Sainz alive! Carlos comes through

    Writing from Chicago
    Wednesday, October 9, 2013

    Carlos Sainz Jr. came so close at the Illinois Open to hoisting the trophy, he could taste it.
    The taste was bitter. He lost a three-way three-hole playoff in July at the Glen Club when Joe Kinney scored 12 over the first, 17th and 18th holes to amateur Dustin Korte’s 14 and his 17.
    In contrast, Wednesday at Cantigny Golf in Wheaton tasted so good. Sainz won the reborn Chicago Open, and no playoff was needed.
    With birdies on five of the first seven holes, Sainz took command and hung on to score a two-stroke victory over 36-hole leader Matt Thompson to grab a firm hold on the Ken Venturi Trophy and the $7,000 first prize from the purse of about $50,000.
    The 27-year-old Elgin resident, less than a decade removed from working in the Cantigny pro shop during his summers back from college, had won on the Canadian PGA circuit this season, but there’s something special about winning close to home. And winning there helped his effort here.
    “I won on a bigger level this year, which was big for me, because I’d never done that,” Sainz said. “I’ve been improving little by little every year, and this year with the help of sponsors and being able to play full time it has really catapulted me into being a better player.”
    He proved that from the start on Wednesday, opening with birdies on the first two holes, adding another bird on the fourth, then two more on the sixth and seventh to go out in 5-under 31. He was 5-under for the round and 7-under for the championship until his only bogey of the day, at the par-4 15th.
    Sainz finished with a 4-under-par 68 for 6-under-par 210, with Thompson’s even-par 72 landing him at 4-under 212. Jordan Mitchell of Atlanta scored 71 for 2-under 214.
    Thompson, with six birdies in his Tuesday 67, played Wednesday’s first three holes in 1-over, and was 4-under for the tournament. He stayed there through the front nine, never getting untracked. While Jake Scott, a charger from Mooresville, N.C., opened by going 4-under through the first four holes – highlighted by holing out from the fairway on the par -4 fourth – he parred the next 10 holes and scored 5-under 67, the day’s best round. It earned him a tie for fourth with Brandon Holtz and Michael Schachner at 1-under 215.
    Illinois men’s golf coach Mike Small, who finished at 1-over 217, might have had the day’s most curious round. He parred the first eight holes, bogeyed the ninth, double-bogeyed the 10th, then reeled off six birdies in the next seven holes – two stretches of three interspersed with a par – and finished with a bogey at the last. It added up to a wacky 70.
    Fittingly, Sainz played much of his junior golf under the flag of the Illinois Junior Golf Association, which brought the Chicago Open back to life.
    “To be able to crown a former IJGA competitor helps us highlight the mission of the IJGA and helps underscore the purpose of our reviving this great championship,” IJGA executive director Carrie Williams said. “We are looking forward to having an even better event next year.”
    Under discussion is a plan to move the tournament into September next year, to take advantage of changes in the PGA Tour’s qualifying schedule for its developmental web.com Tour. This year’s tournament was expected to lead into that, but the PGA Tour rescheduled some of its qualifiers when it realigned its season and created the web.com qualifying series.

    – Tim Cronin

Thompson's 67 moves him to the front

    Writing from Wheaton, Illinois
    Tuesday, October 8, 2013

    Matt Thompson has been on the verge for a while. The 24-year-old native of Battle Creek, Mich., was the runner-up in the 2009 Michigan Amateur, and fell a stroke short in the 2011 Michigan Open despite birdies on two of the last three holes.
    He’s on the verge again. After a 5-under-par 67 on Cantigny Golf’s lush Woodside-Lakeside layout, Thompson has a one-stroke lead entering the final round of the Chicago Open. Thompson’s 36-hole aggregate of 4-under 140 is one swipe better than the 140 of Minneapolis’ Thomas Campbell, who stitched a 70 to his Monday 71.
    Thompson, who turned pro after graduating from Michigan, has won in Illinois before. He captured Northwestern’s Windon Memorial in the fall of 2011.
    This field, full of seasoned pros chasing the $7,000 first prize, is as deep or deeper than the one Thompson faced in that Michigan Open. Campbell, to note Thompson’s closest pursuer, already has a pro victory this year, and while it’s on the Dakotas Tour, in some ways as far as you can get from PGA Tour headquarters in the U.S. and still play for money, he has the oversized check and the bragging rights that go with it.
    And that duo has company. Michael Schachner and Carlos Sainz Jr., from Libertyville and Elgin respectively, are two behind at 2-under 142. Atlanta’s Jordan Mitchell is at 1-under 143. A gaggle of seven at even par 144 includes Milo French and Tim Streng, two of the three overnight leaders, while Eric Sipple, who joined French and Streng in front after his opening 70, is at 1-over 145.
    In all, there are 14 players within five strokes of Thompson as the third round commences, and lurking at 147, seven strokes in arrears, is Mike Small, the soon-to-be Illinois Golf Hall of Famer. He’d have been two strokes closer but for a penalty for stepping on his ball while searching for it in the rough during the first round. That woe was felt by three other players as well.
    Thompson was not alone in carding a tournament-best 67. Daniel Zimmerman of Middleton, Wis., matched that score, and did so after an opening 80, the best recovery of any player. He did so by making nine birdies, offset by four bogeys, at Cantigny.
    The cut fell at 8-over 152 and encompassed 55 players, including three amateurs. Among those missing the cut: Medinah teaching pro Connie DeMattia, erstwhile Aurora fixture Bob Ackerman, and amateur Toni Kukoc, who prizes his 2010 Croatian Amateur title as much as his three NBA titles earned with the Bulls.

    – Tim Cronin

Three-way tie in Chicago Open

    Writing from Chicago
    Monday, October 7, 2013

    Eric Sipple is from Waverly, Iowa. A recent graduate of the University of Northern Iowa, he is one of the many players in the world of golf looking for a place to play.
    Monday, he found it, at least for a day. He scored 2-under-par 70 on Cantigny Golf’s Woodside-Lakeside combination nines to join Tim Streng of Arlington Heights and Milo French of Sugar Grove at the top of the field after the first round of the Chicago Open.
    Streng’s like Sipple, a would-be touring rabbit. Way back, he generated local headlines by winning the Mike Sipula Invitational at Pine Hills in Ottawa. He was 21 then, going into his senior year at Western Illinois. These days, he’s an assistant at Kemper Lakes Golf Club in Hawthorn Woods.
    French, a Sugar Grove resident, took nearly two years off from competitive golf before coming back to it this summer. He tied for ninth in the Illinois Open, and look where he is going into the second of three rounds at Cantigny. He’s connected with the PGA Tour – as a supervisor at the PGA Tour Superstore in Schaumburg, but isn’t seriously dreaming beyond that.
    “If it comes, it comes,” he told the Aurora Beacon-News of mere mini-tour status at the Illinois Open.
    This week, the chase is for the Ken Venturi Trophy. And this trio is ahead, but not alone.
    A quartet including Elgin’s Carlos Sainz Jr. and Godfrey’s Shane Smith is at 1-under-par 71 on the Wheaton layout. Big-hitting Travis Johns is among a sixsome at even-par 72. And Cantigny assistant Rich Dukelow is lurking at 2-over 74.
    Other notables were back in the field. Illinois coach Mike Small, winner of 15 state majors, scored 4-over 76, as did recent Illinois grad Thomas Pieters. Steve Orrick was at 77, and amateur Brenten Blakeman returned an untidy 83.
    Tuesday’s cut is to the low 50 and ties.
    – Tim Cronin

The return of an old friend

    Writing from Chicago
    Sunday, October 6, 2013    

    Ninety-nine years ago, a gaggle of professionals and amateurs, 19 players in all, gathered at Chicago Golf Club to play for $175 and a new title: The Chicago Open.
    The full title was the Chicago District Golf Association Open Championship. But the shorter name stuck, and through the decades, off and on, the Chicago Open has provided more than a few thrills, and won itself more then a few notable champions.
    Will Ben Hogan, Ken Venturi and Luke Donald do for starters?
    If not, how about Byron Nelson, Sam Snead and Bobby Locke?
    Each won the Chicago Open in a different incarnation. To detail the first three: Hogan when it was CDGA-operated on the tour, Venturi when Gleneagles had control, replacing George S. May’s Tam O’Shanter carnival on the tour, and Donald – as an amateur starring for Northwestern – when the CDGA operated it as an independent tournament.
    Monday, the Chicago Open rises again from a 12-year slumber, this time under the auspices of the Illinois Junior Golf Association. Independent again of any tour, the Chicago Open offers a $50,000 purse and has 114 players, 97 pros and 17 amateurs, ready to tee it up at Cantigny Golf in Wheaton, using the Woodside-Lakeside combination, through Wednesday.
    While Don Berry, the champion at Beverly Country Club in 2001 and thus the defender, isn’t on hand, a slew of solid players are, including Thomas Pieters, a pro of rather recent vintage who scored an individual NCAA title while playing for Illinois. His old coach, Mike Small, to be inducted into the Illinois Golf Hall of Fame later in the month, will also be on hand. So will fellow downstater Steve Orrick, the Decatur stalwart who has excelled in the last couple of years.
    The hottest player coming in is Eric Ilic, who won the Illinois PGA Players Championship at Meatmora Fields last week. He beat Rich Dukelow, a Cantigny assistant, by a stroke.
    As you might expect, Dukelow’s in the field, as is former Cantigny head pro Danny Mulhearn, now stationed at Glen Oak.
    The amateur contingent is led by Burr Ridge’s Brenten Blakeman, a University of Dayton grad who plays out of Olympia Fields these days.
    There’s another name familiar to sports fans making his golf debut. Toni Kukoc, erstwhile center for the Bulls, took up golf with great enthusiasm, and some success, upon his retirement from basketball. He’s no Michael Jordan on the links, and that might be a good thing.
    The October date was selected originally on the theory that players far and wide would use the tournament as a tune-up for Tour school. Then the PGA Tour realigned its qualifying into the web.com Tour playoffs, making this a run-through for the web.com school in December. Still, 114 entries for the inaugural under the IJGA imprint is a good start. The play should be even better.
    - Tim Cronin

Zach attack pays off at Conway Farms

    Writing from Lake Forest, Illinois
    Monday, September 16, 2013

    Zach Johnson said earlier in the week that Conway Farms Golf Club’s yielding of low scores reminded him of TPC Deere Run, site of the John Deere Classic.
    “I’m not complaining,” Johnson said.
    Especially now. He completed a career Illinois Slam by grabbing the BMW Championship title on Monday, his bogey-free 6-under-par 65 for an aggregate of 16-under-par 268 beating fast-closing Nick Watney to the finish line by two strokes. Watney’s 7-under 64 was the round of the day, and got him to 270 – and to the Tour Championship at East Lake – but Johnson, who trailed overnight leader Jim Furyk by three when he teed off, passed both Furyk and Watney in the course of a frantic delayed-a-day finish to the 110th Western Open.
    Johnson took the lead for the first time when Furyk lipped out a par putt on the 13th hole and dropped to 13-under. Johnson was at 14-under after sinking a 8-footer for birdie on the par-4 12th.
    Watney was a few holes ahead, and birdied the par-3 17th to tie Johnson, but Johnson converted for birdie from 19 feet on the par-4 16th to regain the advantage. He doubled the margin to two strokes with a birdie on the par-3 17th, and coasted home, his 10th career victory placing him fourth in the PGA Tour’s playoff standings and thus within reach of the $10 million bonus if he wins on Sunday at East Lake. (He collected $1.44 million from Monday’s $8 million purse.)
    Johnson accomplished it, he said, by not thinking of the goal, just the process.
    “I was trying to make the Presidents Cup team (in Boston) without trying to make it,” Johnson said. “I was trying to make the top three (in the standings) without trying to make it. Now, I’m not going to try to win that $10 million. I’m going to try to play four solid rounds of golf.”
    As he did at Conway Farms. Rounds of 64-70-69-65 varied between solid and spectacular. He was bogey-free his last 31 holes, but never held even a share of the lead until the birdie at the 12th.
    Johnson has played stupid good golf since the Deere, where he lost to Jordan Spieth in a three-man playoff. After that second place, tied for sixth at the British Open, tied for fourth at Firestone, tied for eighth in the PGA Championship, tied for fifth in the Wyndham, and tied for 27th, his worst finish in two months, at the Deutsche Bank Championship, the second playoff tournament.
    Where was he during the Barclays? Not at Liberty National. There was a more pressing engagement.
    “I mean, you’re not going to miss your brother’s wedding, especially when you’re the best man,” Johnson said. “Especially if I’m going to get along with my new sister-in-law.”
    That included a scouting round at Conway the day before, when he charted places to hit it and not hit it for his yardage book. And that seemed to pay off. He only missed 11 of 54 fairways, and his 27 of 36 greens in the final two rounds.
    Johnson said a bad four-hole stretch dropped his standing at the Deutsche Bank, but making a putt on his last hole advanced him to Conway Farms, and from here, it’s off to East Lake with a shot at was old-timers would call bagging the whole bundle of boodle.
    Furyk failed to win for the fifth straight time while holding the 54-hole lead. Winless since 201, he was at even-par 71 on a day a number in the 60s was mandatory. Finishing third at 13-under 271, he was 12-under on his Friday 59 and 1-under the other three rounds.
    “I never looked at (the final round) as I have to hold on to the lead,” Furyk said. “That’s a definite bogey waiting to happen. Today the idea was to go out aggressive, hit the ball at the pins, try to shoot 4- or 5-under, make the rest of the field chase me.
    “I’m playing really well, on a golf course I like next week in Atlanta, and a win there could do some damage.”
    Furyk won the FedEx Cup in 2010. He’s 11th in the standings. The top five (Tiger Woods, Henrik Stenson, Adam Scott, Johnson and Matt Kuchar) cop the Cup if they win the Tour Championship. Everyone else has to win or finish high and depend on the kindness of strangers.
    Watney’s sparkling 64 started with birdies on the first three holes, and closed with birds on four of the last seven holes, but he needed to be below that when Johnson stepped up. A birdie that slid by the cup at the last and flew away stung.
    “I figured I had maybe an outside shot, but there’s so many good players ahead of me that I knew I’d need something special,” Watney said. “All you can ask for is a chance there, and I hit a good putt. It was really, really fun. I haven’t been in this position for a while, and to get back in the heat is awesome.”
    Watney improved 22 places in the playoff standings, rising to 12th from 34th, one of two players to jump into this week’s Tour Championship. The other? Read on.

    Donald to East Lake

    Conway Farms member Luke Donald didn’t win the tournament, but he won a ticket to East Lake after a 5-under-par 66 on Monday. That placed him at 11-under 273, tied for fourth, and when the rest of the marbles filtered down the Plinko machine, he was 29th of 30 qualifiers. And relieved.
    “I had to fight hard on that back nine,” Donald said after coming in in 4-under 32, a bogey offsetting one of his five birdies. “I figured at the beginning of the week top five or better was probably going to do it for me. I knew I had to go pretty low today. Fortunately I got it going a little bit on the back nine.”
    Donald has a history of low final rounds when he’s out of contention, but usually in less familiar surroundings. This was on his home course. But he was in a field of guys who are quick studies.
    “I had a bunch of lipouts this week,” Donald said. “If they had gone in I’d probably be contending for the title. I was hoping that being a member here would help me, and I think it did a little bit.”
    He got a member’s bounce on the par-4 15th, missing the fairway right, but carving a shot toward the green that hit the hillock to the right and bounced onto the green, rolling to within seven feet. He converted that for birdie to go to 11-under, and 5-under for the day. But a bogey at the 16th dropped him from hinting at contention. But he birdied 17 after a splendid iron to six feet, and gave the cup on 18 a scare as well.
    “There were nerves from 15 onwards,” Donald said. “I knew I got myself into position where I had a chance. That’s why we practice hard, to get in those positions.”
    And now, after Monday night’s stop at Wildcat Golf Day in Evanston, to East Lake, where, Donald said, “I’ve notoriously played pretty well.”
    He tied for third there last year, with a pair of 67s on the weekend.    
    Donald, 54th at the start of the Western, was one of only two players to climb into the top 30 in the FedEx Cup standings. The other was Watney (34th to 12th). They displaced Lee Westwood (30th to 41st) and Harris English (20th to 31st). Tiger Woods replaced Henrik Stenson at the top of the ladder. D.A. Points, the pride of Pekin, skidded from 21st to 28th with a 57th place finish at Conway, but advances. His heart sank when a birdie putt at the last hung on the left edge of the cup, defying gravity, but it proved a harmless miss in the end.

    Around Conway Farms

    Biggest job the next few weeks goes to Conway Farms superintendent Chad Ball and his tireless crew, who got the course ready for Monday after Sunday’s downpours, and now have to get the area covered by structures back into shape as the city for a week is taken apart. ... The field averaged 70.557 strokes in the fourth round, and 70.811 strokes for the week, the field thus beating the course, albeit barely. ... Presuming there’s no uproar from the membership, Conway Farms will host the tournament again in 2015. Next year’s edition, the 111th going back to 1899, is at Cherry Hills Country Club in Cherry Hills Village, Colo., outside of Denver, and famed for Arnold Palmer’s comeback victory in the 1960 U.S. Open. ... The WGA said over 130,000 fans came out for the week. There appeared to be about 7,500 on hand on Monday, a decent crowd considering the last-minute rearrangement of the schedule because of Sunday’s downpour, and a late shift in the parking to Six Flags Great America in Gurnee, another 10 miles to the north.

    – Tim Cronin