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

Colorado's Mason rallies to win Women's Western Junior in sudden-death

Writing from Frankfort, Illinois

Friday, June 24, 2022

Jessica Mason didn’t think she made the putt. The putt that won the title in the 95th Women’s Western Junior in 19 holes and thus the right to hold the L.B. Icely Trophy, emblematic of victory in the world’s oldest women’s junior championship.

Small wonder the Coloradan’s knees buckled briefly. Her 25-footer on the first green at Prestwick Country Club was a swinging right to left excursion. Lisa Copeland of Naperville had already rolled her 33-footer close enough for a conceded par.

This one, with about five feet of borrow, had to be close as well to force a second extra hole.

How about in? How about over?

The gallery of about two dozen members cheered it even before Mason could begin walking to the cup. In it was, her third birdie of the championship match capturing for her a crown that counts Nancy Lopez – three times, including at Prestwick 50 years ago – Grace Park and Christie Kerr among the owners.

“My caddie Michael (from Prestwick) told me there was a little spot on the green that was a little darker, and I should hit it there,” Mason said. “I did and it broke right in. As it was heading there I was like, ‘Oh my god, this has a chance.’ If I hit it hard enough, it’s in.

“This is insane. I really didn’t think I was going to make that putt.”

Speaking of insane, her longest made putt of the week was the one that won the championship on a steamy, windless afternoon. And Michael, now the toast of the caddie barn, was only her caddie because her older brother Jacob begged off on making the trip to Chicago. Big brother may be fired by now.

“I did not know I was going to get this far,” Mason said, calling herself speechless. “Last summer was the last time I won something big, the Colorado Junior PGA.”

Copeland, who was in this spring’s Drive, Chip and Putt championship at Augusta National and was low amateur in the U.S. Women’s Open qualifier at Stonebridge Country Club, still managed to smile after the match.

“I never really expected to make it to the final,” said Copeland, who starts high school in the fall but already dreams of Stanford. “I wanted to give myself a chance to win, but I wasn’t too worried about the result. My lag putting wasn’t going so well, but I kept focusing on the next shot."

Mason, an 18-year-old from Westminster, Colo., headed for Pomona College in California in the fall, will be majoring in molecular biology. Based on how well that last putt and others tracked, she could minor in topography as well. A bigger hitter than Copeland, who turned 14 earlier in the month, she took advantage of more lofted irons in to have shorter putts most of the round.

That, though, only gave her a slight edge on Copeland, whose determination and accuracy off the tee – she hit all 15 fairways across 19 holes compared to Mason’s nine – allowed her to keep the ball in play. Copeland was 1-up through seven holes, but Mason won three of the next four holes to go 2-up through 11. When Mason strung together four straight 5s, Copeland made four straight pars, including a two-putt par from 35 feet on the par-4 16th, and was again 1 up.

They traded pars on the 154-yard par-3 17th, Copeland just missing a putt to win the title, and it was off to the 18th tee. Copeland hit the left side of the fairway but was blocked by trees on the 58-year-old Larry Packard design, while Mason was in the middle of the fairway on the 398-yard uphill hole.

“Eighteen’s a long hole for me anyway,” Copeland said. “I can’t really reach it in two unless I hit two good shots, so I wasn’t too worried with the drive. I just had to punch out and get an up-and-down.”

Copeland laid up, then wedged to 14 feet. Mason bounced her approach into the light rough behind the green, chipping to a foot to make par. Copeland had a 14-footer for a par save to win but again just missed, and it was off to the first tee and unscheduled golf.

“I won three matches (on the 18th),” Mason said. “I knew this could be my hole. Obviously it was.”

Then came the best of the birdies, and it was over with a fist pump from Mason and a consolation hug for Copeland. 

In the morning semifinals, Mason beat medalist Addison Klonowski of Naples, Fla., 1 up, while Copeland knocked off Audrey Rischer of Columbia., Mo., 2 and 1. Mason also won her Sweet Sixteen match on the 18th green.

She is a worthy winner in a list that goes back over a century, a list where the kid from Roswell, N.M., with the hitch in her swing who triumphed at Prestwick stands out.

“I knew who Nancy Lopez was, obviously a great player on the tour and stuff,” Mason said. “It’s kind of cool that I can share this with her, have my name on the same trophy with her.”

Western Junior: Thursday’s double-round finale in the 104th Western Junior at Naperville Country Club wasn’t enough for Eduardo Derbez Torres and Camden Smith. They went to sudden-death after tying at 8-under 280, and Smith, who waited some 90 minutes for Torres to finish, fell to the the 16-year-old from Monterrey, Mexico.

Smith was four behind Derbez Torres at one point, but Derbez Torres squandered shots down the stretch and had to make an 8-foot par putt to force sudden death. He did, then made birdie from the front green side bunker on the first extra hole, the par-4 18th, to capture the title.

“I just tried to breathe two or three times and tried to relax,” Derbez Torres said of his ordeal on the final few holes. “Really nervous.”

Derbez Torres, 16, opened with a course-record-tying 6-under-par 66 in Tuesday’s first round and finished with a 74, while Smith, from Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla. and headed for Mississippi State, closed with a 66 of his own, then hung around to see with Derbez Torres would do.

He did just enough to get into the playoff, and more than enough to win.

– Tim Cronin

The Grill Room: LIV and let live?

Writing from Chicago

Thursday, June 9, 2022

This morning at 8:15 Central time, the bell rings on a new concept in world professional golf: Competition for the players who compete.

It has never been the case before. The American PGA Tour and the European circuit, these days called the DP World Tour after a sponsor, has always cooperated in allowing their charges to play on the opposite side of the pond. Releases were granted after a player made a certain number of starts on his home tour.

At 2:15 p.m. London time, all that changes. Dustin Johnson, Scott Vincent and Phil Mickelson, a pair of most familiar names sandwiching a 30-year-old from the co-sponsoring Asian Tour, will go off the first tee in the LIV Tour Invitational London tournament, the first in the long-held dream of Greg Norman to create a world tour.

Three decades ago, he came up with the idea, got fellow Australian native Rupert Murdoch to back him with Fox television money, but never saw his ship leave port. It was scuttled by the threats of then-PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem of lifetime bans for those who dared essay a shot in the new venture.

Nobody left the Tour island.

This time, threatened with lifetime bans by current commissioner Jay Monahan, but lured by guaranteed millions from the Saudi Arabian exchequer, Johnson, Mickelson, Sergio Garcia, Kevin Na and a host of European Tour regulars, including Lee Westwood and Ian Poulter, have made the move. Of the American tourists, all but Mickelson have resigned their PGA Tour membership, itself a move with more legal than symbolic meaning.

They’ll be allowed to play in the upcoming U.S. Open if already eligible, but what if the LIV Tour doesn’t get accepted into the cozy family of tours awarded world ranking points? A family controlled by the tours players are leaving, by the way. It would be interesting to see Johnson or Mickelson trying to qualify.

For the moment, more players are to come. Monday, Bryson DeChambeau and Patrick Reed, a pair who have become known as much as malcontents as major championship winners, declared they’ll be in Portland, Ore., in a few weeks rather than at the John Deere Classic in sylvan Silvis. DeChambeau, it may be recalled, won the Deere in 2018, and previously had been the beneficiary of a sponsor’s exemption, and Reed had a good showing there before he was discovered to be a mope.

Even more name players may follow. The Rickie Fowler rumor has not been refuted by the fan favorite and former Players winner. After that, who knows?

Once upon a time, the Chicago-born lawyer-agent Mark McCormack dreamed of accomplishing what Norman and his oil-rich backers are pulling off. On Labor Day weekend of 1963, he found a company willing to put up a $50,000 purse, a course willing to open its doors – Glen Flora Country Club in Waukegan – and so assembled Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer and Gary Player on the first tee for a 36-hole Holiday Classic. This, against the regular Tour’s Denver Open.

It may have been a holiday, but it wasn’t a classic. From 4,000 to 6,000 fans turned out across the two days. Player scored 4-under 136, Nicklaus 138 and Palmer 141. No records were broken, and while Player collected the $20,000 first prize – compared to $5,300 for first-time winner Chi Chi Rodriguez in Denver – the idea didn’t set the world on fire. The Holiday Classic turned out to be the first and only that McCormack would stage. (Longer-lasting was the World Series of Golf, which began in 1962 and was eventually subsumed by the Tour.)

McCormack had visions of his trio teeing it up here, there and everywhere, watched by adoring multitudes. Maybe it was the $7 ticket – pricey in 1963 – that turned out the crowds. Maybe it was everything else on a holiday weekend, but the idea of a challenger to the circuit died at the Glen Flora box office.

Reports from London are similar, that discounts for tickets abound, that Westwood and Poulter couldn’t give them away from websites, that the Centurion Club might not need crowd control because there will be no crowd. We’ll see, though we’ll have to watch via the LIV website, Facebook or YouTube. (As of now, only one television station in North America, CHCH-TV in Hamilton, Ont., is picking up the coverage, and only Saturday’s final round, at that. Canadians can watch on cable, as CHCH is a superstation as WGN used to be in the U.S.)

While only Norman has been speaking, the Saudis, through their Public Investment Fund, seem to be in it for the long haul. McCormack had a sporting goods operation backing him. Norman has oil – and for all the understandable hand-wringing about the sordid Saudi resume, it’s worth noting that FedEx, sponsor of the PGA Tour’s annual pot of gold, last year announced a 10-year $400 million commitment to build out delivery operations in Saudi Arabia. Money makes the world go around, no matter who one must deal with.

The players who have made the move – accounting for 14 major championship titles in the London field, incidentally – had better hope this lasts. If the venture falters, the establish tours would undoubtedly welcome the refugees back or risk a legal tangle, but the locker room might be a bit chilly.

Speaking of legal tangles, the big surprise so far is that so far, the lawyers have been kept on the sidelines. That may not be the case by this afternoon.

If players continue to jump, Monahan’s hand will be forced. Sponsors will howl that their stars are disappearing, so why should they write the big check that helps fund the purse? CBS and NBC/Golf Channel, in the first year of new contracts, will be lighting up his phone. Nobody in charge will be happy.

In 1960, when the American Football League first took the field, some NFL owners laughed, though the old league tried to sabotage the new circuit by luring Max Winter over for a franchise in Minnesota and other tactics. The AFL countered by signing seniors literally under the goal posts at bowl games as they finished their college careers. In 1966, the NFL sued for peace, so to speak, and Pete Rozelle and Lamar Hunt figured out how to merge the leagues to first save money via a common draft and then mint it via the Super Bowl and ever-expanding television deals.

We can see a similar scenario in golf if the exodus of notables continues. The question is, when will Monahan decide it’s 1966? We know this: He cannot unring the bell.

– Tim Cronin

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