Bill Murray brings the funny

By Tim Cronin

Reporting from Silvis, Illinois

Wednesday, July 8, 2015

It was Throwback Wednesday at the John Deere Classic.

Bill Murray made it so.

Back in the 1970s and 1980s, when first Ed McMahon fronted the tournament and later Miller Brewing was the sponsor, the big day at Oakwood Country Club wasn’t Sunday, or Saturday, or Friday, or Thursday.

It was Wednesday, when McMahon, and later others, lured celebrities to the pro-am. You could go to Oakwood and rub elbows with Jerry Lewis or Bob Hope, to name a pair of the bigger names to make it to the Quad Cities.

That brought in crowds, which helped the gate and helped subsidize the purse in the days when the tournament was surviving from year to year.

Murray’s presence in the pro-am, where he played with D.A. Points, was the first sighting of a Hollywood type at TPC Deere Run in several years. He and his fans made the most of it, signing hats, shirts and at least one guy’s head. Meanwhile, Points went about his business, or attempted to, in refamiliarizing himself with a course where he’s made the only once in nine previous starts. Points tied for 38th in 2011, making $18,450. All the other years, he left with empty pockets.

Maybe Murray is his good luck charm. In 2011, Points won the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am – the old Bing Crosby clambake – and he and Murray scored the pro-am victory as well. Points has one once on the circuit since, in Houston in 2013, with his best finish this year a tie for 12th in New Orleans.

“You just try to keep everyone relaxed,” Murray said. “We have a good relationship.”

Murray, whose golf connection became public when he filmed “Caddyshack” in 1980, has some game. Wednesday, he hammered a tee shot around the corner on the par-4 fourth hole, among the most scenic and perhaps the most difficult on Deere Run, then drilled a wedge to four feet for a birdie.

“He always seems to play the hardest holes really well,” Points said. “He’s got a wonderful game. If the left leg was a little better and you got to practice some, you’d play that way all the time.”

“These are options,” Murray quipped.

Murray and his five brothers, caddies at Indian Hill Club in Winnetka, had family in the Quad Cities, so the area wasn’t foreign to him.

“I think I was nine when I first came here. Maybe I was 10. I remember the Mississippi River, and there was a big flood and snakes came out of the river and all my cousins were shooting snakes with BB guns.

“So watch it.”

Naturally, Murray couldn’t resist needling Points, the pride of Pekin.

“We’re both Illinois boys and we’re a local hire,” Murray said. “It’s a tournament that I think would be great if D.A. would lay off the hard stuff this week and just stick to beer and wine and maybe win this tournament.

“There’s a lot of great players up on that wall, and he should be up there.”

It wouldn’t quite be a Cinderella story, but it would do.

Deere plows forward

Deere & Co. confirmed its title sponsorship extension on Tuesday, confirming what Illinois Golfer reported via Twitter on July 2. The seven-year extension covers 2017 through 2023, and not only keeps Deere’s name in the tournament title, but keeps the company the PGA Tour’s equipment supplier in a number of categories, including the Tour’s TPC group of golf courses that includes Deere Run.

“The sponsorship has helped the company sell equipment,” said Jim Field, president of Deere’s agriculture and turf division. “It’s helped us build relationships with customers, dealers, suppliers. It’s helped promote the John Deere brand throughout the world.

“We think it’s important to keep professional golf in the Quad Cities.”

Deere first sponsored what was the Quad Cities Classic in 1998, putting its name in the title the following year and moving to Deere Run in 2000, a year later than planned. That nine-year deal was extended beginning in 2007, and the new pact will make it a 25-year sponsorship, believed to be the fourth-longest on the PGA Tour behind the Honda Classic (1981), AT&T’s Pebble Beach deal (1986) and the Shell Houston Open (1992).

Field said Deere would be hosting over 3,500 suppliers, dealers and employees over the course of the week, with $50 million going into the Quad Cities economy.

Around Deere Run

Notable withdrawals Wednesday were Davis Love III, Stuart Appleby and 2005 winner Sean O’Hair. ... Most of the big names play Thursday afternoon, in the Golf Channel’s 3-6 p.m. TV window. Ryan Moore, Kevin Streelman and Kevin Stadler start at 12:40 p.m., Zach Johnson, David Toms and Stewart Cink 10 minutes later, with the marquee group of Greensboro winner Danny Lee, world No. 2 Jordan Spieth and defending champion Brian Harman at 1 p.m. The 1:10 p.m. trio of former British Open champion Ben Curtis, Eric Axley and Patrick Rodgers may feel left in the dust given the expected size of Spieth’s gallery. Morning notables include Robert Streb, three-time JDC winner Steve Stricker and three-time 2015 playoff loser Kevin Kisner at 7:50 a.m.

Hollatz goes long and low to win the Joe

    By Tim Cronin

    From the moment the pairings were issued, it was clear the title in the Boys 16-to-18 Division of the 27th Illinois Golfer Challenge Junior Golf Championship could come down to two men: Beecher’s Michael Barber and Lockport’s Gehrig Hollatz.
    The Milliken-ticketed Barber scored four straight regional titles playing for the Beecher Bobcats. Butler-bound Hollatz was a threat for the Porters every time he teed it up.
    They didn’t disappoint on Wednesday. Barber went out in 1-under-par 35. Hollatz recovered from a three-putt bogey after a 295-yard drive on the par-4 first hole with a birdie on the second and went out in 1-over 37.
    After each player had trouble on the treacherous par-4 11th, back-to-back birdies on the par-3 12th and par-5 13th allowed Hollatz to pull even.
    The break came on the par-4 17th, a runt of a hole at 284 yards from the newish white tee, down in the valley. Barber struggled to a double-bogey 6. Hollatz scored a birdie 3. Therein was the difference in Hollatz’s winning 1-under-par 71 and Barber’s runner-up 2-over 74. For his effort, Hollatz was awarded the 2015 iteration of the Joe Jemsek Trophy, named after the Hall of Famer who long leased Glenwoodie.
    Two fine rounds. One hole the difference.
    “I did not know what to hit,” Hollatz said of his quandary on the tee. “I finally hit driver and was 10 yards in front of the green.”
    A chip and a putt equaled a 3, while Barber doubled that.
    Hollatz’s round was up and down early – he drilled a wedge to five feet from 115 yards on the second hole for a bird, then sailed his second on the par-4 fourth out of bounds – and then settled into a comfort zone that featured, with the exception of the 11th hole, nothing but pars and birdies.
    “It was the first time I’d see the course,” Hollatz said. “If I had a practice round, I’d have put myself in better spots.”
    He’ll make sure to have a practice round at Illinois State’s Weibring course in advance of U.S. Amateur qualifying. He’d dearly like to make the field of 312 that will tee it up at Olympia Fields Country Club in August.
    For Barber, this is just about the end of his junior golf road. He picked Milliken after considering Monmouth and Carthage, and. while he’ll play for Milliken, doesn’t see a career in golf beckoning.
    “Business, maybe accounting,” he said.
    All the better to add up low scores.
    Ryan Dahlkamp of Crown Point was third with a 6-over 78. A double-bogey 5 on the third hole put him behind, and Hollatz and Barber gradually pulled away.

Unflappable Snyder's 76 captures Challenge title

    By Tim Cronin

    The goal of any tournament director is to pair players of comparable ability, so all can enjoy the round even if they’re not in contention.
    Christian Snyder wasn’t quite in that position in Wednesday’s Illinois Golfer Challenge Junior Golf Championship at Glenwoodie Golf Club in Glenwood.
    A fine player, happenstance paired him with a duo that failed to break 100.
    No problem. Snyder, a 15-year-old from New Lenox, cruised around Glenwoodie in 4-over-par 76 and scored a two-stroke victory over Oak Forest’s Jack Dykema to claim the Marshall Dann Trophy.
    “I just got to know the kids,” Snyder said. “That’s what you’re supposed to do in golf, have a good time.”
    Snyder splashed three birdies on his card, including a brace on the 12th and 13th. It was on the 12th, the picturesque par-3 of 121 yards, that he nearly had a lifetime memory.
    “Almost aced it,” Snyder said. “It was an 8-iron, the wind was left to right, the ball faded that way, and I heard it hit the pin.”
    The two-footer for a deuce was followed by a birdie on the par-5 13th. Dykema, playing two groups behind, played those two holes in par-bogey, and the final five holes in 4-over to Snyder’s 2-over.
    Snyder, going into his junior year at St. Rita, credits Mustangs coach Pete Godfrey for keeping his swing in the right place.
    “When he sees something, he tells me right away,” Snyder said.
    There was no reason for Godfrey to say anything but “Good job” on Wednesday.
    Dykema’s 78 was solid from the start. He opened and closed the front nine with birdies and turned in 1-over 37, a stroke better than Snyder, but three 6s on his back-nine card, including a double-bogey on Glenwoodie’s signature 16th, dropped him into second place.
    But for a rookie – and not just in the Challenge – it was a fine showing.
    “I’ve played a lot the last few days, but I’ve never played in a tournament,” Dykema said. “I guess it was really fun today.”
    The 40-foot birdie putt on the first hole was fun. So was the 12-footer on the ninth for a 3, set up by an approach from 70 yards. And, going into his freshman year at Wheaton Academy, where his dad will be an assistant coach, the expectation is of even more fun.
    Kevin Healy of Evergreen Park took third, with a 12-over 84.

Barker repeats in three-hole playoff

    By Tim Cronin

    “I can’t believe it! We tied!” Kelly Barker said when looking at her and Elizabeth Stalla’s scorecards Wednesday at Glenwoodie Golf Course in Glenwood. “Now what?”
    A sudden-death playoff, of course.
    Barker and Stalla posted 19-over-par 91s that took varying paths to the final number. They then embarked in an odyssey that was as dramatic and filled with more surprises and swings in momentum as any of the previous 15 playoffs in Challenge history since the championship’s inception in 1989.
    How’s this for a three-hole adventure over a pair of par 4s and a par 3: Barker, 5-6-8; Stalla, 5-6-9.
    This was scrappy rather than sloppy golf. When Barker tapped in on the 145-yard third hole for a quintuple-bogey 8 after dunking a pair of balls in the water of the par-3, she could claim the first repeat victory in the division awarding the Carol McCue Trophy since Angela Dehning won four in succession from 2003 to 2006.
    It was a wild way to all but conclude her junior career. The 18-year-old Palos Heights resident has graduated from Marist and will attend Benedictine University in Lisle in the fall.
    “I’m been trying to play as much as I can, but this is my first tournament of the summer,” Barker said after the 21-hole test.
    Her 6 on the par-5 18th hole forced extra holes when Stalla, going into her junior year at Evergreen Park, posted a double-bogey 7.
    Matching bogeys on the first playoff hole, Stalla two-putting from 15 feet and Barker matching her from 36 feet, moved the duo to the second, where a pond fronting the green makes approaches more than routine.
    Barker’s second from a perfect lie in the fairway landed in the grungy hazard and trickled back into the pond. Stalla hammered her approach from the left rough well over the back of the green.
    Since she didn’t clear the hazard, Barker had to hit her fourth across the pond, landing 25 feet past the cup. Stalla had a difficult third, a pitch to a green running away and with the pond behind it. And when she hit it, her heart was in her mouth.
    “It was a very tough shot; I couldn’t really see the green or anything,” Stalla said. “I was just praying that it didn’t go in the water. I’m just glad it stayed somewhere within play.”
    It stopped on the far fringe. From there, Stalla putted to within 18 inches, and after Barker two-putted for a double-bogey 6, looked to be able to wrap up the title with a tap-in for a 5.
    In a playoff, there are no easy tap-ins. Stalla’s putt horseshoed out. She, too, would make a 6.
    “It was not my best putt,” she deadpanned later. “I thought I had it. It was just my nerves getting to me. At least I knocked it in for the tie.”
    What followed was surreal. Both players splashed their tee shots into the pond on the forced-carry hole, and by a large margin. From the drop zone, Stalla airmailed an iron over the green and into the creek well behind it near the fourth tee.
    “My rangefinder kind of shot the tree behind instead of the actual pin,” Stalla said. “It read 115 instead of 67.”
    Advantage Barker? Only until she chunked her third into the pond again.
    “It might of been a combination of us being utterly exhausted, but we both wanted to keep pushing to see how far we could actually take it,” Barker said.
    What happened was Barker finally hitting dry land while Stalla was well short, and Barker eventually two-putting for a quintuple-bogey 8 from 20 feet. Stalla missed her tying putt and settled for a 9.
    “I was putting really, really well today,” Barker said. “I was happy with that.”
    And the victory. Stalla at least gets to try again next year.
    Danielle Collina of Palos Heights was third, firing a 107.

Steady Mikula wins Challenge Girls 13-15 bracket

    By Tim Cronin

    Jane Mikula will be an incoming freshman at Marist in the fall.
    She’ll be trying out for the RedHawks girls golf team with a trophy on her shelf.
    The 14-year-old Chicagoan grabbed the final trophy of Wednesday’s Illinois Golfer Challenge Junior Golf Championship, specifically the Virginia Van Wie Trophy, by scoring 35-over 107 to win the Girls 13-to-15 Division at Glenwoodie Golf Course in Glenwood.
    It wasn’t the lowest score for a Challenge winner, but it got the job done.
    To Mikula, the key was the start. Literally, the first swing in competition.
    “The first drive,” she said. “Starting off well helps.”
    With only two other competitors, she was able to keep tabs on Gianna Miritello and MacKenzie Zions, who also happen to be Marist-affiliated. Mikula beat Miritello by five strokes and Zions by seven.
    “Some of it was difficult,” Mikula said. “The back nine, I just had to stick with it.”
    She was able to negotiate Glenwoodie’s fabled finish after a quintuple-bogey 9 on the par-5 13th, three strokes ahead of Zions and four ahead of Miritello.
    Voila! A big trophy to signify her first win of the year following a camp for present and prospective Marist teammates and her regular Tuesday appearance in the Meadows of Blue Island Junior League.