Billiter bids for bundle of boodle

Writing from Medinah, Illinois

Tuesday, September 1, 2015

MEDINAH – It may be time for Jim Billiter to revise his goal for the Illinois PGA Championship.

“My goal is top nine,” Billiter said, referring to the placing needed to qualify for next year’s PGA Professional Championship.

He’s qualified for that the last two years. This time, if he keeps up his good work of the first two rounds, he may advance as the Illinois PGA champion.

Billiter added a course-record 5-under-par 66 to Monday’s 68 and stands at 8-under-par 134 entering Wednesday’s final round of the 93rd Illinois PGA Championship on Medinah Country Club’s Course One. He leads Matt Slowinski by three strokes and first round leader Steve Orrick by four.

Representing Libertyville’s Merit Club, Billiter scattered eight birdies across his card, starting with the first three holes, part of an outward 4-under 32. That calmed his nerves.

“I’d never shot under 70 in the section championship before,” Billiter said. “I knew 68 was a great start. I couldn’t be happier with the way I played.”

His goal was even par 71. He exceeded that by five strokes.

As for potentially winning?

“I have to think about that tonight,” Billiter said. “The goal is still top nine. If I play great, I’ll win. If I play average, it’s not guaranteed, because I know Matt is outstanding, and Steve is about as steady as it gets and he’s the best putter I’ve seen.

“If I can put it in the fairway, because I can hit it as far as Matt, and me and Matt both hit it a little farther than Steve, I’ll be in good shape,” Billiter added. “There are some long holes out there.”

Slowinski opened with a watery bogey on the par-4 10th but birdied four straight holes on the back nine, his outward nine, for a 33, part of a card that featured eight birdies, six bogeys and four pars. He parred only one hole coming in and closed with a pair of bogeys, part of his three three-putt day.

“It would be hard to make it around without one three-putt,” Slowinski said.

Slowinski was the runner-up in 2011 and tied for second with Curtis Malm in 2013. As much as he wants to win, he’s not looking at playing strictly against Billiter and Orrick, with whom he’ll be paired.

“Not at the start,” Slowinski said. “Play your game. You can have a lot of back and forth here with the amount of birdies that are out there.”

On a sweltering day when the scoring average of 77.33 strokes, Orrick’s even-par 71 was pedestrian compared to the rounds of Billiter and Slowinski. The 2012 champion had three birdies and three bogeys, two of them caused by three-putts, and groused about his play, especially on the greens.

“I just didn’t hit it good and didn’t putt good,” Orrick said. “The slopes (on the greens), it depends on where you’re putting from. There are subtle reads.”

Host Medinah has three players among the 61 who made the cut, which fell at 11-over 153. That includes director of golf Marty DeAngelo, who made the cut on the number, and a pair of teaching pros: Rich Dukelow, tied for eighth at 1-over 143, and Travis Johns, whose 2-under 69 places him fourth at 2-under 140.

B.J. Paul is fifth at 1-under 141 following a second round 67, with Frank Hohenadel and Dakun Chung tied for sixth at even-par 142.

Defending champion Mike Small is tied for 10th at 3-over 145 following a 2-over 73.

Katie Pius, who is four months pregnant, added a 74 to an opening 72 for 4-over 146 and in a tie for 13th. If she finishes in the top nine, the Biltmore Country Club assistant will be the fourth woman to qualify for the PGA Professional Championship, and the first from the Illinois Section.

– Tim Cronin

Orrick paces pros in Illinois PGA

Writing from Medinah, Illinois

Monday, August 30, 2015

Golf course architect Tom Doak will love to hear what the players said about his re-imagination of Medinah Country Club’s Course One on Monday.

“It’s a thinking golfer’s second-shot golf course,” said Beverly Country Club professional John Varner after a 2-under-par 69 in the first round of the 93rd Illinois PGA Championship. “I love it. It’s about hitting more shots on the ground than usual.”

“I found myself looking at the yardage book and the green contours,” said Matt Slowinski of Conway Farms following a 3-under-par 68 on the 6,873-yard adventure.

“It’s just so different, just the look of it,” Steve Orrick mused, thinking back to the original Tom Bendelow version, after a course record 4-under-par 67 earned him the first-round lead. “In some cases, if you’re off the green, you’re in better shape than if you’re on the green (above the hole).”

Orrick was in the right spot more often than not, scoring five birdies against a single bogey in his round in the heat of the afternoon. And he followed his only miscue, a bogey 4 on the par-3 seventh, with his longest birdie putt of the day, a 20-footer for a 3 on the par-4 eighth.

For Orrick, the round came at the best possible time.

“This year for me, I’ve played the least golf I’ve played in a while,” said Orrick, who represents the Country Club of Decatur. “The last month or so, I’ve been a little more confident playing. Today I was feeling real confident over the ball.”

The payoff doesn’t come until Wednesday in the 54-hole test, but Orrick’s been in this rodeo before. He won at Stonewall Orchard Golf Club three years ago, and was runner up to 11-time winner Mike Small both last year at Stonewall and in 2008, on that occasion on the Bendelow version of Course One.

Orrick’s 67 knocked Jim Billiter off the leader’s perch. Billiter, winner of this year’s Illinois PGA Match Play title, was the first player to finish, and his 68, buttressed by four birdies in the first six holes, held up as the lead for nearly six hours.

“I started leaking oil on the back nine,” Billiter said. “I honestly left three shots out there. But I’m genuinely happy where I’m at.”

Conversely, Curtis Malm of White Eagle Golf Club closed with a rush, an inward 4-under 31 that featured three straight birdies and four in a five-hole stretch on the back nine. Malm joined Billiter and Slowinski a heartbeat behind Orrick at 68, with Varner two back at 69. That fivesome comprised the under-par brigade.

Four more players, including Medinah teaching pro Travis Johns, were tied for sixth at par 71. Seven players are tied for 10th at 1-over 72, including Small, who headed for the range immediately after signing his card, and Biltmore Country Club assistant Katie Pius, the only female in the field of 133 starters.

The field averaged 77.26 strokes in the first round, between the 78.59 average of 2008 and 76.90 in 2011, the most recent two playings on Course One.

– Tim Cronin

DeChambeau demolishes Bard to win U.S. Amateur

Writing from Olympia Fields, Illinois

Sunday, August 23, 2015

Like his hero Ben Hogan did decades ago, Bryson DeChambeau tests his golf balls for imperfections in Epsom salts before committing them to tournament play.

About two-thirds pass muster. The rest go into the practice pile.

Unlike Hogan, DeChambeau is chatty and charming, willing to explain at length the quirky nature of his golf game, which includes irons of similar length and weight and an involved putting alignment that works more often than not.

Everything worked nearly to perfection on Sunday at Olympia Fields Country Club, where DeChambeau rallied from a two-hole deficit to score a dominating 7 and 6 victory over Derek Bard to win the 115th United States Amateur, who knew exactly what hit him.

“I didn’t make anything and he made all the putts he had to,” Bard said.

That was especially true on the opening nine in the afternoon. After DeChambeau’s detour to the left, nearly onto the railroad tracks leading downtown. Somehow, his TaylorMade ball – perfectly balanced – was found after he snap-hooked the first drive of his afternoon round. He scrambled to a bogey, Bard winning the hole with a par to move to 1 down.

Bard, the Virginia senior from New Hartford, N.Y., had been 3 down after 17 holes, but won the 18th with a bogey when DeChambeau played the hole even more adventurously, leading to a double.

Momentum seemed to be draining away from the world’s seventh-ranked amateur, the NCAA individual champion, and the favorite at daybreak.

Tell that to DeChambeau.

“Put the petal to the medal,” he told himself. “Hit shots close and let’s play Bryson golf. That’s what I did.”

Some day, it will be Bryson Golf, complete with trademark symbol. On Sunday, on a North Course that took nearly a half-inch of rain during a pair of morning downpours, one with lightning that stopped play for 53 minutes, Bryson golf meant a barrage of birdies, same as the rest of the week.

He birdied the second, third and fourth holes in the afternoon. His approach on the third was so close – gimme range – Bard conceded the putt after missing his par putt. The rout was on.

DeChambeau would win seven holes in a nine-hole stretch on what’s usually Olympia’s treacherous back nine to guarantee possession of the Havemeyer Trophy for the next year.

And, thanks to his annexing the NCAA individual championship in June, the rarely-scored double of both in a calendar year. Only Jack Nicklaus (1961), Phil Mickelson (1990), Tiger Woods (1996) and Ryan Moore (2004) had done so previously. Three of those four have glittering professional records, and Moore hasn’t done badly himself.

“I can’t believe what I just did,” DeChambeau said. “I’m in golf history. I don’t understand it yet. It’s an honor to be in that field.”

DeChambeau’s 20-under reading for the North Course on match play was outstanding. The course, while it never played longer than 7,110 yards in match play, had thicker rough than for the 2003 U.S. Open, and thanks to early-week rains, it was thick. And with the greens running nearly 13 feet on the Stimpmeter – 12 feet 11 inches, to be precise – the rest of the field had difficult coping with it. DeChambeau, an occasional miscue aside, thrived on the slick surfaces.

He had opened the final with birdies on the first two holes, a pair of punches that Bard weathered and answered with birdies of his own on the fifth and sixth holes.

Bard would not birdie again. DeChambeau would make seven more and edge the cup several other times.

The killer stroke was DeChambeau’s 20-foot par-saving putt on the 25th hole, the seventh in the afternoon, and usually the 16th for member play. He and Bard were bunkered off the tee, and after Bard’s bunker shot to 18 inches led to a conceded pat, DeChambeau went through his unique lining up of the putt. Center cut to remain 5 up, and right into Bard’s heart.

“That had to hurt him a little bit,” DeChambeau said. “He was thinking he was going to win the hole, I’m sure, but knocking that putt in to halve and win the next few was huge. I could just see it in him. He was deflated and didn’t have the same step he had before.”

DeChambeau had sunk a 6-footer for birdie after what he called “an incredible par” by Bard on the par-5 sixth, and followed the 20-foot halve on the seventh with a 15-foot birdie on the eighth.

“I just made everything,” DeChambeau said.

He has the trophy to prove it.

American Walker Cup team filled out

Two mid-amateurs and three collegians filled out the U.S. Walker Cup squad on Sunday afternoon. The biggest local name was Jordan Niebrugge of Mequon, Wis., the 22-year-old stalwart. He’s joined by Scott Harvey (Greensboro, N.C.), Mike McCoy (Des Moines, Iowa), Denny McCarthy (Rockville, Md.), and Robby Shelton (Wilmer, Ala.), who was 4-0 at the Palmer Cup and medalist in the Western Amateur, both played at Rich Harvest Farms.

They join DeChambeau, Beau Hossler, Lee McCoy, Maverick McNealy and Hunter Stewart for the September soiree at Royal Lythan & St. Annes.

Around Olympia Fields

The morning gallery was sparse, until after the storm passed. Then perhaps 600 people, a large crowd for amateur golf in this era, followed the finalists around until DeChambeau finished Bard off on the afternoon’s 12th hole, which is usually the third hole. It’s also the green most distant from the clubhouse on the North Course. ... Next year’s U.S. Amateur, where DeChambeau is expected to defend his title, is at Oakland Hills Country Club in Bloomington Hills, Mich. Before that, DeChambeau will play in the Masters Tournament, U.S. Open and British Open.

– Tim Cronin

"Oddball" DeChambeau, Bard in U.S. Amateur final

Writing from Olympia Fields, Ill.

Saturday, August 22, 2015

Bryson DeChambeau calls himself “an oddball.”

It’s hard to argue with him.

Who else do you know whose irons are all the same length, cut to 6-iron height? Who counts Ben Hogan – he has worn a Hoganesque cap since he was 13 – and Moe Norman as his swing influences? Who wades into poison ivy and comes away without a scratch? Or, as a natural right-hander, writes left-handed and backwards in cursive to sharpen his mind?

Nobody? What a surprise.

There’s little surprise that DeChambeau, the most interesting man in golf, will play for the title in the 115th U.S. Amateur on Sunday morning. He dusted Sean Crocker, 4 and 3, in Saturday’s feature semifinal match.

There’s also not much surprise that his opponent will be Derek Bard, a junior at Virginia. Ranked 51st in the World Amateur Golf Ranking, Bard knocked off Kenta Konishi of Tokyo, 3 and 2, in the other semifinal. Konishi, a senior at Tohoku Fukushi University in Sendai City, Japan, was ranked 632nd coming into Olympia Fields Country Club. (DeChambeau is seventh, Crocker 64th.)

The 21-year-old DeChambeau is so much the favorite that even Bard agrees – and isn’t trying to play mind games on the Southern Methodist physics major.

“I’m the underdog,” said Bard, 20. “Bryson has had an incredible career so far. It’s going to be tough, it really is. I told my dad, ‘I’m going to have to play my best golf to have a chance.’ ”

In comparison, DeChambeau has learned this week that he doesn’t have to play his absolute best to win. But he’s played close to that most of the week. He’s the equivalent of 18-under in five match play rounds, none of which have gone past the 16th hole. With the greens running faster each day and a typically pernicious set of United States Golf Association-created pin placements, that’s outstanding.

“It’ll be a fun battle,” DeChambeau said. “If I can stay in the moment, I’ll be all right.”

DeChambeau has already had an outstanding season. He won the individual NCAA crown as a junior, and if he adds the U.S. Amateur to that, he’ll join Jack Nicklaus, Phil Mickelson, Tiger Woods and Ryan Moore as winners of both titles in the same year.

“To be in that group of players would be incredible, but I still have work to do,” DeChambeau said. “I’m just going to play my game.”

He never trailed Crocker, a Southern California sophomore from Westlake Village, Calif., winning the second hole with a birdie and standing no worse than all square. Crocker’s bogeys of the eighth and ninth holes, which DeChambeau parred, gave the Clovis, Calif., native a 2 up lead at the turn.

Crocker cut his deficit to 1 down with a birdie on the par-4 11th, but DeChambeau won the next three holes, with birdies on the 12th and 14th to go with Crocker’s double-bogey on the 13th. The 4 and 3 margin was set when Crocker failed to bogey the 15th hole.

“Nos. 8 and 9 swung the momentum my way,” DeChambeau said. “I wasn’t going to let down, and I think it got to him. At 13 he hit a bad tee shot; at 14, he hit a bad tee shot and that was the match.”

Bard’s victory over Konishi was less dramatic than DeChambeau’s. Bard birdied the first hole and barely looked back. He was 2 up at the turn, and while Konishi squared the match by combining his own birdie on the 10th with Byrd’s double on the 11th, Konishi bogeyed the 12th and Bard was ahead to stay.

“The key hole was the 12th,” Bard figured. “He plugged his second shot in the lip of the bunker, and I was pin-high 15 feet away.”

Bard, from New Hartford, N.Y., counts this year’s Sunnehanna Amateur as his biggest victory so far. Throw in a college tournament hosted by Georgia Tech last year, and that’s about it. But while he proclaims himself the underdog, he also says he’ll be on the first tee at 8:30 a.m., ready to go.

“To perform under circumstances like this, I thrive under it,” Bard said.

He’s already achieved one unconsidered goal. As the finalists, he and DeChambeau will almost surely get invitations to next year’s Masters Tournament.

“It’s been my dream since I was a little kid to play in the Masters as a professional,” Bard said. “I didn’t think I’d be doing that at age 20.”

Bigger dreams await the morning.

“This doesn’t come along very often,” DeChambeau said. “I’m honored to be able to be in this position and playing this well. I couldn’t have imagined it. It’s something I’ve worked hard for for a long time. I’m just so excited for the opportunity tomorrow to play for the Havemeyer Trophy.”

Around Olympia Fields

The gallery was only about 300 strong, smaller than many expected, perhaps due to the 8 a.m. start. The final putt dropped at 11:43 a.m., more than two hours before Fox’ recorded broadcast. ... The last five members of the U.S. Walker Cup team are expected to be named tomorrow. They’ll join DeChambeau, Lee McCoy, Beau Hossler, Hunter Stewart and Maverick McNealy for the match against Great Britain and Ireland at Royal Lytham & St. Annes in September. ... The GB&I squad should be filled out on Monday. ... Fox’ live telecast begins at 2 p.m., with live online coverage at www.ugsa.org in the morning. ... With an urge to beat balls, Fox announcers Joe Buck and Brad Faxon, an eight-time PGA Tour winner, moseyed over to nearby Glenwoodie Golf Course in Glenwood on Friday night and joined the regulars on the practice range.

– Tim Cronin

DeChambeau outpoints Dunne in U.S. Amateur quarterfinal

Writing from Olympia Fields, Illinois

Friday, August 21, 2015

It was the heavyweight matchup of the quarterfinals in the 115th U.S. Amateur, and Bryson DeChambeau threw the better punches.

His 3 and 2 victory over Ireland’s Paul Dunne advanced him into Saturday’s semifinals at Olympia Fields Country Club, and an 8:20 a.m. showdown with Sean Crocker.

Both DeChambeau and Crocker are from California, but they may as well be from different worlds.

DeChambeau, a senior at Southern Methodist who won last season’s NCAA individual title in June, wears a Ben Hogan-style cap and plays a brand of golf he calls a mix between athletic and artistic. The shafts of his irons are all the same length. He uses degree numbers, rather than 3-iron and so on, on them. He concentrates on hitting fairways and greens.

Crocker, a sophomore at Southern California, concentrates on belting the ball. Usually, that means hitting fairways, but in Friday’s 2 up quarterfinal victory over Austin James of Ontario, Crocker hit only four of the North Course’s 14 fairways.

“If I don’t hit fairways tomorrow, Bryson’s gonna kill me,” Crocker said.

Probably. Dunne, who held a share of the lead entering the final round of the British Open, was similarly erratic, and ran out of room to scramble despite sinking a couple of 30-footers to keep the match going, plus a downhill 18-footer from the back of the third green to remain all square early on.

“My swing wasn’t there,” Dunne said. “I’m disappointed I didn’t put a little bit of pressure on him. I was just trying to hang in.”

DeChambeau’s brace of birdies on the sixth and seventh holes moved him 2 up, and while he lost the ninth with a bogey, it was his only miscue of the day. He never gave Dunne an opening.

“I didn’t make very many mistakes out there today,” DeChambeau said. “He’s an incredible player; didn’t have his A game.”

Dunne’s remarkable putting kept him alive until he ran out of good fortune. That moved DeChambeau, seventh in the world amateur rankings, into the semis.

He’s more than a player with a fast stride and a cool hat. DeChambeau plays with a remarkable combination of power – bunkers in play for most players are mere decorations for him – and grace. Comparatively, Crocker, ranked 64th, is just another player, but he rallied from a 2-down deficit at the turn to overhaul James.

“I went to the bathroom, washed my face a little bit, took a breath and stepped on the tee thinking I was all-square with him and had to go from there,” Crocker said.

He won the 10th hole with a birdie, the 12th with a par to square the match, the 16th with a par to go 1 up, and finally birdied the last from 35 feet for his 2 up margin.

As erratic as Crocker was, James was more so. But Crocker lives on.

“It’s just timing,” he thought of his driving trouble, which he hoped would be fixed with a call to his coach, Neal Smith. “I usually have a problem going left but the driver is going right right now.”

Kenta Konishi of Tokyo faces Derek Bard of New Hartford, N.Y. in the day’s first semifinal at 8 a.m. Konishi beat Matthew Perrine of Austin, Tex., 1 up, and while Bard beat Spain’s Jon Rahm-Rodriguez by the same margin.

Bard, a junior at Virginia, been something of a giant killer. Ranked 51st in the world, he’s bumped off fifth-ranked Hunter Stewart and now the top-ranked amateur in Rahm-Rodriguez, a senior at Arizona State, the last two rounds. Now he gets to play Konishi, ranked No. 632.

Rahm-Rodriguez was 3 up through 10 holes, but Bard birdied the 11th and 12th holes to cut the margin to 1 hole, squared the affair when Rahm-Rodriguez bogeyed the par-4 16th, and took the lead with a bogey 4 to a double-bogey 5 on the 256-yard par-3 16th. A par at the last sealed the victory.

“He had me early; just kind of grinded away at him,” Bard said. “Three-down, eight to go, it’s not a good position to be in. I just tried to keep it as simple as possible.”

A wedge close to the pin on the 11th set up the first birdie, and the momentum began to shift.

“I kept a positive outlook, stayed patient, and it fell my was,” Bard said.

Konishi trailed Perrine, ranked 333rd, through five holes, but pars on Nos. 6 and 7 moved him one up. It came down to the last four holes, the match swinging between all square and Konishi 1 up, with Perrine’s par winning the 17th to force it to the 18th tee. Konishi’s par won the match.

If he won the title, he’d be the first Japanese winner of the U.S. Amateur.

“I don’t feel any pressure,” Konishi said through a translator. “I can focus on one tournament, one match. So I just want to focus in on (the) match tomorrow and do my best.”

Around Olympia Fields

Saturday’s telecast on Fox at 2 p.m. is on delay. Fans coming to Olympia will want to be at the club early for the 8 a.m. tee off. Sunday’s 36-hole championship match starts at 8:30 a.m., with the afternoon round starting at 12:30 p.m. ... The Rochester Democrat & Chronicle reported late Thursday that the USGA had rebuffed Oak Hill Country Club in Pittsford, N.Y., as a future U.S. Open site, calling the Rochester market too small. USGA president Tom O’Toole said Friday the mailbox was open for invitations from the club. “We think we’ve had great partnerships with them and look forward to exploring whatever they’d like to include us in in the future,” O’Toole said. Oak Hill will host the 2023 PGA Championship, the Democrat & Chronicle reported. ... If Konishi wins, he’ll be the second straight winner to come out of nowhere. Gunn Yang won last year at Atlanta Athletic Club while ranked 776th in the world amateur survey.

– Tim Cronin