of the LPGA Japan Tour, and now plays on their version of the senior tour.

Clearly, she’s a superb wind player based on the 1-under-par 70 she fashioned Monday at Conway Farms Golf Club, where a superheated three-club wind howled from the west most of the day, playing havoc with shot selection.

Gejo’s score in 92-degree heat not only won the qualifying medal for the Inaugural U.S. Senior Women’s Open at Chicago Golf Club next month, it beat runner-up Elaine Crosby, a two-time winner on the LPGA Tour, by two strokes, and third-best Jamie Fischer, a teaching pro at Conway Farms, by seven.

“I played very good,” Gejo said. “My putting was the best today. It was windy, but I like windy.”

She scattered three birdies across her front nine, then hung on. The 51-year-old tied for fifth and seventh in tournaments in Japan last year.

Crosby’s 1-over 72 looked to carry the day until Gejo, in the penultimate group, returned her card.

“Score-wise, I lived up to it, but I didn’t hit it great,” said Crosby, now a high-school principal in Jackson, Mich. “I started with a three-putt and righted the ship on the back nine. The ball carried a long way, but the greens are hard too.”

Fischer was more nervous after her 6-over 77 score was posted than while she was playing. She was even par through 14 holes, and then things got “dramatic,” with a triple-bogey on 15 followed by a pair of bogeys. Fischer rallied for a birdie at the last for 77, and what turned out to be a cushion.

“I was coming off a stretch of not-good scores, and I said, ‘Let’s just find a way to make a four here. Somehow I did.”

Fischer had 105 yards in, played her approach to 18 feet, and sank it.

Also qualifying, on 7-over 78, were Kaori Shimura of Gotempa City, Japan and Annette DeLuca of Tequesta, Fla. Several of the 33 players in the field did not finish because of the heat.

– Tim Cronin

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Look for an fuller report on qualifying in Illinois Golfer’s special preview issue covering the Inaugural U.S. Senior Women’s Open, available here the week of the championship.

Amateurs rally to capture madcap Radix Cup

Writing from River Grove, Illinois

Wednesday, June 13, 2018

Just call it the craziest day in Radix Cup history.

An albatross. A ace. A guy chipping in three times. The host professional without his clubs on the first tee.

Throw in a rousing comeback by the amateurs, and Wednesday’s Radix Cup, the 57th in succession, is barely summed up.

The amateurs, the Chicago District Golf Association’s side, won 10-8 at Oak Park Country Club after trailing 4-2 at the turn by collecting eight of the 12 remaining points to knock off the Illinois PGA’s professionals.

It’s the second win in a row, third in four matches and seventh in the last 11 for the amateurs. However, mere statistics explain next to nothing.

Start with the albatross, or double eagle, if you prefer. Jim Billiter, the professional at Kemper Lakes Golf Club, authored it, and on the par-5 516-yard first hole, at that.

“I had a tree in my way so I was thinking high draw,” Billiter said of his second shot, from about 260 yards out. “I asked Dakun (Chung, his partner), ‘We didn’t come here to lay up, did we?’ ”

He pulled a 3-wood out of his bag.

“But it came off low off the heel, so I’m screaming ‘go, go.’ I was not super pleased with it, but it landed by the hole and went down. And (Brian) Brodell was screaming on the second tee. I said, ‘Did that go in the hole?’ ”

It did, the first albatross in Radix Cup history. And like that, he and Chung were 1-up on amateurs Greg Bauman and Matt Murlick.

Billiter and Chung were 5-under in the best-ball format at the turn, and scored a point for the pros. In the Radix Cup, each match has a point available on each side, and another overall.

Bauman and Murlick bounced back stunningly, especially Murlick, who plays out of the public Winnetka Golf Club. He took to Oak Park like he was a member, chipping in on the eighth hole, then twice more on the back, on the 13th and 16th holes, winning the hole each time. The amateur duo went around the back in 4-under to Billiter-Chung’s 1-under to win the inward point and the overall point as well.

Those two points won the Cup for the amateurs.

“They played great on the back and we just kinda stalled,” Billiter said. “It was a great day. I’ve made plenty of eagles in my time, but they were all 10-footers, no closer.”

The ace was almost routine in comparison. Amateur Dave Ryan of Taylorville accomplished that with a 4-iron from 200 yards on the sixth hole.

“It went past the hole, rolled back down the hill, and went in,” Ryan, the 2016 U.S. Senior Amateur champion, said matter-of-factly of his fourth career ace. “When you make a hole in one, obviously it’s lucky.”

“I’ve never hit that green, let alone get close to the hole,” said Illinois PGA Match Play champion Garrett Chaussard, who saw Ryan’s ball go in from the fifth fairway.

Ryan’s ace came some 10 minutes after Billiter’s albatross, and helped he and Oak Park club champion Justin Smith to a point on the front nine, but Oak Park pros Carson Solien and Ryan Peavey scored a point on the back and were able to halve the overall point for a draw.

Solien has been the head professional for about three months. It was he who left his clubs at home, not realizing that until scant minutes before the match.

“It just tells you how much golf I’ve been playing in the past three months,” Solien said. “I didn’t even know where they were. Luckily I don’t live too far from the club, so my caddie went home and got them. I had them by the middle of the first hole. I joined Ryan on the second hole.

“Makes for a good story, at least.”

You can’t make stuff like that up.

The only win by a pro duo was the 2 1/2-1/2 victory of Chaussard and Matt Slowinski over amateurs Brian Hickey and Chadd Slutzky. Otherwise, the amateurs either split or won the other three matches.

– Tim Cronin

57th Radix Cup Match

Oak Park CC • Par 72

Amateurs 10, Professionals 8

Pros Kyle Bauer, Chris Green 1 1/2, amateurs Michael Fastert, Charlie Waddell 1 1/2

Pros Ryan Peavey, Carson Solien 1 1/2, amateurs Dave Ryan, Justin Smith 1 1/2

Pros Garrett Chaussard, Matt Slowinski 2 1/2, amateurs Mike Cushing, Todd Mitchell 1/2

Amateurs Brian Hickey, Chadd Slutzky 2, pros Rich Dukelow, Travis Johns 1

Amateurs Brian Ohr, Trent Wallace 2 1/2, pros Brian Brodell, Brian Carroll 1/2

Amateurs Greg Bauman, Matt Murlick 2, pros Jim Billiter, Dakun Chung 1

Hardy pro debut Thursday in Rust-Oleum

Writing from Chicago

Wednesday, June 6, 2018

Nick Hardy is level-headed enough to not see the dollar signs in his mind when he addresses the ball on the first tee of Ivanhoe Club at 9 a.m. Thursday.

That’s not to say he won’t have been thinking about it for the days beforehand. That first swing will mark his debut as a professional after a fine amateur career that was capped by his second Big Ten individual title – this one outright – in three years.

The Northbrook native thus makes the transition on an up, even though his Illinois team didn’t carry the torch into the NCAA Championship match play segment this year. It wasn’t because Hardy and Dylan Meyer, who on Monday qualified for next week’s U.S. Open, didn’t try.

Even though he’s in on a sponsor exemption, Hardy is one of the headliners for this year’s Rust-Oleum Championship, the web.com Tour tournament that has decamped at Ivanhoe Club for the third year running. It’s a field of PGA Tour hopefuls and once-weres, and this year buttressed by former Masters champion Mike Weir, who’s using the tournament to prep for the Champions Tour. He starts Thursday at 12:55 p.m.

Also in the field are a pair of Illinois Open champions: Chicago’s Brad Hopfinger (2014) and Elgin’s Carlos Sainz (2016), Wheaton’s Tim “Tee-K” Kelly, who captured a tournament on the Latinoamerica circuit last season, Libertyville’s Michael Schachner, Chicago’s Vince India and Quincy’s Luke Guthrie, who had a few stellar outings on the PGA Tour early in his pro career and then fell back into the pack.

Eighteen of the top 25 on the tour’s money list – the cutoff for advancement to the PGA Tour at the end of the season – are on hand, including No. 1 Sungjam Im of South Korea. Other notables including 2003 PGA Championship winner Shaun Micheel and 2007 Western Amateur winner Jhared Hack. They’re in a threesome with Josh Teater off the 10th tee at 7:30 a.m. Thursday.

Tim Cronin

Chaussard scores a major victory

Reporting from Kildeer, Illinois

Thursday, May 10, 2018

First Garrett Chaussard had to get to the championship match. Last year, he dropped a semifinal decision to Danny Mulhearn.

Thursday at Kemper Lakes Golf Club was different for Chaussard. In the morning, he needed 20 holes to beat Kyle Bauer, advancing him to the 67th Illinois PGA Match Play Championship title match.

Then he had to beat Chris Green, a frequent golf companion. They had practiced together for Monday’s U.S. Open local qualifier. Their jobs – Chaussard at Skokie Country Club, Green at Glen View Club – are only a few miles apart, so they play occasionally.

But when the time came, Chaussard put the hammer down. His 12-foot birdie putt on the par-3 13th gave him a 2-up lead on Green, and he parlayed that into a 3 and 2 victory for the title, his first in a state major.

“It feels good,” Chaussard said. “It’s kind of an unexpected one. I don’t think you ever go in thinking you’ll win a match play event because there’s so much luck involved. I happened to be on the right side of a few very close matches and it was enough to win.”

Green said his play in the title match was his worst of the week. He had scored a 2 and 1 victory over Brian Carroll of Royal Hawk in the semifinal.

“Four or five or six over isn’t going to get it done in the final,” Green said. “And Garrett’s a steady competitor. He’s not going to give it back. I’m happy to get to today.”

Green had chipped in for birdie on the second hole, but Chaussard birdied on top of him to keep the match square. Green won the fourth hole with a par, lost the fifth, won the sixth to lead again, but lost the eighth and ninth with a bogey and double-bogey, handing Chaussard a 1-up lead. He never surrendered it.

Chaussard earned $5,000, while Green received $2,750 as balm.

– Tim Cronin

A full report on the 67th Illinois PGA Championship is slated for the June issue of Illinois Golfer.

Sportsman’s renovation to Greg Martin

Golf course architect Greg Martin and clubhouse architect Dan Wohlfeil won a six-way competition on Thursday night for a comprehensive renovation of Sportsman’s Country Club in Northbrook.

Martin’s winning proposal comes on the heels of his award-winning renovation of the Preserve at Oak Meadows in Wood Dale, which opened last year and has won raves from customers aside from plaques from those who judge such things with a technical eye. Wohlfeil designed Mistwood’s clubhouse, among other unique properties.

Details on the five candidates Martin was up against can be found in May’s digital issue of Illinois Golfer.

– Tim Cronin

Naperville's Andrew Lim is Augusta-bound

Writing from Chicago

Friday, March 30, 2018

Andrew Lim is your basic 13-year-old golf whiz.

He must be. He’ll be at Augusta National Golf Club on Sunday. With his clubs.

Lim, who lives in Naperville, qualified for the Drive, Chip and Putt championship round in the Boys 12-13 bracket. He’s the lone Chicago-area qualifier.

“It’s really exciting,” Lim said Friday while waiting at O’Hare with his parents to board a flight to Augusta. “It’s a new experience. I’ve never been to any tournament except a practice round (for the U.S. Open) at Chambers Bay.”

The Lim family – he has an older sister, Emma, and younger brother, Matthew – lived in Washington then, but relocated to Naperville about 18 months ago. He was already playing golf, and playing it well. He’d tried to make the DCP finals before but could only get to the second of the three qualifying stages.

This year, he took second in the local stage at Cantigny, where he took up the game at age 7, then won the sub-regional at Cog Hill to advance to the regional at The Honors Course near Chattanooga, Tennessee, a setting as exclusive and nearly as picturesque as Augusta itself.

Then came the drama. Usually, the order of play matches the title – driving, chipping and putting – but at Honors, chipping came last, and Lim knew exactly what he had to do to succeed.

“I was really nervous,” he said. “My hands were shaking when I hit my last shot. I had to be within eight feet or so.”

He chipped to about eight feet, and that sent him to Augusta.

Since then, he’s adopted a practice routine that cycles through driving, chipping and putting. At the moment, he said his driving is the best part of his game.

The plan at Augusta: “Hit the first drive for accuracy, and the second for distance,” Lim said. He needs to get one within the confines of a 40-yard wide fairway on Augusta’s mammoth driving range to get at least one point, but the longer the drive, the better his chance to move up in the standings among his nine challengers.

Then it’s on to chipping, where the competition is likely to be fierce, and after that, to the 18th green, where he’ll have two putts on the same stage where everyone from Horton Smith to Sergio Garcia has triumphed.

Lim, who said his goal is to finish in the top four, is seeking to become the third Chicago-area champion in the five years the DCP has been conducted. Effie Perakis won the Girls 7-9 bracket in 2015, and Christian Kim scored a victory in Boys 10-11 in 2016.

Unlike Scott Foster, the 36-year-old accountant who lived out a Walter Mitty dream by playing for the Blackhawks as an emergency goalie on Thursday night, Andrew Lim isn’t quite a folk hero to his classmates yet.

“There aren’t a lot of golfers in school,” Lim said.

In a couple of days, they might all want to join him on the first tee.

– Tim Cronin