Looking for the next legend

Writing from Glenview, Illinois

Wednesday, July 24, 2024

Where will the next Scottie Scheffler come from?

In North America, the answer probably is, the same place the first one came from – the Korn Ferry Tour.

The PGA Tour’s triple-A circuit has proven phenomenally successful at identifying future stars since it took root at the Ben Hogan Tour in 1990. This week, it returns to the Chicago area with the sixth playing of the Western Golf Association-sponsored NV5 Invitational at The Glen Club. Hostilities commence Thursday morning and continue through Sunday.

Scheffler is used here as the example because he won the NV5 in 2019, when it debuted and was known as the Evans Scholars Invitational. Scheffler went around The Glen Club four times with an aggregate of 17-under-par 273 – with a final round back nine of 30 – and then beat Marcelo Rozo on the second hole of a sudden-death playoff.

It was his first win on the then-Web.com Tour, and kick-started his pro career. By the end of the season, Scheffler led the both the regular and playoff points and earned a spot on the PGA Tour. He has been rolling since then, with this year’s six wins, including a second Masters, the best stretch of his career.

The next Scheffler? Maybe it’s Trace Crowe, last year’s winner, who advanced to the PGA Tour via qualifying school after coming close to getting his card via the Korn Ferry trail.

“Chicago’s where all this started,” said Crowe recently. “The confidence and believe that I can be where I am now.”

Crowe, who tees off in the 3M Championship on the big tour Thursday, could be back here next year. While he’s made $448,709 so far, he’s 165th in the Tour’s standings, and only the top 100 are locked in for the following year. Everyone else goes into the Korn Ferry playoff mosh pit. Curtis Thompson, the 2020 winner at The Glen Club, is the only returnee of the first five winners.

A glance at the pairings finds a cross between fringe PGA Tour players of the past, recent notable amateurs – including last year’s Western Amateur winner, Kazuma Kobori of Auckland, New Zealand – and sundry other hopefuls.

Remember Bo Van Pelt, knocking around the PGA Tour for years? He’s here. So is Jamie Lovemark, who won the 2005 Western Amateur, turned pro and has been chasing stardom since. Likewise Tag Ridings, who may still have his own fan club. Five-time PGA Tour winner Ben Crane’s on hand as well.

Local heroes abound. Brad Hopfinger, who won an Illinois Open at The Glen Club, is teeing it up. So is two-time Illinois Amateur champ Ethan Farnam of Crystal Lake, now playing for cash. The field is deep enough that Dylan Meyer, erstwhile Illinois standout, is the ninth alternate.

There’s a million bucks on offer, and $180,000 to the winner, the same pricey purse the Western Open offered in 1989. In 1990, when the Hogan Tour began, the purses were $100,000, with $20,000 to the champion. The world of golf has changed. But the Scottie Schefflers of the game still emerge.

– Tim Cronin

Beaudreau breaks through at IWO

Writing from Romeoville, Illinois

Tuesday, July 23, 2024

Ten years and six days ago, Lauren Beaudreau won an American Junior Golf Association tournament at Mistwood Golf Club. After it, she posed with the Midwest Junior Players trophy with one of Mistwood’s iconic bridges in the background.

Tuesday, Beaudreau returned to the same spot, with a different trophy. She posed with the Phil Kosin Cup, emblematic of victory in the Phil Kosin Illinois Women’s Open.

“This is definitely a trophy I wanted my name associated with,” Beaudreau said while clutching the cup.

Beaudreau, a Lemont native who won a state title at Benet Academy in 2018 and captured the NCAA East Regional for Notre Dame in May, triumphed in her fourth start as a professional, following tournaments in Normal, Ill., Michigan and Florida since turning pro following graduation. A final-hole birdie 4 gave her the title by a stroke over Nicole Jeray and amateurs Carolina Lopez-Chacarra of Madrid, Spain and Caroline Smith of Inverness.

Jeray also birdied the last, but Beaudreau, who went for the par-5 in two and saw her approach land just off the green, chipped to three feet and sank the winning putt.

“I’ve never gone for that green in two,” Beaurdeau said. “But I hit my drive 304 yards and I only had a 6-iron in. It felt a little silly to lay up. It seemed like a no-brainer.”

It proved to be the winning move, as Jeray played the hole conventionally, sinking a 10-footer for her birdie, finishing with a 1-under 71 for 2-under 142 compared to Beaudreau’s closing 71 for 3-under 141.

“I feel like Mistwood really sets up for my game,” said Beaudreau, who has played Mistwood often in the last decade. “The first day I got off to a really hot start – 4-under through seven holes. I didn’t have my best ball-striking today, but I grinded it out.”

And withstood the pressure.

“People say the more you’re in that position, the easier it gets, but I think it never feels the same,” Beaudreau said. “I could have been in the lead 50 times but every time you’re in that position, it feels different. I did feel some nerves today. Sometimes it’s on cruise control and somethings it’s a battle. Today I had to scrape it around.”

Birdies on the 17th and 18th on Monday brought her in at 2-under 70. But she was tied for fourth with five holes to play, behind Lopez-Chacarra, Smith and overnight leader Jessica Jolly. Beaudreau played the last five holes in 1-under, four pars followed by the birdie at the last, while both Lopez-Chacarra and Smith lost a stroke and Jolly lost three. Jeray had four birdies on the back nine, but bogeys on 14 and 15 from putts that slid past the cup doomed her.

Jeray plays more of her golf in senior tournaments these days, but a generation ago, she was in Beaudreau’s position, just graduated from Northern Illinois and trying to break into professional golf.

“She’s a lot better than I was,” Jeray said. “She hits it longer. And she plays against better competition. There are a lot more players now.”

Beaudreau tied for 16th in the Florida Women’s Open last week, tied for ninth in the Michigan PGA Women’s Open in late June, and opened her professional career with a tie for third in the Redbird Championship at the Weibring Golf Course at Illinois State in mid-June.

She earned $3,100 there. That and the $5,000 she picked up for winning at Mistwood will more than take care of her LPGA qualifying tournament fee next month.

Jolly, a Rockford native who’ll be entering Illinois State next month, added an untidy 77 to her opening 5-under 67 and finished solo fifth at even par 144.

– Tim Cronin

Women's Western Am even more elite now

Writing from Lake Forest, Illinois

Wednesday, July 17, 2024

The Women’s Western Amateur casts a long and flattering shadow in the history of American golf. It’s the oldest continuously-played golf championship in the country, contested each year, notwithstanding the machinations of the Kaiser or Hitler or a pair of pandemics a century apart, since 1901. It’s second in prestige within the circle of those who play it only to the U.S. Women’s Amateur, which is a scant six years older. And this year, the quality of the field has been boosted by the creation of the Women’s Elite Amateur golf series, mirroring the one started a few years ago on the men’s amateur side.

The 120 players in this year’s 124th championship comprise most of the elite in women’s amateur golf, and Wednesday’s leader board was a vivid pronouncement of that. At mid-afternoon, with half the field still on the course at the Onwentsia Club, the top three players were Texas’ Farah O’Keefe, at 8-under-par 136, Western Kentucky’s Catie Craig, whose 5-under 67 was the best round of the day and placed her second at 7-under 137, and 2022 runner-up Annabelle Pancake, the recent Clemson grad standing at 6-under 138.

All three of that trio likely would have teed it up regardless of the new series, which has added such baubles as an exemption into the U.S. Women’s Amateur for the winner. But the middle of the field has markedly improved, which augurs well for a most competitive match play portion of the championship beginning Thursday among the 32 survivors and continues through Saturday’s finale.

“Our No. 115 player can beat our No. 1 player now if she qualifies,” said WWGA president Susan Buchanan. “It has definitely helped the field. We have the strongest field we’ve ever had and haven’t really done anything differently on our end.

“Having the Eilte Amateur series brings in the top players because they want the exemptions we offer.”

The other tournaments in the Elite series are the Sea Island, the Southwestern, the North & South, all of which preceded the Women’s Western, and the LNGA Amateur, which follows it. Of that quartet, only the North & South, held annually at Pinehurst and dating to 1903. Craig, who fancies a career as a golf course architect, won that three weeks ago as the No. 3 seed.

A Women’s Western newbie, Craig noted “the incentives and the point system, I think that’s a really cool thing they’re doing for women’s golf, giving women opportunities to play at such high levels outside of college. I would have come here regardless, because in past years friends have played and said how incredible it is. Okay, I’ve got to try it.”

So far, so great. Likewise for the Austin, Texas, native.

“I’m a fan of courses up here in Chicago,” said O’Keefe, whose women’s course-record 64 at the Glen View Club representing Texas in a college tournament raised eyebrows. “I had a blast there and made up my mind I like Chicago-style golf courses.

“I didn’t know the Elite Amateur series was a thing until you said it,” O’Keefe told a reporter. “Now it’s exciting to think of.”

Pancake, of course, wants to avenge her 2022 loss to Taglao Jerravivitaporn, a 2 and 1 loss at Sunset Ridge in a championship match after building a 3-up lead in the first six holes.

“Obviously, I love this tournament and have had success in it,” Pancake said. “I go in trying to beat the golf course, but this is the best field they’ve ever had. It’s definitely the most competitive, which is exciting. It’s stacked, which is what you want. You want to play against the best.”

This year’s Women’s Western Am has also brought back memories for those who indulge in the history of the game. It began at Onwentsia under the auspices of the fledgling Western Golf Association in 1901, and was played in conjunction with Onwentsia’s Governors Cup. That was also the case in 1902, but in both years, the WGA bollixed up the match play bracket and only last-minute corrections prevented a fiasco.

That encouraged the ladies to step out on their own, the WWGA was formed, and the Western Women’s Amateur became the Women’s Western Amateur in the blink of an eye. The commonality among the first three championships: Bessie Anthony won them all, Nobody has three-peated since.

The WGA, after more than a century in the penalty box, returned as a presenting partner to help with logistics the past four years. But the ladies in the blue jackets still run the golf, with distinction.

– Tim Cronin

Chicago Adaptive Open – Champions in every way

Writing from Lemont, Illinois

Sunday, June 30, 2024

Over this weekend a remarkable thing happened at Cog Hill Golf & Country Club, where many remarkable things have happened over nearly a century.

A golf tournament was held and everyone won.

This was not your normal tournament, one along the lines of the Western Open, which had a 20-year residence at Cog Hill, or even a country club’s member-guest, where the winners grin and the losers order an extra gin and tonic.

This was the inaugural Chicago Adaptive Open, where the less-than-able bodied took to Cog’s No. 3 course to chase after an overall title, victories in 16 classes, and a total purse of $15,000 split among leaders in those classes.

Conducted by the Chicago District Golf Association and featuring close to 50 participants, the CAO proves nothing is impossible in golf. Some players had one hand, others one arm, some one leg. Some were mentally impaired. Some were in motorized carts adapted so they could roll up to the ball, even on the green, to play a shot.

All took your breath away.

What the able-bodied among us struggle with – hitting a fairway, hitting a green, sometimes just hitting the ball – these ladies and gentlemen do with ease. Perfect, they are not, but their consistency in the face of what they deal with puts the rest of us to shame.

This considerable talent arrived from the four winds on Friday, when practice rounds were held. The participants were feted at a get-together at Midwest Golf House, the CDGA’s home, in conjunction with the unveiling of must-see exhibits on the history of Chicago-area golf, focusing on the club manufacturing business that once dominated the industry and still thrives.

Meeting some of the players was a treat. They consider golf a game, as we do, and never mind they may be swinging a club with one hand. The basic challenge remains, and the only handicap in their mind is a 2.3 or whatever their index is at the moment.

The CDGA arranged for an online telecast of the final holes, Dan Roan among those calling the action, which allowed those who couldn’t make it to Cog to take in the action. The overall winner was 23-year-old Jarrett Fultz, an Arizona resident with cerebral palsy. The hand tremors he lives with makes the game even more of a crapshoot, but he piled up four birdies on the front nine and scored 1-under 71 on Sunday, the only under-par round of the weekend, to win with a 36-hole total of 4-over 148, edging Ryanne Jackson of Florida by a stroke.

The key for Fultz was a four-footer for par on the par-5 17th.

“I made a clutch short putt,” Fultz told the CDGA. “I knew I wanted to make par on a short par-5 that would feel bad to bogey.”

Jackson, the overnight leader with an opening 72, closed with a 77, so was both runner-up and the winner of the women’s division.

“You can’t be upset when someone outplays you, and I didn’t have my best today,” Jackson told the CDGA. “There’s always the next tournament and next year for this one.”

The next tournament for Jackson is the U.S. Adaptive Open, conducted by the USGA, played July 8-10 at Sand Creek Station in Newton, Kan. She happens to be the defending champion.

– Tim Cronin

Pros, honoring Steve Dunning, bounce back in Radix

Writing from River Grove, Illinois

Thursday, June 13, 2024

Losing two years in a row to their amateur buddies didn’t sit well with the pros of the PGA’s Illinois Section. That was clear from the start in the 62nd renewal of the Radix Cup, the annual competition between the best of each side at Oak Park County Club.

Each of the six two-man pro teams won the front nine, picking up a point in the three-point Nassau format, and went on to a 16-2 victory, the largest in Radix Cup history.

“We ham ’n egged it pretty well,” said Brian Carroll, professional at The Hawk in Crystal Lake. He was speaking of his association with Kevin Flack of Rockford’s Mauh-Nah-Tee-See club – they applied a 3-0 thumping of Chadd Slutzky of Royal Fox and John Ramsey of Glenview Park – but might as well have been speaking of the dozen pros as a whole.

Four of the six twosomes swept their match. The others applying the 3-0 vise: Andy Mickelson (Mistwood GC) and Jeff Kellen (North Shore CC), Chris Green (Glen View C) and Tim Streng (Wildcat Golf Academy), and Kyle Donovan (Oak Park CC) and Chris French (Aldeen GC).

On a steamy day when pesky cicadas caused many a player to flinch before taking a swing, Carroll downplayed his contributions, which included a 7-foot birdie putt at the last to seal the outcome of the first match, but the numbers were overwhelming. Not only did the pros sweep the front side, at one point it was 11-0. Only a late rally prevented a shutout.

The outcome was hardly inevitable. The many of the amateurs were returnees from the squads that won the last two years. In the four years since the cancellation of the 2020 playing because of COVID-19, each side has won twice.

The Radix, though, has never been just about the competition, competitive though it is. Honoring Radix, one of golf’s biggest boosters, since North Shore pro Bill Ogden and Oak Park pro Errie Ball conceived it in 1962, the camaraderie between the two sides is also a feature, from the lunch before play to the partaking of a libation after the final putt drops.

This year, there was another element. The flag at Oak Park was at half staff, honoring Steve Dunning, professional at the club from 1982 through 2009, who died on Saturday. A gentleman of the first order and a consummate pro, Dunning was 77.

“Steve was great to me when I was first getting started here,” said Carson Solien, the current head pro at Oak Park, told CDGA.org. “We’ll miss him. He was an integral part of Oak Park and a great guy.”

Dunning played in the Radix Cup eight times, with a record of 3-4-1. In his final appearance, in 2006, he and Jason Lee dropped a match to Mike Henry and Tom Miler. Henry played in Thursday’s match alongside Derek Meinhart of Mattoon G&CC, and managed a draw against veteran pros Roy Biancalana (The Hawk CC) and Travis Johns (Medinah CC). And there too was a Dunning connection. Henry’s family grew up at Oak Park.

“Steve was the head pro for as long as I can remember,” Henry told the CDGA. “What a gentleman. It was awesome to play with him and I know our entire family spoke very highly of him.”

In that, there was unanimity.

– Tim Cronin