Chris Nieto makes dynamic first impression

Writing from Elgin, Illinois

Thursday, May 12, 2022

Until November 1, Chris Nieto was a member of the Mid-Atlantic PGA Section, so ensconced because he was working at Congressional Country Club.

On November 1, he became the head pro at Exmoor Country Club in Highland Park. When a pro moves, so does his section affiliation.

Thursday afternoon, he became the man to beat in the Illinois PGA. In his first Illinois major, Nieto swept through the field to win the Illinois PGA Match Play Championship at Elgin Country Club.

Nieto, 34, trailed in several of his five matches prior to the final, but not when the big trophy was on the line against Brian Carroll of The Hawk. Then, Nieto opened with a birdie to win the first hole, was 2 up after three, remained there at the turn, parred No. 10 for a 3 up advantage, and then withstood Carroll’s best golf of the afternoon to hang on for the 1 up victory.

“This week was a grind, and it didn’t come easy,” Nieto said. “It felt like in a lot of matches I was down a couple at the turn or all square. I knew once I got to the back nine I’d have more fun.”

Not in the final.

“It was uncharted territory,” Nieto said of holding the lead. “Then the wind picked up and golf got a little harder.”

Elgin is a 121-year old Tom Bendelow layout that has been expanded from nine to 18 holes over the years, but feels old-timey. It features rolling fairways, sidehill lies, greens shaped like potato chips, and swirling wind when it blows. Smart golf, rather than power golf, wins the day, and both Nieto and Carroll are smart golfers.

Carroll dropped his tee shot four feet from the cup on the 163-yard par-3 16th for a birdie to narrow Nieto’s lead to a hole, then nearly holed out from an impossible sidehill lie on the 17th for eagle. Instead, they matched birdies and walked to the tee of the 404-yard uphill 18th.

Carroll used a hybrid and drove to the edge of a dropoff, Nieto went down the hill and had a delicate 65-yard pitch, effectively to the roof of a small building. He dropped it about four feet away, and when Carroll missed his curling 18-footer, it was time to shake hands.

“It’s match play, so you never know what’s going to happen,” Nieto said. “He came in firing and I knew I had to make a couple birdies and hold him off at the end.”

For Carroll, it was the fourth runner-up placing in a state major, including the 2019 Match Play and last year’s Players Championship. Thus it was a bit of a bitter pill to swallow.

“I certainly had better play in the first match today than the second, just did what I had to do in that one,” Carroll said of his defeat of David Krzepicki of Eagle Brook Country Club 6 and 4 in the morning. “Birdied the par-5s, which are reachable out here.”

Carroll was 3-under across 14 holes. But in Nieto, who didn’t have time to play at all in 2021 thanks to his workload as associate head pro at Congressional, he met a solid campaigner.

“Too many poor shots,” Carroll said. “I got myself in tree trouble where I couldn’t attack on shorter holes; had to play defensive instead of giving myself birdie looks.”

Nieto had scored 2-over 74 on the hilly 6,450-yard layout to tie for sixth and thus set his seeding. After that, he chugged along, knocking off Jami Brighty 5 and 4 in the Round of 32, beating the unrelated Jamie Nieto of The Preserve at Oak Meadows 3 and 2 in the Round of 16 – and opening with an eagle to establish who was boss – taking out Hinsdale’s Matt Slowinski in the quarterfinals, and beating Tim Streng of the Wildcat Golf Academy 2 and 1 in Thursday morning’s semifinal.

The match of the week was the quarterfinal between Streng and Mistwood’s Andy Mickelson. The duo combined for 14 birdies and an eagle in 17 holes, Streng winning 2 and 1 with an aggregate 8-under 60 in 17 holes, including the usual concessions, to Mickelson’s 62. Streng’s eagle 2 on the 270-yard par-4 11th gave him a 3 up lead that Mickelson couldn’t erase completely.

– Tim Cronin

Copeland low am in U.S. Women's Open qualifying

Writing from Aurora, Illinois

Monday, May 9, 2022

Lisa Copeland came into the 36-hole U.S. Women’s Open qualifier at Stonebridge Country Club just hoping to break 80 twice.

That was before she knew the wind would blow a hoolie.

The southwest gale brought warmth – it hit 81 degrees – but with afternoon gusts to 41 mph and a steady zephyr of 28 mph.

Copeland, a 13-year-old who adds a year next month, nearly blew over on one putt, but played lights out to capture low amateur honors with a total of 3-over-par 147, five strokes off the medalist and sole qualifier for Pine Needles, Ingrid Guiterrez Nunez of Cuautla, Mexico, whose even-par 72 in the afternoon included four birdies in her last nine holes and brought her to 2-under 142 for the day.

Wind? What wind?

“That played a part,” Copeland admitted. “I’m a shorter ball-hitter, so I’m coming in with longer clubs and it’s penetrating into the wind.”

Before the wind went off the rails, Copeland was the leader, having birdied the second, third and fourth holes. She remained in or tied for the lead for over an hour.

“I was kind of surprised,” Copeland said. “My dad (Jeff, who caddied) was reminding me just to breathe. And I was putting great and taking it one shot at a time.”

She kept breathing and, while she didn’t know she was in the lead, knew she was playing well.

“I wanted to make sure I didn’t change anything in my routine, especially in putting, because I was putting so well. I didn’t want to go too fast or too slow.”

Copeland, who finished third in her division of the Drive, Chip and Putt Championship last month at Augusta National, scored six birdies across the day, but only two in the afternoon round, which was offset by a double-bogey. Count the wind a contributing party to that. She went up two clubs on the par-3 third, dead into the teeth of the gale, and still flew the green, landing in the gunch instead.

Gutierrez Nunez, on her fourth year on the Epson Tour, the LPGA’s developmental circuit, has seen her share of windy days. She opened with a birdie in the morning en route to an opening 2-under 70, the day’s best round, and closed with a 3-under 33 on Stonebridge’s front nine, including the aforementioned quartet of birds.

Finishing about an hour ahead of Jillian Hollis, that burst brought her the title and the ticket to Pine Needles. Hollis, a former Women’s Western Amateur champion from Rocky River, Ohio, scored 71-72–143 to Gutierrez Nunez’s 142 for first alternate status. Katherine Hamski of Durham, N.C., was third, and second alternate, at 73-71–144.

Then came Copeland, whose future is off the charts.

At Cantigny Golf, 2000 Illinois Open champion Bryce Emory of Aurora scored 1-under-par 71 to grab medalist honors and lead five players advancing to the 36-hole sectional test. Others advancing are Timothy Lim (72), Hoffman Estates; Kyle Kochevar (73), Glen Ellyn; Varun Chopra (73), Champaign, and Daniel Hudson (73), Chicago. Playing in the same wind that buffeted the ladies, Hudson survived a double-bogey and triple-bogey to advance thanks to five birdies. Chopra and Kochevar also had doubles and lived to tell about it.

– Tim Cronin

Rich Harvest lands Saudi-backed LIV Tour – with a thud

The Grill Room – by Tim Cronin

Writing from Chicago

Wednesday, March 16, 2022

updated Thursday, March 17, 2022

Here’s everything you need to know about Rich Harvest Farms hosting the Saudi Arabia-backed LIV Golf Invitation Tour in mid-September:

1. Today's word of landing the tournament came complete with a one-page “Memo” with six reasons why, noting that groups ranging from the ultra-private club’s caddies to Ukrainian refugees would benefit from the proceeds – i.e., the rent of the facility – to be had.

2. Rich Harvest Farms founder-owner Jerry Rich was not quoted. Nor does he want to speak on the topic, we were informed, but Thursday morning on his personal e-mail list, he forwarded the LIV tour release and added the following: "Hope to see a big turn out from all you golf fans! This will be huge for Illinois and the Chicagoland area."

Before that, it was pay no attention to the man who is not only behind the curtain, but owns it.

The money for bringing in the upstart tour must be good, because it’s not like Rich doesn’t have it. He built his fortune on coming up with the consolidated quote machine for Wall Street, the fortune big enough for him to buy thousands of acres outside of Sugar Grove – several times the size of Monaco, though no sea view – and plant his own mostly self-designed golf course on it.

Rich doesn’t need the dough, but he does love the attention. That’s why he’s spent lavishly over the years to have not just 18 holes, but a pair of world-class practice facilities, a  series of buildings that serve as clubhouses, pro shops, residence halls and an indoor practice center, the latter as much for Northern Illinois University’s golf team – he’s a proud alum – as for himself.

That’s why he’s hosted the Solheim Cup, the Western Amateur, the NCAA Championship, the Western Junior, and sundry other amateur championships since the course, which started as a few reversible practice holes, was expanded to a full 18.

Like anyone, Rich would prefer receiving bouquets than brickbats. He’s a decent guy. A few years ago, he donated the land and the funding for a new Catholic parish adjacent to his property after his wife died. He has a pet project to grow the game, the Kids Golf Foundation of Illinois, that since 1998 has seen 250,000 children learn the fundamentals of the game for free. The foundation is the first item on the list that will benefit from the LIV weekend.

The memo, of course, was issued because Saudi Arabia, which through crown prince Mohammed bin Salman and his government-owned investment operation is backing Greg Norman’s long-held dream of a world golf tour, is one of the world’s more repressive regimes. The gruesome murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi only reinforced that. Just the other day, the Saudi government killed 81 people for various crimes, supposedly ranging from murder to terrorism. It was the first mass execution by Saudi Arabia in six years.

Much like Al Capone’s gang once ran soup kitchens in Chicago in an effort to cleanse his reputation, such “sportswashing” generally backfires, drawing more attention to the tawdry exploits of countries involved in suppressing freedom.

This is not new. Witness the Olympics in Moscow, Beijing and Sarajevo, to name three garden spots, plus the granddaddy of them all, in Nazi-controlled Berlin in 1936. The Formula One racing circuit has several stops in non-democratic countries, including Saudi Arabia at the end of the year, like-minded neighbor Bahrain for its opener this week, plus China and, until the recent invasion of Ukraine made it untenable, Russia, at a course around the Winter Olympic sites in Sochi.

Golf has been no different. The PGA Tour would prefer you pay no mind to its stalled tournament series in China. South Africa was a popular destination for name pros in a million-dollar tournament during apartheid. Now come the Saudis, not only hosting but bankrolling a tour and offering bonuses – so far shunned – for name players to come along for the ride.

The Rich Harvest tournament will be the sixth of eight 54-hole weekends and the fourth of four in the United States. The purse of $25 million – $20 million for up to 48 individuals, $5 million for a team concept nobody will pay the slightest attention to – is standard for the LIV circuit, which will award $255 million in Saudi oil money across those eight weekends.

Who the 48 players will be – and if the series will get to that number – is as yet unknown. Many offers have been name, none accepted, partly because the PGA Tour threatens to ban those who sign with the Saudis – the lawyers will love that – and partly because Phil Mickelson managed to blurt out the truth about using the new group for leverage in pressing different demands with the PGA Tour, and ripped the Saudis for killing Khashoggi at the same time.

Where the tournaments will be televised is also undecided. It won’t be with any of the Tour-affiliated outlets, which leaves Fox or a streaming service unless C-SPAN jumps in.

But the courses are there and the money is there. Where there is money, golfers eventually follow. Even when one of the hosts doesn’t want to say a word about the group coming in to dirty his towels.

Medinah approves No. 3 renovation

Saturday, December 18, 2021

By Tim Cronin

Medinah Country Club, which values its heritage, is going in a different direction with its famed No. 3 course.

If the plan approved today by the membership is fully implemented, a largely new back nine will greet the membership well in advance of the 2026 Presidents Cup.

A trio of Australians led by 2006 U.S. Open champion Geoff Ogilvy was hired in 2020 to propose a renovation of the course designed by Tom Bendelow and since renovated by Larry Packard, son Roger Packard and Rees Jones. The goal was to toughen the back nine – members were chagrined by Justin Thomas’ 25-under-par 263 in the 2019 BMW Championship, as well as the record 11-under 61 posted by him in the third round and a scoring average of 69.928 – and reduce the number of par-3 holes played over the stream running from Lake Kadijah.

The plan approved by the membership this morning apparently does that. As described to Illinois Golfer, the last six holes, as envisioned by Ogilvy, Ashley Mead and Mike Cocking, will be radically different from the current rotation, which came into play with the Packard-led renovation of 1985 in advance of the 1988 U.S. Senior Open and 1990 U.S. Open.

Among the holes expected to be eliminated are the par-3 13th and 17th, both of which play to the north across the stream. The 13th originally was the 17th in Bendelow’s design, a dramatic hole which played a key role in both the 1949 and 1975 U.S. Opens – the former when Sam Snead missed the green and took a bogey in his quest for the title, and the latter when Ben Crenshaw plunked a 2-iron into the water, missing dry land by a foot.

The current 17th, which has been changed twice since Roger Packard concocted it, played a vital role in the 2012 Ryder Cup. It was there that Justin Rose drained a 45-footer to square his Sunday match with Phil Mickelson, and where Jim Furyk missed a critical putt of shorter length while playing Sergio Garcia. Both Rose and Garcia scored 1-up victories, helping Europe to its dramatic comeback victory.

The current 18th will also disappear in favor of a hole essentially on the original corridor for the 18th, used for corporate tents in recent tournaments. The dislike of the United States Golf Association for the original 18th, a severe dogleg right with little room for spectators, was the original reason for the changes to the No. 3 course in the first place. Officials told the club the USGA wouldn’t bring the U.S. Open back unless the hole was changed, and that prompted a contentious vote – two votes on the same day, actually – to bring in the bulldozers in the first place.

Now, they’ll return. Two of the new holes will run along the stream that the par 3s now cross, one on each side. Depending on their configuration, that could cause some to say they look as alike to each other as the par-3 13th and 17th do now.

Medinah No. 3 has always been controversial. In the 1949 U.S. Open, players were daunted by the length, and not every back tee was used. There’s never been a routine championship played there, either because of difficult conditions or the pressure of the moment. The course may change, but that will not.

Future of Tour on display in BMW's renewal

Writing from Chicago

Monday, November 22, 2021 

There are several nuggets to take from Monday’s five-year sponsorship renewal by BMW of North America with the Western Golf Association for the BMW Championship, one that will extend the deal that began in 2007 through 2027.

First and foremost, this time, the renewal was swift and lengthy. At five years, this deal, beginning in 2023, comes 10 months before the 2022 deal that is the third in the current extension. In contrast, the three-year pact from 2020 to 2022 was only announced in the middle of the 2019 tournament at Medinah Country Club.

The prompt renewal, and the length, indicates more than any words in a news release that BMW NA finds it worthwhile to spend real money on a premier golf tournament. Sebastian Mackensen, the president and CEO of BMW’s North American division, called it “a great way to showcase our brand and engage customers.” He continued by noting the money raised for the Evans Scholars Foundation (over $40 million since 2007), but rest assured, if the BMW accountants and sales department couldn’t find a link between cars and SUVs moving off showroom floors and slapping the BMW logo on the Western Open, it wouldn’t be happening.

That it continues to is testament to the leadership of the WGA, starting with president and CEO John Kaczkowski, who has taken a somewhat sleepy golf association that did splendid work getting caddies, most of them in the Midwest, into and through college into a organization with a national outlook. As painful as it is for the loyal Chicago golf fan to see the tournament they call their own played in Denver and Philadelphia – and next year in Wilmington, Del. – taking the circus to places it’s not often seen has not only boosted fundraising, it’s broadened the reach of the Evans program. Chick would be pleased.

Second, Olympia Fields Country Club is getting a do-over. The 2020 BMW was played on Olympia’s testing North Course, where Jon Rahm and Dustin Johnson traded outrageous long birdie putts down the stretch with Rahm sinking a 66-footer to win on the first hole of sudden death.

In a normal year, thousands would have said they were there, but 2020 was not a normal year. The COVID-19 pandemic pre-vaccine meant only a handful of volunteers were on hand, and spectators were along Vollmer Road, on the outside looking in. That reduced the fee Olympia received and the income of the Evans program, but at least it was played.

In 2023, the BMW will return to Olympia, and so will all of us.

Third, and it wasn’t mentioned in the PGA Tour’s release, the players will get richer than ever. Beginning in 2022, the BMW will be one of the first examples of the future of the game, at least financially. The Tour, rarely challenged as the leading week-in, week-out top tour in existence, is trying to fend off the Saudi-backed Super Golf League, which has yet to put a tee in the ground but has Greg Norman as its front man. He and the Saudis envision a series of $20 million tournaments played around the world. (A second European group, the Premier Golf League, has an idea of their own big weeks, but somehow played under the PGA Tour umbrella. At least, that’s the latest version.)

The PGA Tour is countering in two ways. First, by threatening their players with banishment – from a voluntary non-profit organization – if anyone dares play in Norman’s sandbox, and second, by showering their members with heretofore unseen millions of dollars.

The 2022-23 season starts a lucrative new television package – CBS will get the entire playoff series in odd-numbered years, so expect to hear Jim Nantz say hello to his friends from Olympia Fields – worth a ridiculous amount of money.

How ridiculous? The 70 players at Olympia (and in 2022, at Wilmington) will be playing for $15 million, up from the $9.5 million this year, according to a memo PGA Tour boss Jay Monahan sent to the players on Monday. If the usual 18 percent take of the loot goes to the winner, he’ll walk away with $2.7 million, or 4.35 times Sam Snead’s career earnings.

Playing for that kind of money should encourage loyalty to the kids in Ponte Vedra Beach. If not, well, oil’s well that ends well.

– Tim Cronin