Course mixture highlighted in Illinois Open

Writing from Chicago, Illinois

Monday, August 5, 2019

The brawny layout of The Glen Club and the tight fairways of Ridgemoor Country Club are the two puzzles a field of 264 will have to solve in the 70th Illinois Open, which opens a three-day run this morning.

Seven past champions, including four-timer winner Mike Small, are in the field. Vince India, last year’s winner at The Glen Club and Rolling Green, is absent due to commitments on the Korn Ferry Tour, but those on hand will have their hands full with the treacherous greens of Ridgemoor, which is rarely in the spotlight, and The Glen Club, where the state championship has been anchored in recent years.

The spotlight was brightest on Ridgemoor in 1942, when the U.S. Open was canceled because of World War II and the Chicago Open, a tour stop, was morphed into the Hale America National Open with the cooperation of the USGA and PGA of America. Ben Hogan, the Chicago Open’s defending champion, won the title and fired a 62 in the process, a score matched since only by Bob Zender. Given the heavy USGA influence – the group ran the tournament inside the ropes, and Hogan was awarded the medal that would have gone to the U.S. Open champion – Hogan considered it his fifth U.S. Open, winning the other four subsequently. The USGA did not.

Head pro Nick Pease notes the most challenging part of the course are the fifth through ninth holes, as well as the three par-3s of the four that feature water fronting the greens, but Pease must be an arrow-straight hitter. An excursion last week discovered several holes with single-file fairways, and one, the par-4 12th, a severe dogleg right, that brought to mind the long-gone 18th hole on Medinah’s No. 3 course. It’s tree-lined with almost no way to cut the corner.

The field will play one of their first two rounds on each course, with the survivors meeting at The Glen Club on Wednesday to settle the issue. At that point, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see the leaders include 2017 champion Patrick Flavin, 2016 winner Carlos Sainz Jr., and 2015 winner David Cooke, the three past winners on hand since the two-course was instituted in 2015.

Flavin, Nick Hardy and Tim “Tee-K” Kelly are among the younger set who are on or chasing tour berths, but have this week open and thus can give the Illinois Open a whirl.

Since 1999, the winner has always been either an aspiring tour pro, an amateur, or Small, the longtime head coach of Illinois’ men’s team. The last pure club professional to win was Todd Tremaglio, a Chicago Golf Club assistant who beat then-amateur D.A. Points in a playoff in 1999.

The total purse should be in the vicinity of $90,000 to $100,000, based on the last few years. India received $19,004 for his triumph last year.

– Tim Cronin

Mid-amateur Rank, an NHL referee, captures Western Amateur

Writing from Millburg, Michigan

Saturday, August 3, 2019

Some stories are just too good. This is one of them.

Garrett Rank was the only player in the 117th Western Amateur’s Sweet Sixteen who didn’t use a caddie. As a 31-year-old with, as he calls it, “the best job in the world,” that of National Hockey League referee, he could afford a looper. But his father, his biggest fan, died five years ago.

“I saw a lot of mums and dads caddying for their sons out here this week,” Rank said. “Ultimately, secretly, I pushed my bag around in my dad’s honor, and felt like he was out there with me every step of the way.”

His age indicates he’s a mid-amateur. The Western Amateur was once speckled with mid-ams in the field and advancing to match play, but Rank was the first player 25-plus to crash the Sweet Sixteen since Nathan Smith, then 30, in 2009. He lost in the second round.

Rank’s employment hints at Canadian roots, and sure enough, he’s from Elmira, Ontario. Canadians in the championship match are almost as rare as snow in August.

On top of all that, Rank is a cancer survivor. Diagnosed with testicular cancer during his sophomore year at the University of Waterloo, he had to drop the hockey half of his hockey-and-golf scholarship.

Once cleared of cancer and graduated, he enrolled in referee camp and quickly worked his way up to the NHL. And summer since 2012, when he lost to the aforementioned Smith in the final of the U.S. Mid-Amateur at Conway Farms Golf Club, and thus missed a trip to the Masters, has meant serious golf, almost always played against players younger than him.

“That’s what’s driven me in golf for the last seven years,” Rank said. “And this is pretty much the Masters of amateur golf. I’ve been playing in this high-level stuff for seven or eight years and it’s gotten me into some cool situations.”

You know where this is leading, of course. Rank not only made the Western Amateur’s vaunted Sweet Sixteen, he won the championship, scoring a 3 and 2 victory over recent Ohio State graduate Daniel Wetterich at Point O’Woods Golf and Country Club.

Within days, Rank's name will be engraved on the George Thorne Trophy, the same one featuring Chick Evans, Jack Nicklaus, Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods, to fill out just one notable foursome. Oh, and Danny Green, the last mid-amateur to win. He was 40 when he won in 1997.

It’s too good, but it’s true. Rank trailed in all four of his matches, but rallied each time. He rolled in long birdie and par putts to win holes, birdie putts to halve holes, and generally out-gritted his opponents every step of the way. Not the longest hitter, he was more accurate than them, and at the Point, where quick greens put a premium on well-struck approaches, the fairway is the place to be.

In the final, Rank hit seven of 13 fairways across 16 holes. Wetterich hit four fairways. Rank only hit 11 greens to Wetterich’s nine, but even some of his misses were calculated. For instance, going long with his scrambling third shot on the par-4 14th, where the cup was placed in a precarious spot on the back left of the massive false-fronted green. After a stylish chip, he missed a four-footer for par, but was able to match Wetterich for bogey after his miss for par. That kept Rank 1-up.

Wetterich won the fourth and fifth holes with birdies after a sloppy start and was 1 up, but lost the next two holes to a par and a birdie, then saw Rank drop an 8-foot birdie putt on top of his 16-foot deuce on the par-3 eighth.

That was big for Rank, and his tee shot to six feet from an impossible pin position on the par-3 ninth was bigger.

“I hit one of the best shots of the week to that back left flag,” Rank said with a grin. “That was a pretty stout shot.”

Wetterich conceded him the birdie putt and a 2 up lead at the turn after three-putting from 40 feet above on the ridge to the right, missing his second putt from eight feet.

Wetterich sank an 18-foot birdie putt on the 10th green to pull within a hole, but his putter cooled and the duo halved the next three holes, which went in Rank’s favor. When Rank dropped a 10-footer on the 14th for his fifth birdie of the match to return to 2 up, Wetterich was up against it playing this hockey player-turned-referee.

“The secret to this week was coming from a very ultra-competitive family,” Rank said. “I imagined I was playing my brother every match out there. He thinks he’s better at golf than I am, so I was just trying to kick everybody’s face in, because that’s what I’d want to do to him if we were playing.”

Thus, his door-sealing approach to five feet on the par-4 15th for his sixth birdie of the match – he was the equivalent of 4-under over 16 holes, including the usual concessions – that moved him to dormie 3. Wetterich needed to win every hole the rest of the way, and when he could only match Rank’s par on the par-4 16th, it was time for golf’s version of hockey’s handshake line.

Rank advanced to the title match by beating hot-tempered David Laskin of Elk Grove, Calif., 2 and 1 in the semifinal. Wetterich knocked off Ricky Castillo of Yorba Linda, Calif., 3 and 2, in part by scoring an eagle out of a greenside bunker on the par-5 13th hole.

While Rank, now the leading mid-amateur in North America, insists he’ll keep his day job while remaining an amateur, Wetterich will play in the U.S. Amateur, then go to PGA Tour qualifying and likely turn pro immediately after. It’s a matter of when, not if.

“I know I have little more work to dial some things in and be more consistent, but I don’t think I’m really far off,” Wetterich said. “I feel I can do some really special stuff."

Rank will keep trying to beat up on the kids coming up.

“I find a lot of motivation with the success we (mid-amateurs) have in the different events,” Rank said. “We truly, honestly get a kick of rolling up to the first tee and the young kids going, ‘Who’s this old guy we’re going to spank today?’ Then we usually do a pretty good job of shocking them.”

Saturday was the payoff.

“I know how cool this is in amateur golf,” Rank said. “It hasn’t sunk in. I’m sure I’ll be even more proud than I am right now. But I’m so honored, so thrilled to win this tournament. I’ve had a lot of close calls in big events. To finally break through is huge.”

Around the Point

Rank is the second Canadian to win the Western Amateur, following Jim Nelford in 1977. He was ready for the grind, having played three straight 36-hole days a fortnight ago between a tournament and U.S. Amateur qualifying. … Rank is waiting on a possible exemption into the U.S. Amateur, which could be his last tournament before NHL officials training camp opens on Sept. 9.  He also has the Canadian Mid-Amateur on his card. … Both players will receive exemptions into next year’s Evans Scholars Invitational at The Glen Club. That will give Wetterich a chance to make a check, but Rank may be busy that weekend, as it comes in the middle of the Stanley Cup playoffs. … A gallery of about 300 attended the title match, and while that wasn’t close to the thousands that roamed the Point in the 1970s and early 1990s, it was a knowledgable crowd that got a kick out of someone closer to their age than that of their children winning the venerable title. … The vibe from the membership favors a return visit, the friendship with the WGA rekindled after 11 years away. … Rank’s acceptance speech was an eloquent as they come, a departure from the short “thank you” speeches that younger players begin and end with. … Next year’s Western Am is at Crooked Stick Golf Club in Carmel, Ind., where Rory McIlroy and Dustin Johnson won the WGA’s BMW Championship in 2012 and 2016, respectively. It returns to the immediate Chicago area in 2021, the Glen View Club hosting. 

– Tim Cronin

Hammer thrown for loss in Western Am

Writing from Millburg, Michigan

Wednesday, July 31, 2019

It was easy to tell how much missing the 36-hole cut in the Western Amateur meant to Cole Hammer.

The defending champion sank, his knees almost touching the tender turf of Point O’Woods Golf and Country Club’s ninth green, when his downhill-sidehill sliding 35-foot putt came within an inch of tumbling into the cup late on a perfect Wednesday afternoon.

He needed that deuce on the formidable 192-yard hole to advance to Thursday’s 36-hole dash for the Sweet Sixteen. Instead, his par 3 for 1-under-par 69 settled him at 1-over 141 for the first two qualifying rounds, one more than the maximum needed.

Last year, at 18 and about to enter Texas, he was the co-medalist, then went to the 18th hole or beyond en route to capturing this most testing championship format in golf, professional or amateur.

This year, at 19, it was hats off and handshakes with playing partners Chan An Yu and Isaiah Salinda, a signed scorecard, a longing look across the green at the scoreboard to see how close he’d come while his dutiful caddie mom packed up his Texas-logoed bag and carried it to the parking lot.

But he already knew. He had fought his way back from an opening 72 – par for this classic Robert Trent Jones design normally but 2-over in championship configuration – to get back to even for the first 31 holes thanks to birdies on the Point’s third and fourth holes, his 12th and 13th of the day.

After a par on No. 5 came a wild swing on the sixth tee, an off-line shot that landed well in the rough and led to a bogey on what is now the Point’s No. 1 handicap hole. The killer bogey, as it turned out.

That dropped him back to 1-over, and with the cut line holding steady, a birdie was needed down the stretch. Last year at Sunset Ridge, a good but short member-friendly course in Chicago’s north suburbs, birdies were plentiful. You could pick up a bushel on any given nine.

Not at the Point, where length doesn’t mean anything. Western Golf Association officials didn’t want extra-long rough, and decided the greens shouldn’t be faster than 12.5 on the Stimpmeter – slower than they were the last time the Western Am visited in 2008. But the course has stood the test after 36 holes, with 64 the low single-round score and the 6-under 134 totals of Daniel Wetterich and David Laskin the best aggregate numbers.

Hammer could vouch for the difficulty. He parred the seventh and eighth, and was a half-club long at the ninth, his shot sailing right over the flagstick. Two putts later, it was back on Interstate 94 for the next stop on the amateur circuit.

The Point was long when it opened in 1958 but, at 7,071 yards, is nearly a pitch and putt course today. Take, for instance, the 14th hole, a narrow ribbon of a par-4. It was once a driver-wedge into the prevailing southwest wind and thus at least a bit of a challenge at 360 yards. Today, the kids bash their drives over the tree overhanging the fairway and are within 30 yards of the green. Smack it in the middle of the fairway, and you can putt from there.

So why aren’t the scores silly low, given the quality of the field and the worthiness of the prize at stake? It is likely the greens, which undulate like an angry ocean and are a challenge whether fast or slow. The ninth, which Hammer nearly birdied, is an excellent example. It features a slope from right to left that begins gradually, then tilts more severely, then almost flattens out – but not quite. Throw in late-afternoon shadows and the presence of a chasm in front of the green from which there is no escape, and nobody has an easy putt. His line was almost along the edge where the slope lessens, which made the assignment easier, but not easy.

Chick Evans, the legendary amateur who won this title eight times and is the friend of caddie-scholars everywhere, called the course “the peerless Point” shortly after it opened. It hosted the Western Amateur 40 times, including every year from 1971 to 2008, before declining revenue – the place was packed when everyone from Tom Weiskopf to Ben Crenshaw to Curtis Strange to Phil Mickelson to Tiger Woods was lifting the George Thorne Trophy – caused club brass and the WGA to call a halt to the annual visit.

A new clubhouse and new blood within the club, plus the realization that the publicity could attract more members, has brought the parties back together. The Western Amateur at the Point is championship golf in a comfortable setting, a mix that is not often seen in this day of corporate crush. Next year, when Cole Hammer is 20, the Western Am will be played at Crooked Stick Golf Club in Carmel, Ind., twice the site of the BMW Championship (nee Western Open), as well as a PGA Championship and a U.S. Women’s Open. It’ll surely come back to the Point again in a few years – many members volunteered as spotters and scorers – but Cole Hammer will be a professional by then, playing for millions along with glory and able to buy anything. Anything except the putt he really needed through the light and shadows of a perfect Wednesday afternoon to join the 53 others who will play on Friday.

Around the Point

Nobody from the Illinois contingent made the cup. Varun Chopra scored 142 and missed by two, Tommy Kuhl of Morton was at 143, Jeff Doty of Carmel was at 144, Wisconsin standout Jordan Hahn of Spring Grove scored 145, and Andrew Price of Lake Bluff and Trent Wallace of Joliet totaled 146. Brendan O’Reilly of Hinsdale was high man among Illinoisans at 148. … Match play on Friday features the Sweet Sixteen in the morning and the quarterfinals in the afternoon, with the semifinals and championship match on Saturday. … There’s no online telecast of match play this year, as there was at Sunset Ridge, but WSJM-AM (1400) in nearby St. Joseph plans to revive the radio broadcast of the Western Amateur. It’s also available as wsjmsports.com.

– Tim Cronin

Shipley ship-shape in Women's Western Final

Writing from Long Grove, Illinois

Saturday, July 20, 2019

A big-time championship isn’t usually decided on the eighth hole of the final match, but it felt that way Saturday afternoon when Sarah Shipley rolled in a 21-foot uphill birdie putt for a 3-up lead on Antonio Matte at Royal Melbourne Country Club with the Women’s Western Amateur title on the line.

Shipley, the fifth seed, hammered the putt home after third-seeded Matte had missed from about 35 feet on the par-3.

She increased the margin to 4-up by winning the ninth hole with a par, and kept the pressure on by halving the 12th and 13th with par-saving putts of 12 and 15 feet.

“There were a couple breaks I got,” said Shipley, who thought the putts were closer to 30 feet. Pressure creates odd visions at times, but she saw the center of the cup clearly all the way.

“Those were a little stressful, but I got the job done,” Shipley said. “I was feeling really confident, just trying to get out ahead early.”

The 119th championship match ended on the green of the par-5 15th hole. Shipley hit her third shot to four feet below the hole, and after Matte missed her birdie opportunity from about 12 feet, conceded the birdie to Shipley and shook her hand, setting the margin at 5 and 3.

Shipley adds her name to a glittering century-plus list of champions, including Ariya Jutanugarn, Stacy Lewis and Nancy Lopez. After the award ceremony, Shipley studied the trophy and the names on it carefully.

“It means a lot,” Shipley said. “It was a really tough competition. It was never easy at all. I had to grind the whole time. It tested my mental and physical game with all the heat.

“It makes me feel good about my game but also shows I can improve it more.”

Shipley hit most of the fairways and greens she looked at in the final two matches and made the requisite par-saving putts, along with the birdies. If there’s room for improvement, only a perfectionist could find it.

Entering her senior year at Kentucky, 21-year-old Shipley didn’t give Matte, a 16-year-old from Santiago, Chile, a chance, winning the first two holes with birdies to take command. From then on, the heat was on Matte even more than the heat index of 108 beating down on the players and the gallery.

“She played very well this afternoon with me,” Matte said. “She’s a nice champion.”

Shipley advanced via a 2 and 1 semifinal victory over Maria Bohorquez of Colombia, going 2-up on the 13th hole with a par and halving the next four holes, while Matte beat Brooke Tyree of Sulphur, La., 4 and 3 in the other semifinal.

“I made a few important putts in the morning,” Matte said. “This afternoon, I missed a few birdies.”

Next year’s Women’s Western Am is slated for Prestwick Country Club on the south edge of south suburban Frankfort.

– Tim Cronin

Tyree comes through with heat on in Women’s Western Am

Writing from Long Grove, Illinois

Friday, July 19, 2019

When the temperature of 94 and the heat index is 105, even a breeze doesn’t help unless it’s to imitate standing in front of a blast furnace.

Even the players in the Women’s Western Amateur who hail from warmer climates than Chicago were feeling it on Friday.

“I don’t think I’ve sweated that much in how long,” Brooke Tyree of Sulphur, La., said after her 1-up victory over Tristyn Nowlin, last year's runner-up, at Royal Melbourne Country Club.

Tyree knows heat and humidity, so going to Texas A&M – College Station, Tex., is not known for cold fronts – was a natural for her. But Friday was something else.

“It was hotter here than Louisiana,” Tyree said.

Tyree was feeling it down the stretch. She built a 3-up lead on Nowlin through 13 holes, but lost the par-3 14th, and the two par-5s on the back nine, the 15th and 17th, with 6s to Nowlin’s 5s.

“I hit a bad chip on 14 and three-putted 17,” Tyree recalled.

Both players were reeling, but Tyree came up big at the last, with a 143-yard knockdown 8-iron that stopped eight feet from the cup, the shot that secured an eventual par and a 1-up victory.

Tyree plays Antonia Matte of Chile at 7:08 a.m. Saturday. Matte beat Daphne Chao of New York 5 and 3 to advance.

The other semifinal, a 7 a.m. start, pits Maria Bohorquez of Bogota, Colombia, against Sarah Shipley of Hastings, Mich., whose hot-weather experience comes from playing for Kentucky. Still, playing two matches on Friday – Shipley beat Catherine Caudill, 3 and 2, in the Round of 16 before dispatching Julie Houston of Allen, Tex., 2 up in the quarterfinal cauldron – took a toll.

“In school, we play a lot of 36-hole matches, but not in 100-degree heat,” Shipley said. “The mindset is after 18, you don’t even think about it. You think you’re making the turn.”

Shipley never trailed Houston, but needed a birdie at the last to finish her off because she missed an uphill 5-foot putt to win the match on the 17th green.

Bohorquez, a 17-year-old entering her junior year of high school, has yet to convince her mother that attending an American college will be more worthwhile than turning pro immediately. Her play this week, which included a 5 and 4 quarterfinal victory over Caroline Wrigley of Wexford, Pa., might help swing the tide in her favor. She too has survived the heat.

“In Colombia, it’s not that humid,” Bohorquez said.

She was convinced to play in the Women’s Western by caddie Andres Echavarria, who played in the Western Junior and Western Amateur before turning pro. He has two wins on the PGA Tour Latinoamerica to his credit, including one this year, and is working as Bohorquez’ caddie while that tour is on hiatus during the South American winter.

Around Royal Melbourne

Medalist Ela Belen Anacona of Buenos Aires was hit with a one-hole penalty in her quarterfinal match against Wrigley after discovering a 15th club in her bag – and not one of hers – on the second tee. Nobody knows how it got there. Anacona squared the match at the ninth hole, but Wrigley won the 12th, 13th and 15th holes en route to a 3 and 2 victory. ... Houston beat Penelope Tir of Winnetka, 4 and 2, in her Round of 16 match. ... Lemont’s Lauren Beaudreau, the other local hopeful, fell 5 and 4 to Chao in the Round of 16. ... Nowlin beat Tess Hackworthy of Madison, Wis., in the Round of 16, while Tyree dismissed Ana Laura Collado Diaz of Xalapa, Mexico, 4 and 2. ... Saturday’s final is expected to start at noon.

– Tim Cronin