Radix Cup: A competition like no other

Writing from Chicago

Wednesday, June 11, 2025 

It features high-level golf on a testing course, pressure from within and a shot at glory.

Well, the United States Open, which commences Thursday morning at Oakmont Country Club, has all that too, but we speak of something nearer to Chicago, and to the hearts of many area golfers: the 63rd Radix Cup.

The annual gathering of the best players from the Illinois PGA and the CDGA’s amateur ranks takes place Thursday at Oak Park Country Club in River Grove, the usual haunt almost from when the first confrontation was staged in 1962. The only year it hasn’t been played is 2020, when COVID-19 played through.

Joel Hirsch, the eminent amateur who has played in a record 25 of these jousts, calls the Radix renewal “the best day of golf in Chicago.” There is no argument to that. It is the rare competition that is not only competitive but collegial, like a gathering of fraternity brothers from across the generations to hoist a mug or two.

The quaffing comes after the clash in this case. 

It’s called the Radix Cup because of Harry Radix, the golf superfan from the 1930s through his death in the 1960s. Pro pals Bill Ogden of North Shore Country Club and Errie Ball of Oak Park started it to honor him for all he’d done to boost golf when few others did. They used the Ryder Cup-style format employed by the Goldwater Cup in Arizona and, with modifications over the years, the best-ball Nassau format, with a point for each nine and another for overall, remains in use.

The pros, beaten in 2022 and 2023, spanked the amateurs 16-2 last year, the widest margin in Radix history, to extend their all-time margin to 38-22-2. The ams, however, have a 9-7 margin since 2008.

There’s no way to handicap this showdown, which makes it that much more fun, though the amateurs are largely new, with six of their 12-man squad Radix rookies and three more in only their second appearance. Here are Thursday’s pairings:

12:45 p.m.: Pros Travis Johns (Medinah) and Jeff Kellen (North Shore) vs. amateurs Rick Stewart (Arrowhead) and Joe Cermak (Mount Prospect)

12:55 p.m.: Pros Andy Svoboda (Butler National) and Chris Green (Glen View) vs. amateurs Daniel Stringfellow (Medinah) and Michael Cascino (Olympia Fields)

1:05 p.m.: Pros Andy Mickelson (Mistwood) and Carson Solien (Oak Park) vs. amateurs Justin Smith (Oak Park) and Brien Davis (Weaver Ridge)

1:15 p.m.: Pros Kevin Flack (Mauh-Nah-Tee-See) and Kyle Donovan (Oak Park) vs. amateurs Michael Munce (El Paso) and Lyle Burns (Lincolnshire Fields)

1:25 p.m.: Pros Matt Rion (Briarwood) and Frank Hohenadel (Mistwood) vs. amateurs Alex Creamean (Skokie) and Pierce Grieve (Knollwood)

1:35 p.m.: Pros Brian Carroll (The Hawk) and Chris French (Aldeen) vs. amateurs Graham O’Connor-Brooks (Glen Flora) and Chadd Slutzky (The Grove)

– Tim Cronin