Small's huge achievement

Writing from Chicago

Sunday, September 6, 2009

Mike Small’s victory in the 87th Illinois PGA Championship was anything but unexpected. Small, the 43-year-old head coach of Illinois’ men’s golf team, has been the best pro in the state for the better part of a decade.  His 6-stroke triumph over Ivanhoe Club head pro Jim Sobb at Stonewall Orchard on Wednesday, Sept. 2, only reconfirmed as much.

It also made history in several respects. For one thing, Small extended his record in winning the Illinois Section’s title. It was his eighth. Nobody else has more than five.

It was also his seventh straight. The previous mark was three, set by Johnny Revolta of Evanston Golf Club from 1936 to 1938, and equaled by Bob Zender from 1976 to 1978.

Most important, it was Small’s 13th Illinois major championship. That broke the tie Small was in with legendary North Shore Country Club head pro Bill Ogden, who captured a pair of Illinois Open titles, five Illinois PGA crowns and five Illinois PGA Match Play titles over a 21-year span ending in 1972.

Small now owns four Illinois Open championships, the eight Illinois PGAs and one Illinois PGA Match Play bauble. He has accomplished all that over just nine summers.

Amazingly, his record could be even more impressive. Small would have nine Illinois PGA crowns in as many starts had he not lost the 2002 title to Gary Groh in a three-hole playoff at Kemper Lakes Golf Course in Hawthorn Woods. He’d have five Illinois Open wins if he hadn’t dropped a playoff to Rockford amateur Brad Benjamin at Hawthorn Woods Country Club earlier in the summer. And his only IPGA Match Play win, in 2007, came in his first appearance in the springtime showdown. Coaching duties prevented him from playing in previous years.

Small’s 9-under-par total of 207, built on rounds of 67, 69 and 71, covered all the faults the picky pro found in his game.

“I missed quite a few putts (in the final round) but luckily, I had a lead where I didn’t have to make them,” Small said. “I hit it so good this week it got me through it.”

If Small wasn’t in the field, Sobb’s effort would have made history. The last senior to win the section title was Groh, via the playoff over Small in 2002. Sobb is 53, and was seeking his sixth Illinois major. He was five strokes behind Small entering the final round.

“It’s like spotting Secretariat 10 lengths,” Sobb said. “To have the best club professional in the country in our section and to compete against him, I think is the ultimate.”

Small won his second PGA national club pro title – officially, it’s the PGA Professional National Championship these days – earlier this summer. From Sept. 18-20, he’ll be leading the U.S. PGA team against a group of European club pros in the PGA Cup in Loch Lomond, Scotland, a Ryder Cup-style match. And his Illinois golf team won the Big Ten title earlier this season.

In other words, it’s good to be Mike Small these days.

All things considered, when hasn’t it been this decade?

– Tim Cronin