Ambitious Stonebridge hosts Illinois Open

Writing from Aurora, Illinois

Sunday, August 1, 2021

It’s been a curious couple of years for Bryce Emory, and by extension, many of his peers among professionals who seek the fortune, if not fame, of a place on the PGA Tour.

Emory won the Illinois Open last year at White Eagle Golf Club. Normally, a young pro will apportion some of his winnings – which totaled $19,928 in Emory’s case – to the hefty entry fee charged by the PGA Tour for its qualifying tournament, where the successful get membership on the Korn Ferry Tour.

Last year, thanks to COVID-19, there was no qualifying tournament. There barely was the usual collection of unaffiliated pro tournaments financed by small sponsors and large entry fees. Outlets including the Dakota Tour and the Waterloo Open, those fly-under-the-radar tournaments that offer purses allowing the most successful of semi-starving pros to move up from ramen noodles to beef stew.

Emory, an Aurora native, played in what he could, but without a chance at the KFT circuit, he was grounded like a teen with mad parents.

“Last year was very tough,” Emory said. “I didn’t leave the state to play until November, when I went to the Nevada Open. This year’s been a little better, and I hope it continues that way.”

Emory starts his Illinois Open title defense Monday, when the 72nd Illinois Open gets underway at Stonebridge Country Club. It’s a few miles from White Eagle, so Emory has something of a home game again, and will tee it up on a course recently lengthened by several hundred yards, the pride of a club getting back into the tournament scene.

In the early 1990s, Stonebridge, then new and with more fledgling trees than homes on the campus, hosted the Ameritech Senior Open for four years, the highlight of which was a pro-am round featuring Arnold Palmer and Michael Jordan playing before countless thousands of admirers. A decade later, the LPGA played through for three years with the Kellogg-Keebler Classic. Annika Sorenstam, whose victory in today’s U.S. Senior Women’s One proved she still has game, won two of the three and co-set the course record – for men or women – when she carded a 62, as did Rosie Jones.

The Illinois Open will be the biggest test at the club since then. Key members hope it’s the start of a return to the spotlight.

“We’re super happy to have this tournament at the club,” head pro Andrew Godfrey said. “We like the course firm and fast and I expect it to play that way.”

Among the holes that have been extended is the 18th, which now, thanks to a postage-stamp-sized tee, can play just over 600 yards. That tee isn’t even on the scorecard, but it’ll be in use this week.

“It should be a pure test,” Godfrey said.

Tom Fazio was the original designer, and gave his assent to bringing in Mike Benkusky, a Lake In The Hills-based architect, to add the length. The green complexes, however, are the originals, and will, if the speeds are accelerated, give the players fits.

Most of the usual Illinois notables are in the field, but it might be worth keeping an eye on 2008 Illinois Open winner Joe Emerich. He won as an amateur, played briefly as a pro, regained his amateur status, and today both runs his own business and is a Stonebridge member who happens to chair the greens committee. In a practice round last week, he birdied his first three holes and one-putted green after green.

– Tim Cronin

Thorbjornsen runs the Western Am table

Writing from Golf, Illinois

Saturday, July 31, 2021

Michael Thorbjornsen ran the table at the Glen View Club this week, doing everything but crashing the Saturday night wedding reception.

The 19-year-old will have to settle for setting the course record – 62 – winning the stroke-play medal and capturing the 119th Western Amateur through four difficult matches, the last a 4 and 3 victory over Gordon Sargent.

And what does a champion teen golfer do to celebrate? He and his caddie will trek downtown on Sunday to take in Lollapalooza.

The 27th medalist to win the title and first since co-medalist Cole Hammer in 2018, Thorbjornsen, from Wellesley, Mass., closed out Sargent with a 35-foot two-putt on the 15th green, but he really won the title by winning the 11th, 12th and 13th holes with birdies to forge a 4-up lead. He was 4-under across 15 holes, including the usual concessions.

“I was 3-up through eight; it’s always nice to have that cushion,” Thorbjornsen said. “Then he won nine and 10 and you can kind of feel the momentum switch. He’s starting to build some confidence, but I’ve got to remember I’m still leading.”

He ran down a 12-foot downhill putt for birdie on the par-3 11th to take the momentum back, then dropped his approach on the par-4 12th to two feet for another birdie, then sank a 8-footer for a birdie 4 on the 550-yard 13th. With that, the Stanford sophomore all but sealed the fate of Sargent, a two-time Alabama Amateur champ from Birmingham who enters Vanderbilt this fall.

“Gordon got a little unlucky with his tee shot (on No. 12),” Thorbjornsen said.

“I never had too much momentum,” Sargent said. “I kinda gave him some holes. He made a great birdie on 11 and I gave him 12; I tried to lay up and I hit a 5-iron 240. From there, I really struggled. And he played really well, so, not much I can do.”

Thorbjornsen came from 1 down with four holes to play to beat Austin Greaser 2 up in the morning semifinal, which was not only dramatic, but gave him momentum after lunch.

“Those last three holes against Austin were pretty heated,” Thorbjornsen said. “I guess that flowed over. I was pretty zoned in, focused, and tried to keep that same mentality in the afternoon.

“I hit some good drives when I needed to, good irons, good chips, and had some good lag putting.”

Sargent knocked off defending champion and world No. 2 Pierceson Coody 1 up in his morning semifinal. That and his appearance in the championship match might persuade the USGA to award Sargent one of the five remaining places in the U.S. Amateur, slated for a fortnight from now. He went into the Western Am 64th in the world amateur rankings. Thorbjornsen came in 71st.

“These’s nothing negative you’re going to take away from this week,” Sargent said. “There are only positives I can take. This is probably the best amateur field, and I still beat a lot of good players.”

Thorbjornsen collected a miniature of the George Thorne Trophy, the traditional gold medal, the medalist’s plate, and one more thing he might be too busy for. The Western Am winner also gets an exemption into the Evans Scholars Invitational on the Korn Ferry Tour. That’s usually on Memorial Day weekend, but Vanderbilt might be involved in NCAA Tournament play that week.

– Tim Cronin

Defender Coody, medalist Thorbjornsen into Western Amateur semis

Writing from Golf, Illinois

Friday, July 30, 2021

Champions don’t surrender easily. Pierceson Coody didn’t surrender at all on Friday.

Down two holes with six holes remaining in his Western Amateur quarterfinal match at the Glen View Club with Luke Potter, Coody, the defending champion, had to make something happen.

He did. Coody birdied the next two holes while Potter did not, briefly squaring the match, and while Potter took the lead with a par on the par-4 16th, Coody had made the point. He wasn’t going away.

Coody, the pride of Plano, Tex., and a Longhorn junior in the fall, would knock off Potter, an Arizona State freshman in the fall, in 20 holes to advance to the semifinals and an 8:12 a.m. match with Gordon Sargent of Birmingham, Ala.

The birdies on the 13th and 14th were important. The birdie on the 17th, a 24-foot downhill putt with what he estimated as eight feet of break, fell into the cup to keep him alive, as Potter subsequently matched with a 14-footer.

“That was a must-make,” Coody said on the driving range, to which he repaired after his match to straight out what he considered a flaw in his swing. “It was almost a 90-degree putt. It took the fall line and went right in the center with good pace.”

That forced the match to the last with Potter still 1-up, but he pulled his drive into the hazard to the left and couldn’t recover for better than a double-bogey, while Coody hit the fairway and green on the 450-yard par-4 in regulation. It was back to the first tee for sudden death, and after Coody and Potter halved the first hole, Coody hit the green on the par-3 second while Potter missed the putting surface. Potter couldn’t get up-and-down and Coody was through to the semis.

Coody won last year at Crooked Stick, and never went past the 18th hole, but was challenged in each match. He drew on that experience Friday.

“This was everything that I experienced last year,” Coody said. “That clutch factor, and a little bit of focus to close out these matches, is everything I drew in today.”

Coody would be the first defending champion to repeat since fellow Texas Longhorn Justin Leonard in 1992-93.

“That’s obviously the goal when you start the week, but it’s such a long, demanding week, you’re just trying to go one step at a time. As I said last week during the Sweet 16 dinner, every match and every day, things move so fast. Tomorrow’s going to go fast, but hopefully it’s because things are going my way.

“Stay in the moment and get to the back nine and see how it goes.”

Sargent beat David Ford of Peachtree Corners, Ga., 4 and 2 in that quarterfinal.

The other semifinal matches medalist Michael Thorbjornsen of Wellesley, Mass., against Austin Greaser of Vandalia, Ohio, at 8 a.m.

Thorbjornsen beat Maxwell Moldovan 2 and 1 in his morning Sweet 16 match, then took on Ricky Castillo, who had advanced to match play in the previous two Western Amateurs, and scored a 2 up victory against the plucky Californian.

Thorbjornsen, who won the Massachusetts Amateur 10 days ago, two-putted from 20 feet above the hole on the 18th green to clinch the win over Castillo, but the putt had to travel some 45 feet, curling to the right all the way, to end up near the cup.

“I’ve had two of those putts in the past three holes,” Thorbjornsen said. “It’s just picking out a spot and hitting it there.”

Castillo had a similar but longer putt, but sent it skittering by, which made Thorbjornsen’s putt that much easier to judge.

Greaser knocked off Brian Stark of Kingsburg, Calif., 2 and 1, to advance to the semis.

– Tim Cronin

Hardy grabs last Phoenix Open spot

Writing from Chicago

Tuesday, February 2, 2021

Nick Hardy has this Monday qualifying thing down cold – even when it finishes on a Tuesday.

Hardy, the 25-year-old Northbrook standout, ran down an eight-foot birdie putt on the second playoff hole Tuesday morning at McCormick Ranch Golf Club’s Pine Course in Scottsdale, Ariz., to grab the final qualifying spot for this week’s Waste Management Phoenix Open. It wasn’t until Anirban Lahiri missed his five-footer to force a third playoff hole that he could celebrate.

“I’m pretty lucky to beat him,” Hardy said.

Hardy, a regular on the Korn Ferry Tour, Monday qualified for the Sony Open in Hawaii a few weeks ago and went on to finish tied for 14th, earning $113,850. But money doesn’t equal PGA Tour status until you make a lot more of it, so it was back to the Monday qualifying roulette wheel again this week. There were 155 players, including a slew of Tour regulars, chasing those three spots. When the horn blew as dusk Monday, Hardy was on the outside looking in, two strokes out of the last qualifying spot while standing in the fairway of his 16th hole.

“It was honestly not the smartest play for me to finish (Monday night),” Hardy said. “I wasn’t sure if I wanted to finish. I wanted to hit my approach because I thought the ball would be going the furthest. I hit a hard cut 3-wood just short of the green. I had the option to get the up-and-down in the morning or do it there. I finished and luckily I made birdie there.

“This morning I knew I had to get two birdies just to have a chance at a playoff, and I came out like, ‘I’m going to make two birdies, no matter what it took.’ ”

Tuesday’s resumption was even more dramatic. At 5-under with two holes remaining, he was a stroke from joining a gaggle sitting at 6-under and a likely playoff. But Vince Whaley joined Mark Anguiano at 8-under 64 before Hardy was finished, and all the 6-unders dropped to third.

Then Hardy chipped in from 20 feet on the par-3 eighth hole, his first of the morning, to join the 6-under crowd.

“In a tournament, I probably would have putted it,” Hardy said. “In a normal situation, I’d have putted and got my three, but I knew I had to chip for the best shot at making it. Right when it landed, I felt it was going in.”

That was good, but sinking a 10-footer for birdie after a 5-iron approach on the par-4 ninth was better.

Hardy fist pumped with his right arm, then fist pumped again, then double-pumped like he’d sacked Tom Brady to win the Super Bowl, then fist pumped again.

You could say he was pumped.

“I’d been struggling with my driver and didn’t have a lot of good looks because of that, but I hit a good drive on No. 9,” Hardy said. “I finished on the (harder) side to make birdies.”

With Hardy at 7-under 65, all the 6-unders went to their cars. But Lahiri, who has earned $305,575 on the Tour this season, including a sixth-place finish at Puntacana, birdied four of his last six holes, including his last, to match Hardy at 65. It was back to the par-5 18th tee for them, only one to advance. Both were in the fairway off the tee, on the green with their second, and two-putted. Back to the 18th tee again.

This time, both pushed their drives to the right. Lahiri missed the green left, Hardy right, where he was nearly blocked from the hole by a tree. Lahiri chipped to about five feet, Hardy to about eight feet after a big first bounce.

Hardy would putt first, and walked home his birdie putt. No fist pumps this time, not with Lahiri so close. And not after the 33-year-old native of Pune, India missed. Just a handshake, a hug of his girlfriend, and relief.

“I’m pretty proud of myself,” Hardy said. “No matter what happened in the playoff, there were things to be proud of, just the way I handled myself. I took that approach, that attitude, and it worked.”

It’s golf’s little secret that Monday qualifiers, featuring players on the way up, on the way down, and on the way to nowhere, are the fiercest competitions in golf. It’s usually over 100 players for four spots. No trophy, no money, just a chance to make some on the weekend.

Phoenix is even crazier, with only three spots available and eight pre-qualifying tournaments to fill the qualifying tournament field. Over 550 players were in those pre-qualifiers, and Anguaino proved the quest was worth it with his Monday 64 to advance to the big show.

Hardy, as a Korn Ferry member, went straight into the Monday scrap, and came out of it with a ticket to Thursday’s first round at TPC Scottsdale, joining Anguaino and Whaley. He knows the course, because he winters in Scottsdale and plays and practices there.

“I know the golf course well, that’s not a problem,” Hardy said. “I’ve just got to see how it’s playing, firm or soft.”

Two years ago, Hardy lost in a playoff, and had that in his head at times Tuesday morning.

“I was 1-over through six, finished 7-under and lost in a four-for-three playoff,” Hardy recalled. “That moment was crushing to my soul. I think about that all the time. I had six other moments like that where I miss the cut by one or come close right when I turned pro.

“Honestly, I’ve just improved the way I’ve handled myself for those moments.”

Such introspection paid off on Tuesday morning.

– Tim Cronin

Thanks to Bill Ibrahim of the Southwest PGA, which runs the Phoenix Open qualifying tournament, for information, plus photos which should run in the next digital edition of Illinois Golfer.

Back to (new) normal for Illinois PGA

Group's schedule looks forward, not back

Writing from Chicago

Monday, February 1, 2021

A glance at the 2021 Illinois PGA schedule shows the usual highlights are there: the Illinois Open, the Illinois PGA Championship, the Radix Cup Match, and the other traditional battles players anticipate.

Dig a little deeper, and it becomes evident that the COVID-19 pandemic has had lingering effects.

The Illinois Open, returned to a one-course operation in 2020 after five years with two courses hosting the first two rounds, will stay planted at one facility at a time for the next few years. Some one-day stroke-play tournaments for Illinois PGA members – the pros at your course and hundreds of others throughout roughly the northern two-thirds of the state – don’t yet have courses to play on.

Those few holes will be filled in between now and late March, when their season begins with a fundraising pro-am in Las Vegas, Nev. Getting even to this point after last year, when the precisely-set slate of competition was overturned like dinner settings with the tablecloth pulled from the table, has been an adventure. For instance, increased play – a great thing for courses both public and private – means tee times are at a premium. According to Golf Datatech, play in Illinois was up 15.4 percent in 2020, including the six weeks when nobody could play.

“The spike in play has added a new wrinkle,” said Carrie Williams, the Illinois PGA’s executive director. “It’s a challenge that Brad and the tournament committee have accepted.”

Brad is Brad Slocum, the IPGA’s tournament director, the guy who was pulling his hair out last year. He’s largely responsible for the schedule, then runs tournaments through the season.

“We’re comfortable that we’ll be able to do things relatively normally,” Slocum said.

That includes everything from playing the course to player dining, especially at multi-day tournaments. Fortunately, pros at several elite clubs have stepped up and convinced their boards to host tournaments, most of which are played on Mondays, when the clubs are otherwise closed. Along with longstanding hosts Onwentsia (Senior Masters), Shoreacres (Senior Match Play) and Merit Club (Ryne Sandberg IPGA Foundation Pro-Am), the doors have opened at Ivanhoe (Illinois PGA Championship), Knollwood (Players Championship), Bull Valley (Match Play), and Beverly (Senior Players).

Bull Valley’s reappearance on the schedule is especially interesting, as the Woodstock club is hosting the match-play CDGA Championship in June. Differences in how the two groups set up and play the testing layout will be fun to see.

There’s also something new: The Illinois PGA is getting into the junior golf tournament sphere, not to compete with the Illinois Junior Golf Association but complement it.

“We’re impressed with the volume of junior golf the IJGA can provide, and felt we could supplement it with a small, compact schedule with access to elite facilities,” Williams said.

Williams knows the junior scene. She ran the IJGA before returning to the IPGA, and Slocum was the IJGA’s tournament director.

The Illinois PGA Junior Tour schedule includes courses that anyone would be eager to play: Ruth Lake, Merit Club, Westmoreland, Briarwood, and Flossmoor, with the championship at Onwentsia, with one more layout yet to be selected.

“For years, we’ve hosted the Senior Masters at Onwentsia,” said Illinois PGA president Nick Papadakes, the head pro at Onwentsia. “So we thought, why not the Junior Masters in the morning and the Senior Masters in the afternoon? It will be cool to have the junior players and the seniors together in one room for lunch, and maybe explain the history of the game and where we’ve come from.”

IJGA executive director Matt Wennmaker was apprised of the IPGA’s move months ago, but doesn’t see much impact on fields in most of the 120 tournaments his group will run this summer.

“It’ll draw some players, but I would consider it a different niche,” Wennmaker said. “We go to country clubs several times a year, but in our multi-day events, kids can earn points for AJGA events, and that’s what college-bound players look for. In the IPGA series, they won’t get that.”

The Illinois PGA also oversees area Drive, Chip and Putt competitions for children, with the winners advancing to the national competition at Augusta National the Sunday before the Masters. The 2019 winners will be at Augusta this spring, even if they’re older, following the cancellation of last year’s showcase. Even DCP scheduling has been affected by the rise in play.

“Even taking a portion of the range to conduct the long-drive competition can be difficult,” Williams said.

All of the above is subject to the continuing improvement in conditions regarding COVID-19. Last year at this time, such a statement wasn’t necessary. Then the virus hit hard, and every level of society was impacted. Golf was not immune.

“Last year we were faced with unforeseen challenge on top of unforeseen challenge,” Williams said. “Through great collaboration by the staff, our board, host sites and our tournament committee, we were able to provide our members a fantastic tournament schedule, and we’re looking forward to providing them an even better one in 2021, as we return to what is going to look a lot like normal.”

Even while everything is anything but normal. Staffers are still working from home often, and improvisation is the order of the day compared to old routines.

“We’re cyclical,” Slocum said. “In the fall and winter, we put together a tournament schedule. In spring and summer, we run it. Before last year, I could never think of a scenario where we would have to do it (build a schedule) again.”

Golf in Illinois was stopped completely in mid-March – die-hards rushed to play in Wisconsin and Indiana, which largely stayed open – and didn’t resume here until May 1.

“We’re a fraternal organization, and it really brought the section closer together,” Papadakes said. “We’ve kind of flipped our direction towards really interacting with the membership and finding out what they want done. How can we get our members more involved? How do they want 2021 to look?

“We’re acting like a business, asking our customers what they want.”

The resumption of play was the result of negotiations between the governor’s office and the state health department, and the leading state golf associations, including the Illinois PGA and the CDGA.

“The hard part for us was trying to understand how you can get things done within the scope of the intentions of the governor’s office really are,” said Papadakes. “The shutdown made sense, because we really didn’t know what was going on.

“We were trying to understand their language and coach them about what we do and how we can do it safely. It was a matter of education and listening and trying not to be too pushy.

“As we slowly reopened (May 1), the first restrictions were pretty strict. As we understood the intent of each of the restrictions, it gave us a little bit more flexibility to operate. But we had to be careful in how. The toughest part for us was teachers and coaches. They were really hit hard early on. Like we turned driving range(s) into a par-3 course or a pitch-and-putt. You had to run it the same way as you ran the golf course.

“It was very difficult for our four indoor domes in Chicago. Those were the hardest hit. But the silver lining was, by mid-July, there weren’t enough hours in the day for them to work. The surge was so strong coming out of this I don’t think any one of us could keep up.”

Williams, Slocum and the rest of the staff worked the phones rigorously to make a new 2020 schedule happen.

“We still needed to offer services to our PGA members,” Slocum said. “We surveyed our members, and learned the desire and demand to play is really important to them.”

“We began the schedule on July 6, built around the Illinois Open and our section championship, and then the rest of the majors.”

The result was better than might have been expected. The Illinois Open, held at White Eagle Golf Club in Naperville, was a big success even before Bryce Emory lifted the old trophy.

“The Illinois Open might have been the highlight of the season,” Williams said. “Putting on an elite championship was a feather in the cap of our staff and board.”

Originally, Stonebridge Country Club in Aurora was to be the second course. Instead, the contraction back to 156 players meant it was at White Eagle only. Stonebridge was offered and eagerly accepted this year’s Illinois Open instead. Players will be greeted to a recently-renovated course some 400 yards longer than it was when the Ameritech Senior Open played through 20 years ago.

“We were reintroduced to the power of the one-site format,” Williams said. “There’s a greater concentration of strength of field, members of the host club can watch, and sponsors are able to engage with the full field. It took living through it to remember it.”

Having the entire staff and all volunteers at one place with strict limitations on movement also guarded against a COVID outbreak. All went well, even with plenty of members mingling with each other. It went so well, the Illinois Open will remain a one-site championship through at least 2023.

The Illinois Section will also conduct the two-site Monday qualifying tournament for the Evans Scholars Invitational, a Korn Ferry Tour dance on Memorial Weekend. Additionally, it’s an induction year for the Illinois Golf Hall of Fame, with the two-stage selection meetings expected to run in April and May as usual, with the induction celebration in September or October.

In all, it adds up to a busy year. And, as close as possible, a normal one.

– Tim Cronin

2021 Illinois PGA Schedule Highlights

May 10-13 Illinois PGA Match Play Championship (Bull Valley GC, Woodstock)

May 24 Evans Scholars Invitational Qualifying (Stonewall Orchard, Grayslake; White Deer Run, Vernon Hills)

June 3 31st Thompson Cup (Ridge CC, Chicago)

June 17 59th Radix Cup (Oak Park CC, River Grove)

June 28-29 Illinois Senior Open (Royal Fox CC, St. Charles)

July 26 Senior Masters (Onwentsia C, Lake Forest)

Aug. 2-4 72nd Illinois Open (Stonebridge CC, Aurora)

Aug. 23-25 Illinois PGA Championship (Ivanhoe C, Ivanhoe)

Sept. 27-28 Players Championship (Knollwood C, Lake Forest)

Oct. 4-6 Senior Match Play (Shoreacres, Lake Bluff)

Oct. 11-12 Senior Players Championship (Beverly CC, Chicago)

The full schedule is at the Illinois PGA’s website: www.ipga.com