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

Farnam stuns Perkins to take Illinois Amateur

Writing from Wheaton, Illinois

Thursday, July 18, 2019

Ethan Farnam wasn’t out of it starting the final round of the 89th Illinois Amateur, but he wasn’t in it either.

He was four strokes behind 36-hole leader David Perkins of East Peoria, the Illinois State standout who had won the CDGA Amateur last year and was runner-up in that this year. 

Engrave the Louis Emmerson trophy?

Not quite.

Farnam, like everyone else, failed to pressure Perkins, going around Cantigny Golf’s windblown Woodside nine in even-par 36. Perkins, after a birdie on No. 2 expanded the margin to five strokes, was 10-under. Then Farnam bogeyed No. 3 and trailed by six.

Hand out the trophy?

Not yet.

Then golf happened. Farnam, a 20-year-old Crystal Lake resident whose 63 a fortnight ago set the course record for the revamped Crystal Lake Country Club, nibbled at Perkins’ heels. A deuce at the par-3 eighth, where Perkins bogeyed for the second time in three holes. A four at the 600-yard par-5 11th.

Still, Perkins led by two with six holes to play. What could possibly go wrong?

Everything. And on the fourth hole of the Lakeside nine, the par-3 13th for the tournament, no less, where a bunkered tee shot led to a thinned sand wedge that sailed over the green, and was followed by a bad chip.

“I was lucky to make a four-footer for double,” Perkins said.

And Farnam was more than lucky. Amidst Perkins’ chaos, Farnam rolled in an improbable 70-footer for birdie.

The three-stroke swing put Farnam in the lead by one. After a 6-foot birdie at the par-4 14th, he led by two, and kept that margin the rest of the way, scoring 3-under 69, the day’s best round, for 8-under 208 to capture his first Illinois Amateur. Perkins, who closed with a 75, shared second with Jordan Less of Elmhurst, who birdied four of the last five holes en route to a 70.

“I came back without him losing a ball, and I thought that was the only way I had a chance,” Farnam said. “But I started lighting it up with my irons. Hit a bunch close.”

Plus made the cross-country birdie on the 13th, one of five birdies in his last 11 holes.

“That big swing on 13, that’s just momentum,” Farnam said. “David just happened to catch the bunker shot a little thin. A crazy swing, but I felt I took it in stride well.”

For Perkins, whose bogey-free first 36 holes included seven birdies and an eagle, the double-bogey was an unrecoverable body blow.

“I wouldn’t say I lost my cool, but I definitely let that hole get to me a little bit,” Perkins said. “I hit it in the upslope of the bunker, didn’t hit a good shot, flubbed my next one. With him making the 60-footer, it’s just demoralizing.

“I missed a lot of putts and had a couple bad swings.”

At least three times, including on the par-3 17th, Perkins left a potential birdie putt a couple of feet short. Those were killers as much as the fateful double on the 13th.

Farnam won the Illinois Junior at Makray Memorial four years ago and beat many of the same players he knocked off Thursday, including Perkins and Less, in that affair. He spent one year at Northwestern without a scholarship, then transferred to St. Mary's (Calif.).

“It’s definitely a step up from the state junior, but as a progression from college, it almost feels like the same level,” Farnam said. “It’s really good to feel that growth. It feels nice to be atop the leaderboard, that’s for sure.”

The plan was to play 36 holes, as is traditional, on Thursday, but Wednesday night the extreme heat advisory prompted CDGA officials to drop the fourth round. As it turned out, the thunderstorms that rolled through at daybreak and persisted delayed the third round until 1:30 p.m., so it would have been 54 holes, hot or cold.

In the end, the heat was bearable. And Farnam was hottest of all.

– Tim Cronin

Porvasnik captures Illinois Women's Open

Writing from Romeoville, Illinois

Wednesday, July 17, 2019

Jessica Porvasnik knew where she stood. She wasn’t quite sure if she could believe the leaderboard she saw at the 16th tee of Mistwood Golf Club. That meant one thing: go for broke.

“If I could get one or two more to fall on the way in,” Porvasnik said. “You’ve just got to stick to your own game and try to make as many birdies as you can.”

At 4-under and among the leaders at that stage, she came close at the par-3 17th, narrowly missing a birdie putt, and came through at the last, sinking a 15-footer for birdie on the par-5 closing hole for 2-under-par 70 and a total of 5-under 211 for a one-stroke victory in the 25th Phil Kosin Illinois Women’s Open over Mistwood teaching pro Nicole Jeray (closing 71), Kasey Miller (73) and amateur Monica Kaho Matsubara (73), the recent Northwestern graduate.

“That was special,” said Porvasnik, who graduated from Ohio State in 2017.

Porvasnik had won a mini-tour tournament in Toronto last year, and has had some high finishes in 2019, including a top 10 in the Colorado Women’s Open, but had yet to grab a trophy this season until this steamy Wednesday. Making the cut in the LPGA tournament in Toledo last week, making $4,085, and winning at Mistwood – with the $5,000 first prize – has made this her favorite, and most lucrative, fortnight of the year.

“Last week, playing with some of the best players in the world, that was cool,” Porvasnik said. “It’s cool to know you’re not far off.”

Jeray had fallen four strokes behind leader Kasey Miller after a bogey on the par-4 11th, but began a three-hole birdie binge with a 4-hybrid to 18 inches on the par-3 14th, the beginning of Kelpie’s Corner. Sinking consecutive 10-footers for birdie on the next two holes brought her to 4-under, matching Porvasnik and a stroke behind Miller.

“I was charging, then I woke up,” Jeray said.

A good par save at 17 was followed by a poor approach at the last that left her at the edge of the green. She two-putted for par from there.

“She stuck a couple in there,” Porvasnik said. “She birdied the three in a row, so to put it on the last green and sink the putt was really cool.”

Jeray at least rallied to get a share of second. Her fellow 4-under finishers did not.

Miller, a stroke ahead at the turn, bogeyed the par-5 15th and par-3 17th to drop to 4-under, and will be kicking herself on the way home to Ohio. Matsubara can also play the “what if” game. She would have tied Porvasnik and forced a playoff but for her bogey at the last after driving out-of-bounds. She had birdied the 17th.

Anna Alpert Lund tied for fifth with amateur Sarah Busey at 1-under 215, and had the shot of the day, an ace on the 158-yard par-3 ninth hole. Samantha Postillion’s 3-under 69 was the day’s best round.

– Tim Cronin