Repeat after Mike: Small wins again

    Writing from Grayslake, Illinois
    Wednesday, August 27, 2014

    Steve Orrick knew it was a tall order, trying to chase down Mike Small in the final round of the 92nd Illinois PGA Championship.
    “Five shots is a lot to make up,” Orrick said more than once after the final putt had dropped.
    Just how much was reinforced when he birdied the second, third, fourth, fifth and eighth holes of Stonewall Orchard Golf Club and only closed the gap on Small by two strokes.
    “He’s not going to make many mistakes,” Orrick said. “So you’ve got to make zero mistakes.”
    That was not to be where Orrick was concerned. He bogeyed the par-5 10th hole and Small birdied it. The two-shot swing, coupled with Small’s birdies on the 11th and 12th – the latter a chip-in – sealed the deal. Both Orrick and Small fired final rounds of 6-under-par 66, but Small’s record-tying total of 200, and his record of 16-under in relation to par, earned the head men’s golf coach at Illinois a five-stroke wire-to-wire victory and an unfathomable 11th Illinois PGA crown.
    “He caught my attention,” Small said of his fellow downstater. “But I played solid. I had two bogeys all week and both were three-putts.”
    Orrick, the head pro at the Country Club of Decatur, finished at 11-under 205. That would have won all but a handful of Illinois PGAs, Small being the roadblock often of late.
    “I had some momentum on the front nine, but the 10th hole was tough,” Orrick said. “I’m in position to make a (birdie) 4 and I make a 6.”
    Small made a 4 instead, which was not unusual. Small played the par-5s in 10-under for the week, while Orrick was 3-under on them.
    Small thought his birdie on the par-5 eighth was key.
    “He’s already made birdie,” Small said. “That stretch (from the eighth through 12th) was important.”
    It’s Small’s first win in an Illinois PGA Section tournament since last year’s IPGA, and, to him, a return to form.
    “ It feels good to play good golf again,” Small said. “I was strong (mentally) this week. I didn’t let (things) bother me. And he (Orrick) motivated me to play better.”
    Small earned $8,000 from the purse of $50,815. That was $2,000 less than he won last year, because about 40 fewer players entered the tournament.
    “I feel like I won the second flight,” Cog Hill teaching pro Garrett Chaussard said after finishing tied for third, closing with a 69 for 4-under 212 and a deadlock with Curtis Malm of White Eagle Golf Club. “I don’t know what course Mike and Steve were playing.”
    In his 11 victories, Small is 84-under-par and has a total victory margin of 45 strokes.

    – Tim Cronin

Small on verge of 11th Illinois PGA crown

    Tuesday, August 26, 2014

    Chi Chi Rodriguez, noting the light schedule compared with most golfing tourists, once called Jack Nicklaus “a legend in his spare time.”
    The same could be said, and not just within the borders of the state of Illinois, of Mike Small. The Illinois men’s golf coach has had great success in guiding his recruits to a slew of Big Ten titles, and was within an eyelash of an NCAA crown two springs ago.
    But on his own time, Small has compiled an uncommonly spectacular resume. He’s won 15 state majors, three PGA National Professional (a.k.a. Club Pro) titles, contended in the Western Open, and twice has been the low club pro in the PGA Championship.
    The 15 in the above paragraph may well change to 16 on Wednesday. Small, the defending champion, has a five-stroke lead on 2012 winner Steve Orrick and two-time runner-up Matt Slowinski entering the final round of the 92nd Illinois PGA Championship at Stonewall Orchard Golf Course in Grayslake.
    Should Small win, it will be his 11th IPGA title. Nobody else has more than six, that total belonging to Johnny Revolta. Bill Ogden collected five section crowns among his 12 state majors.
    Ogden, a shotmaker who prided himself on rising to the occasion, would see something of himself in Small, who plays sparingly thanks to his Illinois schedule, which includes coaching in season, recruiting when allowed, and leading fundraising efforts for the new practice facility the Fighting Illini will soon enjoy. Small doesn’t play often, but more often than not, he comes to play.
    Tuesday, for instance, he woke up the leader, scoring birdies on the second, third and fourth holes, then eagled the par-5 eighth. He was 10-under for 27 holes at the turn, and, after weathering a 100-minute thunderstorm delay – the third long wait for the weather to play through in two days – cruised home with an even-par 36 on the back nine for a second straight 5-under 67 and a total of 10-under 134 after 36 holes.
    What Small was not was completely satisfied.
    “I had to make three hard pars coming in,” Small said. “I regrouped and almost made birdie on the last hole but overall it’s a good round. It could have been really good.”
    His big par save came on the 16th, when he plunked his tee shot in the water and still managed a par 4.
    Orrick (70) and Slowinski (69) are at 5-under 139, with 58-year-old Jim Sobb, the sage of Ivanhoe, at 4-under 140 after a 4-under 68 moved him up the chart in quest of a fourth IPGA gonfalon. Mike Haase, at 3-under and seven off Small’s pace, is likely the only other player with a shot at the title, and then, only if Small runs into misadventure during the final round.
    Twelve players broke par, and another four are at even par 144 with a round to go. The cut fell at 10-over 154, with 61 survivors.
    Small, Orrick and Slowinski tee off at 9:30 a.m. Small knows what to expect.
    “You want to come out and play from the positive side of everything,” Small said. “Every round and tournament is different. It has its own personality. You just try to adapt to it and play good golf and that’s what I will do tomorrow.”

    – Tim Cronin

It's a Small world after all

    Writing from Grayslake, Illinois
    Monday, August 25, 2014

    There’s not much one can be sure of in this wacky, wild world.
    Here are three: Death. Taxes. Mike Small leading the Illinois PGA Championship.
    Yes, he’s at it again. The 10-time winner opened his bid for No. 11 on a storm-tossed Monday at Stonewall Orchard Golf Club by firing a 5-under-par 67 to open the proceedings.
    That means, for most of the rest of the field, the proceedings are closed. Adam Schumacher, an assistant at Indian Hill Club, may yet have a say. The 23-year-old is 5-under with three holes to play in the first round.
    Small, the head men’s coach at Illinois, hasn’t won this 54-hole soiree yet – 12 players including Schumacher didn’t finish, thanks to a second 80-minute stoppage for a thunderstorm in mid-afternoon – but he’s in the catbird seat. If there’s one thing that’s been learned over the years, it’s that Small is difficult to catch.
    It’s also been learned that Small often discounts his ability.
    “This is probably the worst summer I’ve had,” Small said after his six-birdie adventure. “Not bad-bad, but not playing the PGA Championship hurt.”
    No Illinois Section member appeared in the PGA this year. Small’s been the low club pro in it twice. Not playing at all bugged him to talk to motivational expert Jim Fannin. Something he said must have paid off.
    “I made a point of staying in the moment today,” Small said.
    He birdied three holes on each side, closing with birdies on the 16th and 18th holes, with only a three-putt bogey on the short par-4 fourth to mar his card.
    Small had a one-stroke lead on Mike Haase, an instruction at the Golf Academy at Terra Cotta in Prairie Grove, when play was suspended for the day. Haase was 3-under on the back to complete his 4-under 68, but was tripped up by the first delay of the day, an 80-minute rest that coincided with the storm front changing the conditions from steamy to cool.
    “I made a 10-foot birdie putt to go 5-under after the restart, but I wish we wouldn’t have had a delay,” Haase said. “It’s hard to finish off a good round sometimes.”
    Steve Orrick, the IPGA winner in 2012, the last time this tournament played at Stonewall, fired a 3-under-par 69 and is tied for third with Beverly Country Club pro John Varner and Bred Leon of Skokie Country Club. Frank Hohenadel, the winner on Medinah No. 1 in 2011 is at 2-under 68 along with two-time runner-up Travis Johns and Connie DeMattia.
    For Orrick, it was a rare good round by his standards since his victory two years ago.
    “I’ve been working on a swing change, and I finally feel comfortable over the ball,” Orrick said. “Now it feels natural; I’m not thinking about it.”
    That comfort led to five birdies, offset by a pair of bogeys, playing with Johns and Cog Hill teaching pro Garrett Chaussard in the group ahead of Small.
    Barring another monsoon, the first round is slated to finish Tuesday morning, with the second round starting immediately after. The field of 113 will be cut to the low 60 and ties after 36 holes, with the third round on Wednesday.

    – Tim Cronin

Illinois PGA: Small thinking big again

    Writing from Chicago
    Sunday, August 24, 2014

    Mike Small has won the Illinois PGA Championship 10 times.
    By Wednesday afternoon, that sentence may have to be revised.
    Small starts his defense of title No. 10 at 9:10 a.m. Monday at Stonewall Orchard Golf Club in Grayslake.
    To say he is the favorite is obvious. In reality, because of the way he’s played in the championship of the section – as opposed to the Illinois Open, this is the Illinois Closed, with only PGA of America members eligible – he is the overwhelming favorite.
    “This is the one that means a lot to be because we’re PGA members, and this is a big deal to us,” Small said on the scoring porch after winning by four strokes at on the South Course at Olympia Fields Country Club last year.
    A four-stroke victory is a runaway, but it pales to other of Small’s efforts in grabbing the Jim Kemper Trophy. He won by an Illinois PGA Championship-record 11 strokes at Olympia Fields in 2010. He beat Jim Sobb by six strokes at Stonewall Orchard in 2009. He was 14 under par when he triumphed at Stonewall Orchard in 2007.
    His 8-under-par 63 on Olympia Fields South in 2010 set the course record for the just-refurbished layout and established a new Illinois PGA mark for low total: 200.
    String together all 10 victory marches, do some math, and one discovers that Small is an aggregate 68 under par across 30 rounds in those championships, with a 40-stroke victory margin.
    About the only thing Illinois Golf Hall of Famer Small doesn’t own is the single round Illinois PGA record. That belongs to the estimable Bob Harris, the Sunset Ridge flash who pounded Arlington Country Club to the tune of a 9-under-par 62 in the final round of the 1959 edition. Harris needed most every stroke to beat Tony Holguin by two.
    Nobody else has won more than six. Johnny Revolta did that, including a Small-like five in seven years, when he was the sage of Evanston Golf Club. (Until recently, Revolta was thought to have won five times, but it was discovered that he wasn’t credited with his 1942 title on the original Willie Marshall Trophy. E.J. “Dutch” Harrison was, and he wasn’t even based in Illinois at the time. So Small actually broke Revolta’s record at Medinah in 2008, not at Stonewall Orchard in 2007.)
    Small will try to run away and hide, but others will be chasing him with the same idea. Steve Orrick, the 2012 champion, is up from Decatur with an eye toward annexing his second title in three years. Midlothian’s Frank Hohenadel, the winner on Medinah No. 1 in 2011, will start early on Monday, before the heat takes full effect.
    Last year’s runners-up, Matt Slowinski, Curtis Malm and Travis Johns – all of whom have come in second alone in the previous three years – are also expected to be heard from.
    Small won $10,000 last year. The purse is expected to be announced on Monday morning.

    – Tim Cronin

Hossler's comeback earns him Western Amateur

    Writing from Chicago
    Saturday, August 2, 2014

    Beverly Country Club exemplifies man’s wish to get away from it all. In this case, the getaway is for golf. But when your course straddles the city limits of Chicago, getting away is more a concept than a reality. At least aurally, and sometimes visually, the city makes its presence known.
    Ask those who played in this week’s Western Amateur. At various times, and sometimes simultaneously, thanks to its Southwest Side location, one might hear jets coming in for a landing at nearby Midway Airport, sirens from ambulances and fire trucks zooming to and fro, trains rumbling by on the Baltimore & Ohio line, 100-decibel boom boxes playing classic rhythm and blues from revelers in the Dan Ryan Woods, and the general cacophony of the city.
    The jingle of an ice cream truck completed the masterpiece of sound when Saturday’s championship match between Beau Hossler and Xander Schauffele was on the 13th hole.
    At that juncture, Schauffele still held a 1 up lead on his compatriot from California. But he had been 3 up after 10, when he two-putted the treacherous green on the par 3 while Hossler had three-putted.
    Perhaps the bells of the ice cream truck tolled particularly for the senior from San Diego State, for from the middle of the 11th hole on, Hossler was the better of the two. The Texas sophomore would escape the 11th with a halve via a birdie, and win six of the last seven holes to claim the title of champion in the 112th Western Amateur.
    Hossler’s 2 up victory could not have been foreseen when he shoved his tee shot to the right on the 11th hole. He was fortunate to not have gone out of bounds, as he had been on Friday afternoon, when a limb of a tree to the right of the 13th kept his ball from going out-of-bounds and kept him in his quarterfinal match with Arlington Heights’ Doug Ghim. Hossler birdied to win that hole and eventually knocked off Ghim on the 19th.
    “I was just trying not to lose 6 and 5,” Hossler said of his predicament in the championship match.
    The 11th against Schauffele, Hossler would not win, but the halve, coming on a sliding 15-footer after Schauffele had run down a 22-foot putt for a birdie 4, was the bedrock upon which Hossler constructed his comeback.
    Hossler won the 12th when Schauffele shoved his tee shot into a bunker to the right of the par-3 green, and couldn’t get up and down. He won the 13th with a booming drive down the middle – there were no shortage of those from him and most of the leading contenders – and a 25-foot two-putt par, while Schauffele, having bunkered his approach, again couldn’t save par. And Hossler won the 14th to square the match, sinking a 16-footer for birdie and then watching Schauffele unable to match the bird from about a foot closer.
    At this point, Hossler looked every bit like the prodigy who led the U.S. Open at age 17 two years ago at the Olympic Club in San Francisco. And Schauffele, after a smart start that saw him 3 up after 7 holes and 2 up at the turn, looked like his tank was empty.
    It was. He knew it, and Hossler knew as well.
    “Fatigue and exhaustion definitely kicked in,” Schauffele said. “You have to be fresh, be all there physically and mentally. I definitely fell asleep at some point and woke up on 15 to try and make it interesting.
    “That’s all I had in the tank.”
    His last outburst came on the 15th, a demonic par-4 that tumbles downhill to the north and, even after considerable tree clearing, has enough hardwoods to either side to make one pay for an errant drive.
    Schauffele hit such a drive, into a copse of trees on the right, but didn’t have to pay. He cashed in with a marvelous approach that swung hard to the right and rolled to within five feet of the cup for a kick-in birdie. Hossler, after an approach to 14 feet, was again 1 down.
    But it was all Hossler from that point. His approach on the par-4 15th stopped five feet from the hole, while Schauffele’s was up on the hill to the right, making for an impossible recovery, and the match was square again.
    Hossler took the lead on the par-3 17th, the hole that has brought so many to ruin over the decades. With the pin back right, he played a safe approach to the front of the green. Schauffele went for the bundle and saw his shot stop on the back collar, leaving him a difficult chip or putt or belly-wedge or something to get the ball to the hole, and, with the right prayer, not too far beyond.
    He grabbed a wedge and, after too many mini-practice swings to count, tried to hit the ball at its equator. It moved forward all of 30 inches.
    “I left it short and looked silly,” Schauffele admitted. A wry smile at that moment didn’t really mask the pain.
    So Hossler, who usually needed birdies to win holes against Ghim on Friday, and had romped over Northbrook’s Nick Hardy 4 and 3 in Saturday’s semifinal, had won a hole with par and was Dormie 1.
    He would take the match with a conceded birdie on the par-5 18th after a smart layup and wedge on while the wheels fell off Schauffele. He drove deep into the woods between the 18th and 16th fairways, played his second down the 16th, and thought he had a clear shot to the 18th green. He did, except for the 50-foot tree to the front left of the green that caught his ball and dropped it into some of the heaviest rough on the course.
    His next shot was into a bunker, and his next move after that was to shake hands with the winner.
    Make no mistake. As much as Schauffele faded, Hossler played winning golf.
    “I had to go out there and get it,” Hossler said. “I’m proud of the way I was managing myself around the golf course. I was able to scramble, miss in the correct places a lot of times, as well as make key putts.
    “I’m fortunate to come out on top. The difficult holes for him came at the wrong time.”
    
    Fighting Illini fall in semifinals

    Hardy is headed to Illinois this fall. Brian Campbell, a senior from Irvine, Calif., is on the welcoming committee.
    They’ll be able to commiserate with each other over their semifinal losses. Hardy’s 4 and 3 loss to Beau Hossler was pretty cut and dried, but Campbell stretched the battle with Xander Schauffele to the 18th hole before yielding. Putting, Campbell said, was the problem.
    “I opened by missing a 4-footer for birdie on the first,” he groused. “But eventually I realized I was still in it.”
    Campbell trailed from the third through the 14th hole before dropping an 8-footer for birdie on the par-4 15th. His 9-foot birdie miss on the par-4 16th was the big miss. Schauffele sank a 7-footer for a 3 on the hole to go 1 up, and stayed there. The players matched par on the 17th and birdie on the 18th.

    The numbers

    Hossler was not only the winner, but the better player in the championship match, especially on approach shots. Neither player set records for hitting fairways – each hit 5 of 13 – but Hossler hit 14 greens in regulation, including all nine on the inward nine, while Schauffele hit only 11, and just four after the turn.
    Hossler played the 18 in 2-under, including the usual concessions, while Schauffele was even. He’d been 2-under through 11 holes.

    Seeing burnt orange

    Hossler is the first Texas Longhorn to win the Western Am since John Klauk in 2002. The result in the championship match was a reversal of this year’s California Amateur, which Schauffele captured 2 up at La Costa in June. Other recent winners representing Texas: Justin Leonard (1992 and 1993) and Ben Crenshaw (1973).

    – Tim Cronin