Carroll comes through again

Writing from Chicago

Tuesday, August 26, 2025

The list of champions tells something about the quality of a course.

Beverly Country Club is exemplary in that regard.

Nationally, how about this foursome: Chick Evans, Francis Ouimet, Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus.

Locally, the same applies. Brian Carroll, who Tuesday annexed his second Illinois PGA Championship in succession and third in four years, surged from behind on the back nine to score a one-stroke victory over Jeff Kellen and Mike Troy.

Carroll, from The Hawk Country Club in St. Charles, scored a 5-under-par 66, the best round of the tournament, to finish at 4-under 138 and surge past Kellen, the North Shore Country Club ace who led the field by a stroke and Carroll by four at daybreak, and Troy, a third-generation professional whose 3-under 68 matched the second-best score of the day.

Carroll did so in style, making birdies on Beverly’s formidable last two holes to edge Kellen, who birdied the last, a consolation prize that brought him solo second and $6,800 to Carroll’s bounty of $11,500.

“It’s a great feeling,” Carroll said. “You want to play well in the biggest events. I try to work on my game when I can. I don’t work on it as much as I would like to, like most club pros. We’re busy in the summer months.”

Carroll said when he does have time, he works on his short game. That’s where the money is, and what paid off for him. His 6-iron to three feet to the 196-yard par-3 17th set up the first of the two closing birdies.

“It just stayed dead straight and it probably worked out better because it got a kick off that left slope, landed 25 feet left of the pin, and took the slope up to three feet,” Carroll said.

A brilliant bunker shot from the left greenside bunker on 18 to five feet set up the second birdie, which after Kellen birdied was the winning margin.

“I hit the best drive in two days, maybe all summer, because I had 269 to the stick,” Carroll said. “It’s a good number to hit three-wood and it leaked. It was kind of a normal bunker shot with my 52-degree wedge, the right distance for that club.”

He hit it to five feet and sank that putt for the birdie. And, once Kellen failed to eagle and host pro John Varner failed to make an albatross, Carroll was the repeat winner. He triumphed at Elgin Country Club last year, after breaking into the ranks of section winners in a playoff against 14-time winner Mike Small at Makray Memorial Golf Course three years ago.

Varner started the day two strokes behind and finished four back, in a tie for sixth with Small at even par 142. Kevn Flack (Mauh-Nah-Tee-See) and Paul Schlimm (Chicago Highlands) tied for fourth at 1-under 141. 

Around Beverly

Brian Carroll now has four state majors, the 2023 Illinois Players Championship the other. He needs an Illinois Open and IPGA Match Play for a grand slam. … The top nine finishers qualified for next spring’s PGA club pro championship, with Jim Billiter (Ivanhoe) beating Matt Slowinski (Hinsdale) in a playoff. Carroll, Kellen, Troy, Flack, Schlimm, three-time club pro champ Mike Small, Varner and Matthew Rion (Briarwood) also advanced. … Small was the most recent back-to-back winner, in 2013 and 2014. … The course averaged 77.75 strokes, or nearly seven strokes over par, on Tuesday, with the par-4 second the toughest, playing .65 strokes over par.

– Tim Cronin