Thornberry leads loaded Western Amateur field

Writing from Chicago

Monday, July 30, 2018

Golf’s version of a time machine will be in action Tuesday through Saturday at Sunset Ridge Country Club in Northfield.

It’s the 116th edition of the Western Amateur, the annual scrap for golf glory and honor that opens with a PGA Tour-length stroke play tournament over three days, and then gets serious, with four rounds of match play to determine a champion.

All that takes place in a span of five days. It’s the most demanding format in the game, eight rounds climaxing with three straight days of 36 holes, more or less, for the champion and the runner-up. The struggle means the champion will be fit both mentally and physically. Those who wear out walking the course morning and afternoon will fade between the ears as well.

The list of winners since the Western Amateur went to this format in 1961 is an all-star lineup, starting with Jack Nicklaus, who ran through the field at New Orleans Country Club to capture the George Thorne Trophy and tune up for that year’s Masters at the same time.

These days, many consider the Western Am as a glorified tune-up for the U.S. Amateur, a fortnight hence, but it’s a title of considerable merit – the third-oldest amateur championship behind only the British and the U.S. – and an indicator of who’ll show well in pro golf.

Thus, the time machine analogy. This is the PGA Tour five or six – or fewer – years from now. The lineup this year includes four of the top nine players in the World Amateur Golf Ranking, and 15 of the top 35. That includes world No. 1 Braden Thornberry of Olive Branch, Miss., whose NCAA individual title in 2017 is impressive, and whose fourth-place finish in the PGA Tour’s FedEx Classic in Memphis is even more impressive, No. 3 Collin Morikawa of La Canada Flintridge, Calif. (a Walker Cup member last year), and No. 6 Chandler Phillips of Huntsville, Tex., an all-SEC selection last spring for his play at Texas A&M.

These are not household names now, but neither were Tom Weiskopf, Lanny Wadkins, Ben Crenshaw, Curtis Strange, Andy North, Hal Sutton or Justin Leonard when they won the Western Amateur – Sutton and Leonard scoring back-to-back victories. They all went on to stellar pro careers and annexed major championships.

So did, for that matter, Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods, who like Nicklaus were well-known amateurs at the time they scored their Western Am titles.

Last year’s champion, Norman Xiong, and runner-up, Doc Redman, have both turned pro, but four of last year’s quarterfinalists at Skokie Country Club, including ninth-ranked Min Woo Lee of Australia, are back for more. Also in the field are Andy Zhang of China, who won the 2018 SEC title playing for Florida, No. 27 Brad Dalke of Oklahoma, and Isaiah Salinda of South San Francisco, Calif., a Stanford standout who lives around the corner from the Olympic Club, where he won last week’s Pacific Coast Amateur on the Lake Course and rattled the foundation of that grand old club with a course-record 62 along the way.

Local flavor is provided by the presence of Patrick Flavin of Highwood, last year’s Illinois Open and Illinois Amateur winner, who has held off turning pro for a shot at the Western,  Jordan Hahn, the 6-foot-8 standout from Spring Grove who won the Illinois Amateur at Bloomington Country Club two weeks ago, and Charlie Nikitas, the left-hander from Glenview who is always a threat to go low.

Said Flavin, “I played in two Western Juniors and this is going to be my fourth Western Am. I've been around here quite a bit. But yeah, hopefully give myself a chance to make the Sweet Sixteen and get one of those wins. That would be awesome.”

The Sweet Sixteen is the match play field. Just to do that from the 156-player field is an achievement, and a harbinger of things to come. Since the Sweet Sixteen format began, 34 players getting to that stage have gone on to win 82 major championships, the most recent being Masters winner Patrick Reed, who advanced to match play in 2009.

Some Sweet Sixteen fields were incredibly loaded. Say, 1980, when Mark O’Meara, Fred Couples, Corey Pavin, Bob Tway and Sutton all made it and won in the first round, with Sutton knocking off Pavin to get to the semifinals. Or 1974, when Strange had Jerry Pate, Craig Stadler and Jay Haas in the field as well, and needed 20 holes to beat Haas, his Wake Forest teammate, in the title match.

That’s what we’ll see at Sunset Ridge this week. Admission is free, and this year, those who can’t make it in person can see the match-play rounds on streaming TV produced by Thaler Media for the Western Golf Association. Not since 1961, when some of Nicklaus’ exploits were televised locally in New Orleans, has the Western Amateur had live coverage. Click on www.westernamateur.com, www.golfchannel.com, or the Golf Channel mobile app for the live action on Friday (10 a.m.-1 p.m. CT and 3-6 p.m. CT), and Saturday (10 a.m.-12:30 p.m. CT, and beginning 1 p.m. CT for the title match).

“This is a significant step forward for us in showcasing our amateur championship and the world’s top amateurs who annually compete for the coveted title,” said John Kaczkowski, WGA president and CEO. “We’ve watched Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Jordan Spieth, Dustin Johnson and many more compete in the Western Amateur. Now, golf fans everywhere will be able to watch golf’s future stars face off against one another in golf’s most rigorous test.”

Show up at Sunset Ridge or tune in, and you’ll get an eyeful.

– Tim Cronin

Kim romps to Illinois Women's Open victory

Writing from Romeoville, Illinois

Wednesday, July 18, 2018

Here’s how Hannah Kim goes about her business: Head down. Ignorant of scoreboards. Talking about everything but golf with her caddie.

Oh, and making a crazy amount of birdies when her game is on, as it was this week at Mistwood Golf Club.

Kim’s 5-under-par 67 in the final round, following rounds of 68 and 65, brought her a six-stroke victory and a scoring record in the 24th Phil Kosin Illinois Women’s Open. The Santa Ana, Calif., total of 16-under-par 200 obliterated the previous record by seven strokes and allowed her to coast to a six-stroke victory over amateur Tristyn Nowlin – who actually surpassed the old mark, held jointly by Annika Welander and Stephanie Miller, about 30 seconds before Kim sank her winning putt.

For Kim, the outcome was not too shabby for someone in her third start as a professional, following the Ohio Open and California Open. Not that Kim had any idea records were falling like autumn leaves, either.

“I was really trying not to look (at the scoreboards),” Kim said. “I was glad my friend Kylie was along. We talked about random stuff, like what’s my favorite food.”

Over the ball, Kim was all business. She plundered Mistwood for 17 birdies in 54 holes, had only one bogey – on the seventh hole in the first round, making her last 47 holes bogey-free – and nearly aced the par-3 17th in the final round, dropping a 7-iron two feet behind the cup from 133 yards. That set up birdie No. 17.

Kim tied for third two years ago and was second last year. Now she’s won, and collected $5,000 from the $25,000 purse for doing so. She’s 26-under-par in nine rounds on a golf course that isn’t easy, unless you play like she did.

Nowlin’s aggregate of 206 would have won every other Illinois Women’s Open, but the Richmond, Ky., resident – entering her senior year on Illinois’ golf team – could only match Kim’s 67 in the final round and thus settled for low amateur honors. She needed a 60 thanks to Kim, who never wandered into Mistwood’s ever-present fescue. Considering everything, Nowlin was cool with her second runner-up playing of the summer at Mistwood. She was also second in the Women’s Western Amateur.

“This was my last tournament of the summer, so it feels good to end it like this,” Nowlin said. “We were just out there having fun. If somebody’s making putts, I’m not going to affect them or left them affect me.”

Sarah Burnham of Maple Grove, Minn., took third, with a 4-under 68 for 6-under 210. Like Kim, Burnham recently turned pro after earning Big Ten player of the year honors at Michigan State.

LPGA veteran Nicole Jeray of Berwyn was fourth following a 1-under 71 for 4-under 212. She made two early birdies, bogeyed the par-3 seventh, and parred in.

Defending champion Alexandra Farnsworth of Nashville, and Vanderbilt University, tied for sixth, scoring 3-over 75 for 1-under 215 despite tendinitis in her right wrist.

Around Mistwood

Bobbi Stricker was a surprise late withdrawal in the morning. That dropped the final field to 29 players. Had she withdrawn on Tuesday, before the final pairings were made, the four players who tied at 8-over 152 would have been tied for 30th, rather then 31st, and made the final round. Instead, pros Allison Finney and Stacey Miller and amateurs Nikki Marquardt and Reena Sulkar were on the outside looking in. ... The final round scoring average was 74.966.

– Tim Cronin

Kim leads by 6 in Illinois Women's Open

Writing from Romeoville, Illinois

Tuesday, July 17, 2018

Hannah Kim tied for third in the Illinois Women’s Open two years ago.

She was solo second last year.

She leads by six strokes at Mistwood Golf Club going into the final round of the 24th edition.

Detect a trend?

Kim, recently graduated from Northwestern and newly professional, matched the tournament and women’s course record with a bogey-free 7-under-par 65 on Tuesday. That earned her a 36-hole record total of 11-under 133, three strokes better than the old mark established by Sara Brown and Jenna Pearson in 2006.

“It’s the same as yesterday, just hitting one shot at a time,” Kim said. “I wasn’t paying attention to how many birdies I was getting. I just wanted to finish.

“I keep it simple. I sing a song. If I hit a good shot, I hit a good shot. If I hit a bad one, I’ll just walk up to it and hit another good one. There’s really not much to it.”

Kim’s musical tastes run to Christian music, so she had Tauren Wells in her ears while warming up Tuesday. That inspired her to birdie the first two holes by rolling in 30-foot-plus putts from the fringe.

“Unexpected,” Kim said of those. “I was really surprised with that. It was a weird start.”

Kim has birdied 11 of her last 27 holes, including a converting a 7-iron to five feet on the par-3 17th, and had only one bogey in 36.

That’s brought her a commanding lead entering the final round. Chasing is amateur Tristyn Nowlin of Richmond, Ky., the runner-up in the recent Women’s Western Amateur at Mistwood. She added a 4-under 68 to her opening 71 and is solo second at 5-under 139.

“I hit a lot of greens and hit a few putts,” Nowlin said. “Minimized mistakes, mainly. The main thing for me is to stay relaxed.”

Lexi Harkins of Crystal Lake and Samantha Postillion of Burr Ridge share third place at 4-under 140, with two-time winner Nicole Jeray fifth at 3-under 141 after a second-round 73.

“I couldn’t have shot 65 today,” Jeray said, glancing at the scoreboard. “I could have shot 69.”

A pair of three-putts, a missed up-and-down and a return of a swing that occasionally fires balls to the left for no apparent reason accounted for the 73, she explained.

“I’m playing way better than I have been, so I’m happy about that,” Jeray said. “But when I stuck it close, I didn’t make the birdies.”

Around Mistwood

Kim and the other pros are bidding to become the first professional to win since Emily Collins in 2014. ... Bobbi Stricker scored 3-over 75 with a birdie at the last to play the first 36 holes in 7-over 151 to make the cut on the number. Daddy caddie Steve Stricker gave her a solid read on the 8-footer she sank on the 18th. “I’m doing all right,” Steve said of his push-the-cart caddie duties. He may play in the Canadian Open next week, and plans to concentrate on the PGA Tour in an effort to make the playoffs rather than cavort on the Champions Tour. ... Defending champion Alexandra Farnsworth added a 71 to her opening 72 and is tied for seventh at 1-under 143. ... Mokena’s Brianne Bolden is the low high-school player after a 71 for even-par 144. ... Allison Finney of Winnetka was in line to make the cut until a bogey at the par-3 17th. She finished at 8-over 152, a stroke above the trim to the low 30 and ties.

– Tim Cronin

Four-way tie in Illinois Women's Open

IG 2018/ 7/16 Illinois Women’s Open R1 Gamer

Writing from Romeoville, Illinois

Monday, July 16, 2018

There’s not much elbow room at the top in the Illinois Women’s Open. Not with a four-way tie for the lead at 4-under-par 68, with three newly-minted pros and a veteran campaigner the protagonists.

Meet the leaders after one round of the 24th edition at Mistwood Golf Club:

• Lexi Harkins of Crystal Lake, just graduated from Wisconsin after spending three years at North Carolina, and the winner of the 2014 Illinois Amateur;

• Hannah Kim, just graduated from Northwestern after four distinguished years with the Wildcats;

• Sarah Burnham, just graduated from Michigan State, where she was the Big Ten player of the year;

• and Nicole Jeray, a two-time IWO winner who is doing more teaching than playing these days, but put together a bogey-free round and held the lead along until Burnham, Kim and Harkins joined her at the top.

They have a three-stroke advantage of a trio at 1-under 71: Grace Kil, Jenna Peters and amateur Tristyn Nowlin, the runner-up in the recent Women’s Western Amateur at Mistwood. Five players, including defending champion Alexandra Farnsworth of Nashville and Vanderbilt University, are at even-par 72. The others are amateurs Angela Aung, Roshannah Gaur, Jessica Reinecke and pro Samantha Postillion.

“I’m comfortable out here,” Jeray said. “When you’re comfortable you’re more confident, and that’s very helpful. And I putted better.”

Long practice sessions with the short stick paid off in a four-birdie outburst, including a 30-footer from the collar on the par-5 18th that tumbled into the cup on the last turn. Jeray considered her birdie on the par-4 13th, a 35-footer set up by a 6-iron punch shot under the wind, as the key to the round.

“It’s fun to finally play good golf,” Jeray said. “I haven’t been playing much. So it’s been very hard to compete.”

Burnham would have been the sole leader but for a double-bogey 7 at the last. She opened with a birdie, ran three birdies together to start the back nine and tapped-in for birdie on the par-5 15th. That and more made her 6-under through 17 holes and aiming for the tournament record of 7-under 65, set by Aimee Neff in 2008. A tee shot into the trees nixed that idea.

“I hit it well today and made a couple putts,” Burnham said of her initial excursion – she played nary a practice round – around Mistwood. “I had a lot of wedges today. You have play smart and play aggressive when you can. Say, when the pins are in the middle of the greens.”

Kim said patience, along with birdies on Nos. 14, 15 and 16, all from within 20 feet, were the keys to her 68.

“The course got windier towards the end, so it was one shot at a time,” Kim said.

Harkins called her round “stress-free,” which is unusual at Mistwood, where fescue and water lurk at every corner, making five birdies, including the par-3s on the back, offset by one bogey.

“I like it a lot,” Harkins said of Mistwood, where she has a pair of top-10 finishes. “I was aggressive when I was within 100 yards. Same strategy tomorrow.”

Around Mistwood

Amateur Brianne Bolden of Mokena opened with a 1-over 73 which included a 9 on the par-5 15th thanks to a pair of tee balls in the water. ... Bobbi Stricker, daughter of Steve Stricker, scored 4-over 76 with dad on her bag. ... There were three withdrawals from the field of 74. ... It's the first four-way tie in the IWO through one round.

– Tim Cronin

Kim dominates record-setting Deere

Writing from Silvis, Illinois

Sunday, July 15, 2018

The numbers are staggering. Four trips around TPC Deere Run in 257 strokes. Thirty birdies. Over 400 feet of putts holed. A finish at 27-under-par. An eight-stroke victory.

Consider each a record for the 48 playings of the John Deere Classic, and consider this: Michael Kim, author of all of the above, is only now finding his game after five years as a professional.

No wonder he couldn’t get back to sleep after waking up at 4:30 a.m. Sunday, finding it difficult to sleep on a five-stroke lead.

“I went on the Internet to see how to slow my heartbeat down, and everything said, ‘Take deep breaths,’ and I’m like, ‘I’ve been taking deep breaths for 30 minutes!’ ” Kim said.

That didn’t work, and watching the Wimbledon men’s final and part of the World Cup final proved only minor distractions. Instead, Kim’s mind worked overtime.

“I probably went through a million different scenarios,” Kim said. “Making birdies out of the gate, losing the lead after a few holes. It wasn’t all confidence with the season I’ve had. It would have been weird if I was 100 percent confident.”

Kim, who turned 25 on Saturday, had made the cut in only eight of 22 previous starts this season. Now, by virtue of steamrolling the field, he was off to Carnoustie for the British Open, will get an invitation to next year’s Masters, has an exemption through the 2019-20 season on the PGA Tour, and is a lock for at least the first tournament in this year’s playoffs.

Not bad for a South Korean-born American who grew up in San Diego watching Tiger Woods win week after week on television.

“As a kid you don’t really know how hard that is, how much work that takes,” Kim said. “To be sitting here with the trophy, I’m at a loss for words.

“I think I made the right career choice.”

Bronson Burgoon (closing 69), Joel Dahmen (65), Francesco Molinari (64) and Sam Ryder (66) deadlocked for second at 19-under 265. That would have won 10 of the previous 18 tournaments at Deere Run. Instead, Kim’s nine-stroke victory matched the total margin of victory for the previous 10 John Deere Classics.

Said Burgoon, who played with Kim, “He just was rolling them in from everywhere and hit a couple of really good iron shots. He did what he had to do. Going into the back nine, unless he had a torrential meltdown, we were all playing for second.”

A recent coaching change has Kim hitting more fairways than before – 46 of 56 this week – and his new mental trigger for putting is worth a about million bucks: the $1,044,000 he earned for winning. That’s 

The most settling factor for Kim on Sunday was one of the first he considered: making birdies out of the gate. He birdied the first three holes – a run of seven straight adding him his final four holes on Saturday – and stretched his lead to an eventual nine strokes at mid-round.

“I expected a lot of the guys like Harold and Francesco and Matt and Bronson – they weren’t going to just let me ease my way into the trophy,” Kim said. “I felt I needed to make birdies on the front nine just to show I’m still playing well. Seeing that ball drop on No. 1 for birdie was great. To see it drop (on No. 2) really, really calmed me down. On 3, I don’t know. As soon as I lined it up it felt like it was going to go in.”

The putts went in from 12, 15 and 24 feet, and like that, he was 25-under and threatening Steve Stricker’s record of 26-under 258, set in 2010. He matched it with a 7-foot birdie putt on No. 8 and surpassed it with a 20-foot putt for a deuce on the par-3 16th.

After that one, he cupped his left hand to his ear to better enjoy the cheers of the crowd, one which usually enjoys a battle down the stretch but this time roared for a rout.

“Did Patrick Reed do something like that at the Ryder Cup? I felt I got it from him,” Kim said. “Once I got past 15, I felt I could do whatever the last three holes and still get away with the trophy. I think I got a little excited.”

Hardy finishes with a run

Nick Hardy came into the final round stuck in 55th place, having played the first 54 holes in 5-under-par 208. That’s good but not great.

Sunday, he fired a 5-under-par 66, including seven birdies in the last 10 holes, which jumped him to 43rd on 10-under 274, a spot he shared with, among others, former Illinois teammate Dylan Meyer and fellow alum Steve Stricker. It also earned him $18,096.

It could have been better. He missed a 23-inch par putt on the second hole and later bladed a wedge. Fix those two shots and the payday is around $36,000.

“Obviously I had stuff out there that doesn’t happen too much,” Meyer said. “I tried to keep a good attitude and finish as well as I could. I put together a really good final 10 holes, which feels good.”

Hardy is six weeks into a pro career that started at the Rust-Oleum Championship. So far, he’s made the cut in all four tournaments – two on the web. com Tour – and earned $36,951. That’s promising, but guarantees nothing. After Monday’s Rockford Pro-Am, that’s what his schedule has on it. Nothing.

“I’ve played well the past four tournaments but I haven’t played as well as I could,” Hardy said. “This last 10 holes, moving on to the rest of the summer, is going to give me some confidence for sure.”

Around Deere Run

The field averaged 68.254 strokes on Sunday and 69.185 for the week. The 64s of Molinari and local favorite Zach Johnson were the rounds of the day. ... Steve Stricker, after his 67 for 274 on Sunday, will take three days off and root for his daughter Bobbi in the Illinois Women’s Open at Mistwood Golf Club. ... Burgoon on his plans for the trip to Carnoustie: “I’m going to have a glass of red wine and I’m going to pass out.” ... Kim ran his career earnings to $3,008,729 on the PGA Tour, plus $318,637 on his web.com Tour play.

– Tim Cronin