Tougher Illinois Open returns to White Eagle

Sunday, July 31, 2022

It was before the Illinois Open three years ago that the Illinois PGA’s Opens Committee decided, so to speak, “No more Mr. Nice Guy.”

They wanted a more challenging set-up for the Illinois Open, since 1950 the de facto state championship for golf in Illinois. The 2019 Illinois Open, played at The Glen Club and Ridgemoor Country Club, the latter which John Updike might have described as a lovely little bandbox of a golf course, was the test bed for tightening the vise.

You couldn’t tell by the winning score – 13-under 210 compared to 14-under 205 at The Glen Club and Ravinia Green the year before – but the courses were more testing. The rough was higher. The pin placements were more exacting.

“We think it’s very important in identifying our Illinois Open champion,” IPGA assistant executive director Brad Slocum said. “We want to make it as tough a test as we can make it without being unfair.”

In 2020 at White Eagle Golf Club in Naperville, the site of this year’s 73rd renewal, the vise was tightened more. On the final day, it was too tight on the par-5 14th hole, the cup cut barely three paces from a slope that gobbled up golf balls and spit them back into a depression on the fairway. Even Bryce Emory, the winner, complained about it.

Ideally, that debacle isn’t repeated. But, notwithstanding an EF-0 tornado that took out 55 trees across the middle of the course, plus the scoreboard by the clubhouse and a big tent a week ago Saturday at dawn, this year White Eagle could be tougher.

Graduated rough – a collar by the fairway, followed by 2-to-3 inch rough, followed farther from the fairway by whatever length it’s grown to since the last cut last week – might keep driver in a few players’ bags in favor of a 3-wood or hybrid on some holes. And with the sloping greens on the Ed Seay-Arnold Palmer designed course stimping to 12 to 13, proper placement of the second shot will be as important as being in the right spot on the fairway off the tree.

“With Brad’s pin placements, it’ll be a real test,” director of golf Curtis Malm said. “But in 2020, I watched Bryce play nine of the 18 holes on the final day, and he had no problem with it.”

Emory, who continues to shoot for a Korn Ferry Tour card, is in this year’s field, but defending champion Tim “Tee-K” Kelly is not, having made it to the KFT circuit in last season’s qualifying tournament. Indeed, the Illinois Open, as IPGA executive director Carrie Williams freely admits, is something of a springboard for young talent chasing their dream, with five of the last seven winners having status on some tour. In recent years, Patrick Flavin and Vince India have won the Illinois Open, while Nick Hardy took second, and all, like Kelly, have or are on the verge of having either Korn Ferry or PGA tour cards today.

That gives Emory hope it can happen to him as well. All he can do is continue to play well and hope the birdies arrive at the right time. Starting, say, on the back nine on Wednesday.

Around White Eagle

White Eagle members seem to be gung-ho for the Open, as they were in 2020. “We had so many people watching in 2020 that we couldn’t use the pictures (because of COVID restrictions on gatherings),” Williams said. “I never saw so many people at an Illinois Open.” … In a first, all three rounds of the Illinois Open will be televised live beyond the bounds of the golf course. Six hours of daily coverage on Naperville Community Television and the Illinois PGA website will be provided by Scientel Solutions, a data communications firm whose owner is a White Eagle member. Alex Campbell and Lauren Withrow will call the action, with cameras placed at several holes around the course. They’re on from 11 a.m.-2 p.m. and 4-7 p.m. Monday and Tuesday, and from noon to 6 p.m. or conclusion on Wednesday. … The purse is expected to be in the vicinity of $100,000. Last year, it was $107,612, with $25,080 going to Kelly. … White Eagle will host a first-stage Korn Ferry qualifying tournament in September, plus next year’s Women’s Western Amateur.

– Tim Cronin

The sun sets on Gleneagles

Saturday, July 30, 2022

 Gleneagles Country Club, a bastion of the game since 1926, will close today when the last paying public customer drives out the now-unlogoed gate. After Sunday’s private outing for employees, that will be it for the 36-hole complex on McCarthy Road that has hosted people, both prosperous and pauper, for nearly a century.

The reason for the closure – and the sale by the McNulty family, which has owned it since 1951 – is money. The family was offered a great, though not yet disclosed, price by a real-estate developer over the winter, and took it. Commerce wins, 9 & 8.

So ends a grand 97-year run, highlighted by two years of the Gleneagles-Chicago Open, the 1958-59 brainchild of brothers John and Ed McNulty, the Chicagoans who bought the course from the Wymer family. That brought the stars of American golf to the course, brought Ken Venturi back-to-back titles, and brought ignominy to Billy Casper in 1958, when he drove a ball into a bush, hacked at it like a weekend duffer rather than take an unplayable lie, and made a 10. Without that double-digit pockmark on his scorecard, he would have beaten Venturi comfortably.

The McNultys knew the value of publicity, though two years of red ink – they lost $100,000 the first year, much less the second – was plenty. They put up a $50,000 purse in 1958 and $57,000 in 1959, as much or more than the Masters paid, and more than most every other tournament on the circuit. That lured the stars, brought in galleries, even local TV in 1959, and placed Gleneagles in the forefront as a place to play where the tour played.

Gleneagles Country Club on Thursday, two days before the final public rounds. (Tim Cronin/Illinois Golfer)

Some people have called the place Gleneasy over the years. It was never long – the Red Course was stretched to 6,350 yards for the tournaments – but neither it nor the White was really a pushover, either.

Back in 1958, Sam Snead said going into the tournament, “Somebody’s going to do a 60 or 61 around here or there ain’t no hound dogs left in Georgia.”

Snead was doing the barking after tying for 15th and breaking 70 but once. His wayward drives of Gleneagles narrow fairways – then and now – left him scrambling for par more often than not.

Gleneagles was a place to relax playing golf. The food was superb, and the second clubhouse – the original burned down in 1955 – was a big place similar to Cog Hill’s clubhouse. Alas, Gleneagles clubhouse No. 2 burned down in 1978. The third, was functional, but less lavish. The food remained superb.

Your correspondent has fond memories of Gleneagles. It was where we first played golf, graduating from miniature golf and the like, on a warm August day in 1970.

Why Gleneagles? Because of the Chicago connections. My dad was a downtown lawyer, and my godfather Ed, my dad’s best pal, was a Chicago policeman. The McNulty’s were Chicago policemen in a former life. Inexorably, we and Ed’s son rambled out to this utopia of the game for 18 holes of real golf. A bogey was the numerical highlight of the day.

Watching my godfather Ed hammer his Titleist to a fairway or two to the left with a hook that rose over the ever-present trees, and then drill a recovery shot that invariably produced no worse than a bogey, and occasionally a par, was a marvel. What ran to a six-hour round – with a sit-down lunch in the grill room at the turn, believe it or not – was the day of days.

There was also the winter day where we set up a surprise party for my grandmother on my dad’s side. She wondered why she was being taken to dinner at a golf course on a cold Sunday until she walked in the door and had a “This is Your Life” experience. Plus, we could sneak a look at the NFL playoff game in the bar – on color TV!

For a youngster, Gleneagles was posh. Even then came the realization that the course conditions were at a country-club level. Gleneagles was not only green, but playable.

Years later, when putting together the Daily Southtown’s annual golf guide, a call was placed to Gleneagles to see what they would charge for the year. A second-generation McNulty answered and provided the details. The question was then posed why, given how the parking lot was generally full, even on weekdays, the course was advertising on local cable TV.

“Same reason Coca-Cola advertises,” he said. “You’ve got to keep your name out there.”

A trip in the late afternoon Thursday to snap a few photos of the course as it was at the end revealed a mostly full parking lot. Gleneagles was popular to the end.

Hail and farewell.

– Tim Cronin

Boonchant torches back nine en route to IWO title

Writing from Romeoville, Illinois

Tuesday, July 26, 2022

Jaravee Boonchant was a four-time All-America player at Duke, and is fighting for a LPGA Tour card this year on the Epson Tour, the stepping-stone circuit to the big tour. But she came into Mistwood Golf Club unheralded, just another player from Thailand, that Asian hotbed of female golfers.

Trumpets should have blown to herald her finish Tuesday in the 28th Phil Kosin Illinois Women’s Open. Boonchant plundered the back nine for five birdies and a 5-under 31, running away to a seven-stroke victory, matching the second-largest in IWO annals. Boonchant’s total of 7-under-par 137 was built on rounds of 70 and 67. She played her last 24 holes in 10-under, with only one bogey.

Boonchant, 23, outplayed the 17-year-old Klonowski on the last 12 holes. Klonowski, the overnight leader, dropped into a tie with a bogey on the par-3 seventh, then bogeyed the par-3 ninth to fall a stroke behind at the turn. Then Boonchant pounced, beginning with her approach shot on the 10th hole. Klonowski’s splendid wedge to about a foot was outdone by Boonchant, who caromed her 65-yard wedge off the flagstick, then off Klonowski’s ball to set up a matching tap-in birdie.

“I got momentum,” Boonchant said. “That birdie by Addison put me under pressure. I wanted to do better than the front nine too. I was more focused, tried to go at the pin.”

“That was a turning point,” Klonowski said. “She went after the pins on the next couple holes. There was nothing I could do. And she was making everything. Hats off to her.”

Boonchant drilled a wedge of similar length to within 18 inches on the 12th for a birdie, ran home a 9-footer for a birdie on the 13th, two-putted for birdie on the par-5 15th, and sank a 12-footer for a birdie on the 16th. The rest of the field was nowhere to be seen by then.

“I tried to stay in the present, focus on the hole I was playing,” Boonchant said. “I didn’t check the leader board, just tried to make as many birdies as possible. It was a good day for shot putts.”

The focus was sublime. Boonchant was the only player in the field under par on a day with only a brief spate of wind, and with lift, clean and place in effect in closely-mown areas for the second straight round. Her first win in America and first since the LPGA Thailand Masters allowed her to collect $5,000 from the $12,000 professional purse, which will help finance her LPGA card quest. She stands 29th on the Epson list with $24,344 in earnings this season.

Klonowski, whose 3-over 75 belied the way she played, finished solo second and scored low-amateur honors in a tune-up for next week’s Junior PGA at Cog Hill.

“This was an in-between tournament to prepare for the rough, because it’s different than in Florida,” Klonowski, of Naples, Fla., said. “It’s a good confidence-booster, that’s for sure.”

Elayna Bowser of Dearborn, Mich., finished third with a 73 for 1-over 145.

Mistwood teaching pro Nicole Jeray, who was 15th in the weekend’s Senior LPGA Championship, finished tied for 25th at 12-over 156.

Boonchant’s margin of victory was surpassed only by the nine-stroke rout authored by Emily Collins in 2014.

– Tim Cronin

Klonowski jumps into IWO lead

Writing from Romeoville, Illinois

Monday, July 25, 2022

Addison Klonowski of Naples, Fla., wins the prize as the contestant coming from the greatest distance to play in the 27th Phil Kosin Illinois Women’s Open at Mistwood Golf Club.

She may win the whole thing. Klonowski, a 17-year-old high school senior whose family spends their summers in the Chicago area, scored 3-under-par 69 on Monday and leads the 36-hole test by a stroke going into Tuesday’s final round.

Klonowski spread four birdies across a seven-hole span on the front nine, made three bogeys in her next seven holes, then birdied the 17th and 18th to vault into the lead.

For Klonowski, playing against adults is actually something of a breather between a pair of major junior tournaments. She played in the U.S. Girls Junior last week, missing the cut for match play by a dozen strokes, and next week will tee it up in the PGA Junior at Cog Hill.

“I started dropping putts so I gained confidence from there,” Klonowski said. “I was a little more aggressive today. I had a lot of 10-footers for birdie.

“I had a rocky start on the back but gained confidence. My game is in a good place, so I’m excited for tomorrow.”

Mini-tour pro Jaravee Boonchant of Mundelein scored 2-under 70 despite a double-bogey on the par-4 12th and is alone in second place. There’s a twosome at 1-under 71: amateurs Natasha Fear of Itasca (and originally New Zealand) and Caroline Smith of Inverness. Five more players from the 63-player field are at even par 72.

The first prize is $5,000, the total pro purse $12,000.

Mistwood teaching pro Nicole Jeray scored 5-over 77 in her fourth competitive round in as many days. Her first three were in the Senior LPGA Championship at Salina, Kan., where she tied for 15th, then flew back Sunday night.

“My legs got tired,” Jeray said of Monday’s adventure. “I never hit a ball in the water on No. 14 (a par-3 adjacent to a lake) and I hit two in.”

A triple on the 14th and a double on the par-5 15th scarred her round. Otherwise, she’s at even par entering the final round.

“That’s golf,” Jeray said.

More than a handful of players were playing hurt. Brianne Bolden of Mokena and the Minnesota golf team has a torn labrum, which makes walking a bit of a pain and swinging a club more so. Regardless, she stayed the course en route to a 9-over 81. And Lauren Beaudreau of Lemont and Notre Dame was in only her third tournament since wrist surgery in December, which caused her to miss the spring college season. You couldn’t tell it from her 1-over 73, which was not pain-free.

“It’s pretty hard,” Beaudreau said. “It was a big surgery, so I was out for a long time. The pain, you’ve just got to work through it. But it was fun today, just trying to get back into form.”

Tuesday’s tee times run from 7 to 10:30 a.m. 

– Tim Cronin

Jerravivitaporn rallies for Women’s Western title

Writing from Northfield, Illinois

Saturday, June 23, 2022

Championships are lost as much as they’re won, and Saturday’s title match for the 122nd Women’s Western Amateur crown is an excellent example.

Tagalo Jerravivitaporn of Thailand, by way of Iowa State, was 3 down after only six holes of the 18-hole championship test at Sunset Ridge Country Club. Her fate seemed as dark as the storm clouds that rolled through just after dawn.

“I was chilling,” Jerravivitaporn said, comparing her first few holes to a practice round. “I couldn’t concentrate that much. Then I realized I’m 3 down and only six holes, and I’m, ‘I have to go, chop chop!’ ”

At that point, Annabelle Pancake, of Zionsville, Ind., by way of Clemson, was cruising. She’d won the first, fifth and six holes, sandwiching a birdie 2 on the par-3 fifth after dropping her tee shot five feet from the cup around two hole wins garnered by Jerravivitaporn bogeys.

Pancake was still 3-up on the ninth tee. Then she drove into a fairway bunker, and that led to a bogey and a 2-up advantage at the turn. And Jerravivitaporn pounced.

“She missed a little bit,” Jerravivitaporn said. “She gave me a chance, and now I have to take it.”

Jerravivitaporn, who will be a fifth-year senior in the fall, did just that. She hit five of six fairways and every green on the inward nine on a breezy day. She ran down a 35-foot birdie putt to square the match on the par-4 12th – the only fairway she missed coming in. She calmly two-putted for par from 45 feet on the par-3 15th, where Pancake’s major misread, thinking a flattish putt was uphill, caused her to gun her 25-footer six feet past the hole, from which she missed. That brought Jerravivitaporn her first lead of the match.

Pancake’s early brilliance wasn’t duplicated later. Aside from nearly holing a bunked shot on the par-4 14th, knocking it to 18 inches for a halve, she was 3-over-par in her final nine holes.

“I wasn’t as confident with my wedges and didn’t make as many putts,” Pancake said of her back nine. “On the 15th, the putt had way too much pace. I kinda got lost in the moment.”

Two holes later, Jerravivitaporn closed Pancake out, sinking a 10-footer for birdie, a 2-and-1 margin, and the title – her first since high school in Thailand.

“JJ hit some really awesome shots,” Pancake said.

Jerravivitaporn was the third seed after her 71-72–143 stroke play on the par 71 layout, compared to Pancake’s 9-over 151 aggregate, which forced her into a nine-for-three playoff to make the 32-women match play field. Then Pancake, after a 2-and-1 victory over medalist Sadie Engelmann, went on a tear through match play, and didn’t have another close match until Saturday.

Jerravivitaporn had a couple of fourth-place finishes in college play the last two years, but no wins. Now, she’s won one of the most honored titles in world amateur golf, the result of a stronger mental attitude compared to a year ago, when she didn’t qualify for match play.

“Patience easily got me (before),” Jerravivitaporn said. “Now when I play golf, I don’t care about anything. If I lose, I lose. It’s fine. (I had put) a lot of pressure on myself. Now, I just have to play my game. If I miss something, it’s fine. Now I have a chance to get it back.”

Saturday, she did. Chop chop.

Around Sunset Ridge

Both players have qualified for the U.S. Women’s Amateur at Chambers Bay near Seattle. … Both were sharp despite a three-hour thunderstorm delay that dumped nearly 1.5 inches of rain on the Northfield area. Sunset Ridge drains exceptionally well, but the greens were a touch slower after the downpour. … Jerravivitaporn is the third Thai native to win the Women’s Western Am, following Ariya Jutanugarn (2012) and Chakansim Khamborn (2015). … White Eagle Golf Club in Aurora, which hosts next year’s Women’s Western Am and next month’s Illinois Open, was hit by a microburst at daybreak Saturday. Many trees were uprooted, carts tossed about like toys and the scoreboard broken in half.  No injuries were reported. … Onwentsia Club in Lake Forest hosts in 2024. … Pancake’s father Tony is the head pro at Crooked Stick Golf Club in Carmel, Ind., a many-time site of professional and amateur tournaments.

– Tim Cronin