It's show time in Rosemont

    Writing from Chicago
    Thursday, February 25, 2016    

    More a sign of spring than the sighting of the first robin, the Chicago Golf Show sets up shop for a three-day run in Rosemont beginning at noon on Friday.
    There are nearly 200 exhibitors, most of them golf-related, ready to sing the praises of their course, their clubs, or whatever else they’re selling, in the big hall at the Stephens Convention Center in Rosemont. And some are literally selling their wares. As with the Tinley Park Golf Expo, there will be clubs and all the accessories needed to tee it up for sale.
    The on-stage attraction this year is Peter Longo, the “king of clubs.” Longo’s given thousands of trick-shot shows over the years, but never at the Chicago Golf Show. He’ll make one appearance a day, times to be announced. The show itself is open from noon-7 p.m. Friday, 9:30 a.m.-6 p.m. Saturday, and 9:30 a.m.-4 p.m. Sunday. Admission is $5 on Friday, $10 on the weekend, with kids from 12 to 15 $4, and under 12 free.
    For the nostalgia-oriented, three members of the 1985 Chicago Bears – Super Bowl winners 30 years ago – will be on hand. Emery Moorhead (Friday), Mike Richardson (Saturday)and Jim Morrissey (Sunday) will be taking lessons from Illinois PGA pros. Those same pros will be available to give mini-lessons to you in the Illinois PGA Village, which includes a pair of golf simulators and more hands-on goodies to play with.
    About 17,000 attended last year.

    • The Illinois Open is returning to Royal Fox Country Club in St. Charles for the first time since 2001. The showcase of state golf, expanded to two courses last year, will be played there and at co-owned Royal Hawk Country Club, also in St. Charles, on July 25-27.
    The 258-player field will tackle first two rounds, one on each course, on the first two days. Survivors play the final round at Royal Fox, which will be hosting for the eighth time.
    The move to the royals Fox and Hawk is also a move away from KemperSports-controlled courses. The Illinois Open has been on a Kemper-affiliated course every year since 2002, when The Glen Club hosted for the first of nine times, more than any other course.
    Royal Fox was designed by Dick Nugent, who did a good job squeezing 18 holes into a landscape that crosses over a highway and includes housing. There are a couple of quirky holes – the original tee for the par-4 third hole looked through a space between trees no more than 15 yards wide, while the 18th features an island green – but the leaders had little trouble breaking par.
    Royal Hawk is the former Burr Hill Golf Course, sort of. It was being redesigned even before the Royal group bought it in 2004. By 2006, only four of the original holes remained. As a result, the course meanders in uncertain fashion through a housing development and across the landscape, some holes separated from the previous one by large distances.
    But, at least for 2016, it’s home to the Illinois Open.
    “The golf courses were uniquely designed and built to be true tests of championship golf,” said Royal Group CEO John Weiss in an Illinois PGA news release. “The participants will love the look, layout and feel of both Royal Fox and Royal Hawk, as well as enjoy their experience at the Royal Country Clubs. It’s also a great opportunity for the St. Charles area. The community has a great young fan base and the Illinois PGA's marquee championship will provide great exposure to our many young fans of golf.”

     – Tim Cronin

Love and golf collide at the Tinley Park Golf Expo

Writing from Chicago

Tuesday, February 9, 2016

    Valentine’s Day and golf. Is there a better combination?
    Perhaps there is, but for those who love the game, the final day of the Tinley Park Golf Expo – Sunday – coincides with the ultimate hearts-and-flowers-and-candy wooing day.
    Five years in, the Expo is now a fixture in Chicago’s winter golf calendar. This year’s edition runs from Friday through Sunday at the Tinley Park Convention Center, at Harlem Ave. and Interstate 80 in Tinley Park.
    “We cannot think of a better way for couples to bond than through the game of golf,” said Gregg Tengerstrom, the co-owner of the Expo and longtime head professional at Silver Lake Country Club in Orland Park.
    Tengerstrom and co-owner Joe Copeland expect about 10,000 golf fans to attend over three days. Those who make the trek can investigate the booths of about 120 exhibitors, ranging from equipment manufacturers to area courses to resorts signed up, as well as a sales area where clubs old and new will be available. Looking for a left-handed 1-iron? You may find it, along with all the more modern implements of the game, at the Expo.
    Admission is $5 Friday, $10 Saturday or Sunday. Children under 12 are free with a paying adult. The hours: Friday, noon-7 p.m.; Saturday, 9 a.m.-7 p.m.; Sunday: 9 a.m.-4 p.m.
    Beyond the booths, here’s what you’ll find inside the Expo:
    • The Demo area will have new clubs and putters from a dozen manufacturers across three days. Adams, Callaway and Taylor Made will be on hand all three days. Cobra, Mizuno and Tour Edge will be there Friday and Saturday, while Wilson will be represented on Saturday and Sunday. Nike and Ping are Friday-only, while Cleveland, Fourteen Golf and RIFE Putters are Sunday-only participants.
    • An expanded lesson area will feature professionals from Billy Casper Golf’s many area courses, as well as Greg Kaumeyer of Golf Fitness 4 You. Additionally, the First Tee of Greater Chicago will host lessons and a skills challenge area for children, and the Freedom Golf Association will have complimentary lessons for the disabled.
    • A dollar enters you in the skills contests – long drive, long putt, and a closest to the pin contest via a golf simulator – with Callaway clubs and Odyssey putters to be won each day. There are also raffles other attractions in the aisles.

– Tim Cronin

The best Day in golf history

Writing from Lake Forest, Illinois

Sunday, September 20, 2015

At one point in Sunday’s final round of the BMW Championship at Conway Farms Golf Club, Jason Day’s lead was down to a mere four strokes.

He had been saturating his scorecard with pars, with the exception of a birdie at the eighth hole and a bogey at the ninth.

Daniel Berger was nipping at his heels, or at least trying to.

A rookie, chase down the guy who had won three of his previous five starts? Who had raced out to a six-stroke lead after 54 holes? Who was dominating the way guys like Hagen and Woods had done in Western Opens past?

Say it ain’t so.

It ain’t. Day sank a 15-footer from the fringe for birdie on the par-4 16th and a 3-footer for a birdie 4 at the last to win going away and grab the No. 1 world ranking away from Rory McIlroy, who finished tied for fourth.

Day’s winning score of 22-under-par 262, capped by Sunday’s 2-under 69, beat runner-up Berger by six strokes, third-place Scott Piercy – who birdied four of the last five holes – by seven and McIlroy, Rickie Fowler and John “J.B.” Holmes by eight.

Day’s total tied the Western Open mark set by Tiger Woods at Cog Hill in 2007. It was the biggest rout in a Western / BMW since Woods won by eight at Cog Hill in 2009.

It seemed inevitable entering the day, and proved to be so, but that deterred neither the galleries from pouring in nor the players was pouring in birdies. Bubba Watson went out in 29 and was chasing 59 before a bogey bit him. He settled for 65. There were two 64s, and more red numbers on the board than a supermarket sale.

All that was fun. What Day accomplished was remarkable.

At the British Open, Day missed the playoff by a stroke. He returned to North America and won the Canadian Open the next week, then outdueled Jordan Spieth to capture the PGA Championship at Whistling Straits, then won the Barclays, the first tournament in the PGA Tour’s playoff series. The BMW is the third of the four playoff dances.

By winning it, he’s won four times in his last six starts, and is making the strongest possible argument that he, rather than Masters and U.S. Open winner Spieth, should be considered the player of the year.

Perhaps that will come down to a battle at next week’s Tour Championship at East Lake, where the $10 million bonus proffered by FedEx will also be on the line.

Regardless, Day was the man to catch on Sunday, and uncatchable.

“This week was a whirlwind,” Day said. “How I started the week, and the last two days were very emotional for me. Very hard to sleep at night, knowing I had the chance to get to No. 1.”

That was his goal, announced to the world at 18, but in his heart since he took up golf as a release from a difficult homelife in Australia at 13. He’d been on the verge of greatness, and was in the chase for the U.S. Open at Chambers Bay when a spell of vertigo dropped him to the turf late in his second round. Like a fighter, he rallied and was able to tie for the lead after 54 holes. He finished tied for ninth, five strokes behind Spieth, but the spark was there, burned brightly at St. Andrews, and has been blinding since.

“I always had a vision of standing on top of the earth when I was a kid,” Day said. “It feels really good right now.”

How good?

“I’m still a regular guy who’s really good at hitting a golf ball,” Day said. “I feel like I did yesterday.”

Only with a better view.

The race to East Lake

Two years ago at Conway Farms, Harris English missed advancing to the Tour Championship by a stroke.

Last year at Cherry Hills, English missed again, and again by a stroke.

Sunday, after a scare, he made it. By a stroke.

“It’s awesome,” English said. “It’s kind of a goal starting the year. You get in all the majors. It kind of makes your schedule easier.”

Easy it wasn’t, either in how he did it – making a 3 1/2 foot birdie putt at the last to finish with an inward 37 for 2-under 69 and 10-under 274 to tie for 10th – or in the waiting. When he finished, NBC reported he was in. Then other birdie putts were rolling in across the course, and neither NBC nor he was sure. But finally, in English was, 30th in the standings to grab the last spot.

“I need to win about five or six times next year and come in here No. 1 on the FedEx Cup list and make it a little easier,” English said.

English and Kevin Na, who also finished 10th, climbed into the top 30. Daniel Summerhays and Justin Thomas fell out. They finished tied for 41st and tied for 19th, respectively. Somewhere over the course of the season, the week, the back nine, a saved stroke might have gotten them to East Lake in Atlanta as well. 

Around Conway Farms

Zach Johnson and David Hearn each posted 7-under par 64, the best score of the day. Johnson did so with a five-birdie binge to finish, while Hearn’s bogey-free round featured seven birdies. ... The course’s scoring average of 69.754 was 1.246 strokes under par. Only 16 players were over par, with Bryce Molder’s 78 the high for the day. He finished tied for last with Ben Martin. ... The gallery appeared to be the largest of the week, which would be 27,000 if the WGA held to its stated maximum for any day.

– Tim Cronin

Day 'stumbles' to 69, leads BMW by 6

Writing from Lake Forest, Illinois

Saturday, September 19, 2015 

Here’s how to get Jason Day to lose the BMW Championship on Sunday:

• Set off the fire alarm every hour on the hour.

• Blockade his hotel room door overnight.

• Hire a guy to drive him to Rockford in the morning.

• Replace his clubs with left-handed ladies clubs.

Otherwise, to quote the late, great Bob Rosburg, you’ve got no shot.

Even with a ho-hum 2-under-par 69 on Saturday at Conway Farms Golf Club, Day has a six-stroke advantage on Scott Piercy and rookie Daniel Berger, with the rest of the field wagging their tails behind him.

Said Rory McIlroy, solo fourth at 13-under-par 200 after a 4-under 67, “The tournament is in Jason’s hands right now, and it’s up to us that are behind him to try and get off to fast starts. And he needs to come back to the field a little bit.”

As in make bogeys not offset by birdies. Day scattered four bogeys on his card on Saturday, but each was preceded or followed, or both, by a birdie. Two more birds, including a 20-footer at the last, coaxed forth the 69 and a breathtaking 54-hole total of 20-under-par 193, on a day when the wind played hob with his club selection and his mind. No matter. Both totals are three-round records across 112 playings of the Western Open, which was renamed the BMW in 2007.

“I’m hoping the veteran in me doesn’t get frustrated,” Day said. “I felt my mind was clouded. I never like that (north-northwest) wind.

“All the easy holes were tough. I was out of sorts trying to get that down. That could have gone from a 69 to a 74 or more. The experience I have helped.”

In other words, even with hitting a ball out-of-bounds – and recovering for bogey on the par-4 13th – Day did what he needed to do to maintain a big margin and narrow the field of contenders for the final round.

There’s Piercy and Berger, then McIlroy seven back, then Rickie Fowler, Dustin Johnson and Kevin Na eight back at 12-under 201, and everyone else is dreaming, including Jordan Spieth, in a tie for 10th at 10-under 203, 10 strokes in arrears.

Day wants the world No. 1 ranking McIlroy has. He’ll get it, leapfrogging No. 2 Spieth, with a victory.

“A lifelong dream,” Day called it.

Day led by eight strokes for a few seconds, and by as many as seven on several occasions. He reached 20-under after a 7-foot birdie putt on the eighth hole, his 44th of the tournament. The old record for reaching 20-under was 62 holes, established by Tiger Woods on Cog Hill’s testing Dubsdread layout in 2003. Day beat that by 18 holes, a full round.

His six-stroke margin is the largest of the season on the PGA Tour, surpassing the five-stroke edge of J.B. Holmes with a round remaining at Doral. Holmes yielded to Dustin Johnson in that scrap. Johnson lurks once again, but Day’s game is more complete than Holmes’.

Only once has a six-stroke lead after 54 holes not led to victory in the Western. Alex Robertson stumbled and lost to Macdonald Smith at Idlewild in 1912.

The slight breeze from the north-northwest and the first set-up of over 7,000 yards – 7,045, to be exact – in seven championship rounds stiffened Conway’s test to a degree, but with lift, clean and place still in effect on the fairways, the course still played under par. The 69-player field toured the par-71 course in 70.653 strokes. Which means Day still beat the field by 1.6 strokes.

McIlroy, for one, had hoped to be closer, but was disappointed with his round even with six birdies offset by one bogey.

“Another case of hit it really good and gave myself loads of chances and didn’t really convent many,” McIlroy said. “At least I’m getting better each and every day. I’m not quite close enough to maybe catch Jason tomorrow, but I’ll go out and play the best I can.

“If I can convert a few more chances, that 67 today could turn into 63 or 62 tomorrow, and you never know.”

Piercy birdied five of his last 12 holes for 67 and 14-under 199, then raced to the range to sort out his driver, which hit only eight fairways. Berger, chasing a top-30 spot in the standings for a berth in next week’s Tour Championship at East Lake Golf Club, was 1-over on the day until three straight birdies set up a 70 for 199. He entered the week 46th.

“Honestly, through three rounds I haven’t really thought about it,” Berger said. “If it happens, it happens, and if not, I’ll be all right with that.”

Around Conway Farms

Day would become the 17th player to win the PGA Championship and Western Open in a career, and the 10th to do so in the same year. McIlroy did so in 2012, capturing the BMW / Western at Crooked Stick in Carmel, Ind. ... Day and Piercy are the last pairing, at 12:50 p.m. They’re 10 minutes after Berger and McIlroy, with Fowler and Dustin Johnson at 12:30 p.m. ... Ben Martin, with an 80 on Saturday, goes off as a single at 7:25 p.m. ... The 5-under 66s of Fowler and Daniel Summerhays were the low rounds of the day.

– Tim Cronin

It's Day by a mile after 36 holes

Writing from Lake Forest, Illinois

Friday, September 18, 2015

Day by day, it’s becoming clear: It’s going to be hard for someone to catch Jason Day.

He shot the Daylights out of Cupcake Farms Golf Club – it used to be called Conway Farms – on Friday afternoon, after, in his words, “everyone was disappointed” that he didn’t finish off an improbable 59 on Friday morning.

No, Day didn’t pitch in from 44 yards for eagle on the par-4 ninth to wrap up his first round. He settled for par, for 61, and for a four-stroke lead going into Round 2.

Now, after an 8-under-par 63 capped by a 43-foot eagle putt on the 18th green, he leads by five strokes at 18-under-par 124, and has a great chance to win the BMW Championship on Sunday.

Oh, wait, there’s a third round to play on Saturday. Moving Day, as Ken Venturi so dubbed it once upon a time.

Anyone can make a move on the morrow, but first, consider what Day has done in his first 36 holes:

• His opening-round 61 is the best in Western Open / BMW Championship history, knocking George Fazio’s 63 from 1951 at Davenport Country Club out of the box.

• His 36-hole aggregate of 124 is the best in tournament annals as well, a stroke better than the 125 posted by Morgan Hoffman in the final two rounds at Cherry Hills last year.

• The 124 is seven strokes better than the previous record opening 36, a stylish 65-66 for 131, scored by Camilo Villegas at Bellerive in 2008.

• The 124 ties the PGA Tour record set by Pat Perez in 2009 and matched by David Toms in 2011.

• His 18-under-par reading is also a 36-hole tournament mark. The previous mark was 13-under, Vijay Singh at Crooked Stick in 2012. Only once was a player 18-under through 54 holes. That was Tiger Woods at Cog Hill in 2003.

• His five-stroke lead, while not a Western / BMW mark, is the best in the tournament since Tom Watson led by four at the halfway mark in 1983, and matches the best this season, Jordan Spieth’s five-stroke bulge at the Masters.

Spieth donned a green jacket on that Sunday night in April. Day is the favorite to lift the J.K. Wadley Trophy. He’s won the Canadian Open, PGA Championship and the Barclays since falling just short of drinking from the Claret Jug at St. Andrews.

Day’s dazzling display took place on a day the 69-player field averaged 67.928 strokes, albeit on a day when the PGA Tour went to the “lift, clean and place” mode because of 1.5 inches of rain overnight. The average is another tournament record. Take the two-day average of 68.775, double it, compare it to Day’s score, and you find he’s 13.5 strokes ahead of the field average.

What causes this? It’s not just the TaylorMade M1 driver he’s switched to. That appears to be the Saturn V of drivers, capable of sending a ball to the moon, but others are using them too. It must be the Indian, not the arrow.

“You mix in good driving with some good iron play and good touch around the greens, it’s a good formula for success, and that’s what it’s kind of been like for me over the summer,” Day said. “I feel like I’m in the zone. ... I couldn’t even tell you what the zone feels like.”

He’s missed five fairways each day, and four greens each day, and still has nines of 32, 29, 32 and 31. He has two bogeys. So he’s not perfect. But whose swing and putting touch – 50 putts over 36 holes – would anyone else in the field rather have since the return from the Old Course?

“I feel like I should be paying to watch some of this,” said Jordan Spieth, grouped with Day and Rickie Fowler the first two days. “It was special. What he’s doing on the course is something I haven’t witnessed, watched in my life. If he continues this pace, then he won’t be caught.”

“He’s playing very, very well at the minute,” said Rory McIlroy, the world No. 1, tied for ninth after a 6-under 65 for 9-under 133.

Catching Day is possible, of course. Watson didn’t win that 1983 Western, Mark McCumber did. But considering Day’s consistency – he’s 97-under in his last 26 rounds – they’ll need help from him as well. And with the No. 1 ranking out there for him if he wins, why help?

Brendon Todd and Tour rookie Daniel Berger are tied for second at 13-under 129, Todd via a 63, Berger scoring 64.

Todd was just hoping his wife wouldn’t be mad, since he forgot to add her to the hotel reservation in advance of her Friday afternoon arrival.

“She’s been sitting at the bar waiting for me to finish,” Todd said. “She told me, ‘Good playing,’ so I assume she caught a little bit.”

Undoubtedly, she saw the coverage of his 83-yard eagle hole out on the 18th that cemented the 63.

“It was just the perfect lob wedge,” Todd said.

Berger merely birdied, but that meant a 64 and, with threesomes in order Saturday to dodge weather, a date with Todd and Day on the first tee at 12:01 p.m.

“I think the funnest part of about playing with Jason is the crowds,” Berger said, thinking back to his experience in Boston. “You’ve got thousands of people watching you.”

He needed a few more watching on Friday, when his snipe hook on the 14th hole went into the hay and was never seen again.

“At one point I offered the crows $500 if they could find it,” Berger said. “I don’t know, maybe they don’t like money.”

In Lake Forest? You can tell he’s a rookie.

Spieth and Kevin Na are tied for fourth to 11-under 131, with rookie Justin Thomas, George McNeill and Scott Piercy at 10-under 132. McIlroy, Harris English and Dustin Johnson, tied for ninth at 9-under 133, complete the top 10, with Johnson’s 30-32–62 the day’s best round.

That trio is nine strokes behind Day. Moving Day? They hope.

Day’s Round 1 romp

Jason Day settled for par to conclude the first round early on Friday morning, after a cumulating 1.5 inches of rain was absorbed by Conway Farms, but that par at the last earned him a 10-under-par 61, a career best score to go with three 62s earlier this year.

Day needed to pitch in from the rough, 44 yards out, to score 59. He knew it was a long shot, but gave it a try with his 60-degree wedge. The ball hit short and skidded 10 feet by. He nearly made the birdie putt.

“Selfishly, you just try to get it as close as possible and give yourself a birdie and shoot 11 under,” Day said. “No matter how many shots you hit out there practicing, you can’t really simulate what kind of lie you’re going to get.”

The final scoring average was 70.176, so Day beat the field by nine strokes, and his four-stroke lead after 18 holes matched Emmett French’s similar margin after the first round of the 1921 Western. As far as positive records go, that was the third-oldest in the Western Open / BMW record book, behind the best comebacks to win after the first and second rounds.

Behind Day was the sixsome of Jordan Spieth, Daniel Berger, Harris English, Kevin Na, Justin Thomas and Bubba Watson at 6-under 65, and the trio of Brendon Todd, Kevin Chappell and Brian Harman at 5-under 66. Thirty-nine of the 69 players broke par, and another 10 matched the par of 71.

Spieth, playing with Day, birdied his final hole and matched the inward (and front) 29s of Day and Berger. Spieth’s 29 was aided by the ace he made on the second hole on Thursday.

“That’s the only way I could win a hole,” Spieth quipped.

Around Conway Farms

Parking for everyone the rest of the weekend is at Great America, where a fleet of shuttle busses will ferry fans to the front entrance. The alternate entrance for fans arriving by Metra and shuttles from the Lake Forest train stations remains open. ... Former world No. 1 Jordan Spieth endeared himself to many volunteers and not a few reporters when he shipped pizzas and beer to the groups to commemorate his hole-in-one on Thursday. Former world No. 1 Tiger Woods, who underwent a second back surgery on Wednesday to remove a disc fragment pinching a nerve, would likely not have done so. Woods will miss the Frys tournament that opens the 2015-16 season as well as his own Hero World Challenge while recovering. ... Jim Furyk’s doctor reports Furyk’s left wrist injury is a bone contusion. A decision on whether or not Furyk will play in the Tour Championship will come on Tuesday.

– Tim Cronin