Stairway to the stars comes to The Glen Club

Writing from Glenview, Illinois

Tuesday, July 25, 2023

If you want to gauge the growth of professional golf in America, look no further than the Korn Ferry Tour.

Born as the Ben Hogan Tour in 1990 – the Hawk, asked his advice for the first players, said, “Watch out for busses” – it’s bloomed from a series of 30 $100,000 tournaments with $20,000 first prizes to this year’s 26 tournaments with purses of $1 million, winners collecting $180,000 each, with the playoffs at $1.5 million a shot.

In other words, today’s KFT is 1990’s PGA Tour in financial terms, only with the stars of the future rather than the stars of today.

One of those future stars is Harry Hall, who won last year’s NV5 Invitational at The Glen Club over the Memorial Day weekend. It’s back at The Glen Club this weekend, a four-round show commencing at 6:30 a.m. Thursday, in the middle of summer, but Hall is not. His success in the WGA-sponsored NV5 and at other KFT tournaments last season earned him a promotion to the PGA Tour, where he’s made over a million bucks so far this year.

Hall knocked off local favorite Nick Hardy of Northbrook last year by scoring five birdies in his last seven holes to tie Hardy and then bagging a trifecta of birds in a sudden-death playoff. But feel no pain for Hardy, for he also made the big tour and already has a win in his pocket, having teamed with Davis Riley to win the Zurich Classic in New Orleans.

“It just goes to show the quality of the players who play in the tournament,” Hall said. “To win is a big boost of confidence to get to the next level. Hopefully I can continue to do that; I’ll always cherish that victory.’

“I was so grateful to be in contention (last year), because coming in I was 94th on the points list. We were halfway through the season and I hadn’t really had the success I thought I was going to have.”

Then he hit the jackpot, ensured his spot in the Korn Ferry Playoffs, and from there made the PGA Tour. So far this season, he’s made $1.4 million with three top-10 finishes and ranks 83rd in the point standings. That’s not enough to make the revamped playoffs – the first tournament has only 70 players this year, compared to last year’s 125 – so he’ll have to step on it to have a shot at the pot o’ gold in the Tour Championship.

Winning on the Tom Fazio-designed layout last year gave him that chance to succeed, as it did Scottie Scheffler, the current world No. 1, in 2019, in the inaugural then-titled Evans Scholars Invitational, Curtis Thompson in 2020 and Cameron Young in 2021. The 156 players in this year’s field want to duplicate that, from Ben Kohles, currently No. 1 in the KFT standings and one of 11 winners from this season teeing it up, to Monday’s eight qualifiers, each of whom had to shoot at least 7-under at either Stonewall Orchard or White Deer Run to earn a ticket for the weekend.

Players to watch include a gaggle of notable locally-connected players:

• Adrien Dumont de Chassart, the recent Illinois graduate who won his KFT debut in South Carolina the week before the U.S. Open;

• Ricky Castillo, a frequent contender in the Western Amateur who matched Dumont de Chassart by winning his KFT debut the week after, and who will be grouped with him at 12:12 p.m. Thursday;

• Brad Hopfinger, who captured the 2014 Illinois Open at The Glen Club and has been a KFT regular since 2015;

• Patrick Flavin, the 2017 Illinois Open winner at The Glen Club and a KFT member since 2020;

• and Mark Wilson, a five-time PGA Tour winner who has called Elmhurst home in the past and realistically, at 48, is tuning up for the Champions Tour.

The tournament will be telecast for the first time, and by an untraditional outlet. Barstool.tv, an Internet operation, will provide four-day coverage from 2:30-5:30 p.m. CT with a technical crew supplied by the PGA Tour and with a crew of commentators headed by Sam Riggs Bozoian, who goes by his middle name, and Jake Marsh. It’s the first time Barstool has televised live golf, though their Fore Play podcast covers the game.

– Tim Cronin