Woods, McIlroy put on a show in Philly

Writing from Newtown Square, Pennsylvania

Thursday, September 6, 2018

Spike Lee, when he played the Mars Blackmon character in the Michael Jordan commercials touting Nike sneakers, would say, “It’s gotta be the shoes.”

“No, Mars,” Jordan would intone.

In Thursday’s opening round of the BMW Championship at Aronimink Golf Club, Tiger Woods brought back the Scotty Cameron Newport 2 CSS putter he’d used to win 13 of his 14 professional majors.

He shot 62, with 27 putts.

It’s gotta be the putter, right, Tiger?

“It felt good,” Woods intoned. “It’s familiar. I know the release point and I know how it swings and my body morphed into a position where it understands where it needs to be to release the putter.

“My body just remembers it.”

That’s Woods’ lowest score since a 62 in December 2014, but it wasn’t enough to earn him the solo lead. While he was as many as three strokes ahead at points during the day, Rory McIlroy, like Woods someone who hasn’t performed up to form in recent times, stormed across these finely manicured rolling acres in 62 strokes as well, matching Woods’ 8-under-par on the 1926 Donald Ross design.

McIlroy started 77 minutes after Woods and caught fire mid-round even without the blazing heat. At one point, he made six straight birdies, and visions of a 59 danced in his mind. Bogeys on his 16th and 17th holes nixed that notion, but he put 10 threes on his card and finished with a two-putt birdie from 48 feet at his final hole, the par-5 ninth.

That dynamic duo is a stroke ahead of Xander Schauffele, who snuck in with a 63, which used to be a hallmark score in this championship when it was called the Western Open. Then again, 8-tracks used to be all the rage as well.

A quartet including Justin Thomas and 2014 BMW winner Billy Horschel is at 6-under 64. Rickie Fowler’s in a gaggle at 65. Justin Rose and Jon Rahm are among those at 66, while Jordan Spieth and playoff leader Bryson DeChambeau are among those jammed into 20th at 3-under 67.

Even with a 62, McIlroy had a bit of woulda, shoulda, coulda in mind.

“I wish I could have capitalized on the sixth and seventh holes,” McIlroy said. “But I saw some really good signs last week in Boston and am continuing to see good signs this week.”

Woods and McIlroy tied the competitive course record set by Nick Watney in winning the 2011 AT&T National. It may fall in one of the next three rounds.

“There’s going to be a lot of guys going low,” McIlroy said. “At the start of the week, I thought 15- to 20-under would win, and thought guys would shoot 62 or 63. The course is meant to play a little firmer.

“As a second-shot golf course, you get tested.”

For this crowd, the best of the best, only to some degree. Given the perfect conditions for scoring (94 degrees, a stifling heat index of 101, 13 mph southwest wind), it was no surprise the field of 69 ripped into the hilly course like they were starving for a Philly cheesesteak. Only the course wasn’t as tough. Just five holes played over par – three of them were the long par-3s – and the field averaged 68.130 strokes, the lowest first round in the 115-year history of the tournament, surpassing last year’s layup at Conway Farms Golf Club by about three-quarters of a stroke, and the second-lowest round overall.

Even at 7,129 yards, the course simply isn’t long enough to keep up with today’s high-tech equipment, beginning with the golf ball, extending to the clubs and finally the launch monitors and other gadgets pros use to tune their game like auto racing teams use wind tunnels to perfect their aerodynamics. This is Formula 1 golf.

Fans, including the approximately 30,000 on hand Thursday, love it and it makes for an impressive television show, but the advances render classic courses little more than stylish backdrops for the Birdie Derby of the Week. That’s why Woods scored 62 and had company.

“The fairways are ample wide and the greens are soft – we’re driving it anywhere between 310 and 340 and so it’s really not that long a golf course right now,” said Woods, who hit nine of 14 fairways and 16 greens en route to a round featuring seven birdies, an eagle and a bogey. “Lots of wedges. Give yourself at least 10-12 looks at putts and you get on the hot run like I did, and I’m sure what Rory is doing.”

McIlroy hit 11 fairways, 16 greens, and took 27 putts.

“If you’d have given me a 62 on the first tee today, I’d have taken it,” McIlroy said, allowing that including practice and pro-am play he’d played 23 holes in 17-under.

Schauffele was almost lost in the shuffle, an odd place for a defending Tour Championship winner to be in. So is his place in the standings: 41st, when only the top 30 advance to next week’s finale at East Lake Golf Club.

“I felt I approached all the playoffs with that sense of urgency,” Schauffele said. “I’m trying, and still trying to make the Ryder Cup, obviously. It’s going to take a lot for me to make that late push.”

Tony Finau is considered the favorite, if not an odds-on choice, to be Jim Furyk’s last pick for the U.S. PGA team. Schauffele knows what he’s up against.

“I feel like I need a win,” Schauffele said. “Might not be enough. Tony’s an ATM, a top-10 machine. He’s been killing it and playing great golf.”

Finau opened with 2-under 68 and is tied for 30th, but it’s early in the Birdie Derby.

Around Aronimink

Friday’s tee times are from 7-9 a.m. Eastern, moved up more than four hours to get play finished before an expected thunderstorm like rolls through Philadelphia. Golf Channel’s live coverage starts at 8 a.m. Eastern, 7 a.m. Central. ... Rickie Fowler said he felt good, with no return of the oblique injury that hampered him late in the PGA and kept him out of the first two playoff tournaments. ... The field averaged 67.928 in the second round at Conway Farms in 2015, which was played under lift, clean and place rules and stands as the lowest round in Western Open / BMW Championship annals. Thursday’s 68.130 here is the lowest round playing proper golf. ... Defending champion Marc Leishman scored 4-over 74 and is tied for 67th and last with Adam Scott, who collected two double-bogeys (of the field’s 13) on his first two holes, and Brendan Steele.

– Tim Cronin

Chang over Carroll in Illinois PGA playoff

Writing from Grayslake, Illinois

Thursday, August 30, 2018

The wait was worth it for Dakun Chang.

It took four days and three extra holes, but Chang prevailed in the 97th Illinois PGA Championship, beating Brian Carroll to capture the title in a three-hole playoff at Stonewall Orchard Golf Club in Grayslake. A pair of birdies combined with bogeys by Carroll on the first and third playoff holes gave Chang a 11-15 victory after they tied at 4-under-par 212.

“He had a rough first playoff hole, so I had to play smart,” Chang said.

For Chang, it’s his first state major, earned after he tied for third last year and tied for seventh in 2015, his first year in the Illinois PGA Section. Thursday’s triumph is an indicator he’ll be a threat for decades to come.

“I’d been contention the last couple years, so this feels really good,” Chang said.

Chang, an assistant at Twin Orchard in Long Grove, won $11,200 along with getting his name on the Jim Kemper Cup. He dropped a six-foot birdie putt on the first playoff hole, the par-5 third, and one of similar length on the par-5 18th to close things out after Carroll’s last hope ended when his approach leaked left and found a pond.

“I had 295 in, so it wasn’t like I was going to get anywhere back by the pin, but I thought I could get close to the front edge and maybe make a long one or chip in,” Carroll said. “But I hammered it too far left.”

Chang, a 26-year-old native of Asheville, N.C., came into the storm-delayed final eight holes leading by two strokes, but bogeyed the 11th and 12th to fall behind Carroll, who birdied No. 11 immediately ahead of Chang.

“I had a rough start,” Chang said. “I just wanted to get back in my game plan, try not to worry about it too much.”

He steadied his game with a par on the 13th and climbed back into a tie for the lead with a six-foot birdie putt on the devilish par-4 14th after a tremendous approach shot from the right rough. He was 139 yards out and in a divot.

“That was a good shot,” Chang said, smiling.

Carroll was on his way to parring in, and Chang did the same on the last four holes, setting up the playoff. Carroll scored 3-under 69 in the final round, the first 10 holes of which were played on Wednesday before darkness, while Chang scored 1-over 73.

“The last three holes I had a lot of chances, but nothing fell,” Chang said.

Carroll, the head professional at Royal Hawk in St. Charles, was in the same situation. His birdie on No. 11 from six feet was followed by seven straight pars.

“I was four shots out coming into the third round,” Carroll said. “I got a little bit back yesterday, got one (birdie) to start the day but couldn’t get another to get to 5-under. I didn’t think 4-under was going to be enough. I thought 5-under at least. I was lucky enough to be in the playoff.”

His drive on the first playoff hole landed in the left fairway bunker, and things went downhill from there, but he grabbed his best finish in the section championship regardless, plus $8,200.

“I’ve been trying to snag a major out here, and coming close,” Carroll said. “Semifinals in the match play this year before Chris Green knocked me out, a good first round in the Illinois Open two years ago. So I’ll keep playing good golf and see what happens.”

Curtis Malm of White Eagle in Naperville took third with a closing 1-under 71 for 2-under 214, his fifth top-three finish in the Illinois PGA Championship. Chris Ioriatti (70), Green (71) and Travis Johns (74) tied for fourth at 1-under 215. Ioriatti birdied twice on Thursday morning, Green birdied the last, and Johns, playing in the final pairing with Chang, missed on too many birdie chances for him to recount, and couldn’t get the double-bogey on the par-3 fifth on Wednesday out of his mind. His approach flew into the hazard.

“I didn’t deal with it very well,” said Johns, who posted his sixth top-five finish since joining the Illinois Section in 2010. “I don’t mind making a bad score if I hit a bad shot, which I hit plenty of, but that one wasn’t bad. I just misjudged the wind.”

With Chang, Carroll and Mike Small already exempt into next year’s PGA Professional Championship, the next nine finishers made the field: Malm, Ioriatti, Green, Johns, Matt Slowinski, Steve Orrick, Roy Biancalana, Luke Hemelstrand and Tim Streng. Slowinski’s solo seventh is his ninth top-10 finish, while Orrick’s solo eighth is his seventh in the top 10.

The unsung heroes of the week populated the Stonewall Orchard grounds crew, headed by superintendent Larry Flament. Working long hours in heat, cold and rain, they kept the course playable despite drenchings that flooded area basements and extended the championship to a fourth day.

The field of 57 finishers, who shared in the purse of $70,065.03, averaged 75.35 strokes in the final round.

– Tim Cronin

Chang leads Carroll by two in Illinois PGA

Writing from Grayslake, Illinois

Wednesday, August 29, 2018

The phrase “overnight leader” is commonly used in golf to denote the player leading at the end of a round.

This year’s Illinois PGA Championship is different.

For the second night in succession, Dakun Chang is sleeping on the lead in the middle of a round. He did so Tuesday night, ahead by a stroke when the storm-tossed tournament was halted by darkness with Chang on the 10th tee at Stonewall Orchard Golf Club.

Wednesday night, the Twin Orchard assistant does so again, this time with a two-stroke advantage on Brian Carroll of Royal Hawk with eight holes to play in the final round. Chang stands at 5-under, with Carroll at 3-under, Travis Johns of Medinah at 2-under and Chris Green and Curtis Malm at 1-under. That fivesome, all of whom have played 10 holes, are the only players under par.

Steve Orrick, Chris Ioriatti and Roy Biancalana are at even par through 13, 12 and 10 holes respectively.

The final round is scheduled to resume at 8 a.m. It’s the first time the championship has extended into a fourth day since 1927, when it was played at match play.

“It was a little weird day today,” Chang said. “The delay (to restart the second round) threw me off this morning. I played pretty good on the front nine (finishing the second round), and the wait again (for the 5 p.m. start) was a little rough. But there’s nothing I can do about that.”

Chang made three birdies on a four-hole stretch beginning with the fourth hole, a 307-yard par-4. Chang drove to the fringe of the green and two-putter for birdie.

“That was the best drive I hit all day,” Chang said.

He sank birdie putts on the sixth and seventh holes as well, but bogeyed the third, fifth – by hitting his tee shot into a hazard and recovering with a brilliant pitch – and ninth, by which time the light was beginning to fade. But he rebounded with a par on the par-5 10th to remain 5-under, finishing the hole after the horn blew at 7:33 p.m. because he didn’t want to open tomorrow’s play with his second shot on the hole.

“Overall I’m pretty happy about my game,” Chang said. “Just have to do nine more – eight more – tomorrow.”

Carroll, four strokes in arrears of Chang after 36 holes, closed the gap to two strokes with birdies on the third, fourth and eighth holes, offset by a bogey on No. 9. Carroll dropped his approach on the par-5 eighth to 15 feet for an easy two-putt birdie.

“I knew I needed to shoot a low round to have a chance, and sometimes it’s almost easier to do that when you can break it into two,” Carroll said. “You think, ‘I’ve got to get to six or seven-under today,’ but you can get half of that and restart in the morning and not feel the pressure of having a great round going and ‘I have to hang onto it.’ ”

Johns birdied the third and fourth holes, the latter via a pitch to 18 inches, but double-bogeyed the par-3 fifth and bogeyed the par-5 eighth, when he was fortunate to find his ball in the gunch to the left of the green.

Mike Small withdrew despite standing one off 36-hole leader Chang, because Illinois’ men’s golf team begins practice on Thursday and Small, the head coach, has to be in Champaign to supervise it. That left Chang and Johns, two strokes behind Chang at the start of the round, as a twosome in the final pairing, which started at 5 p.m. With all threesomes ahead of them, they had to pace themselves or face long waits to play.

“I tried not to think about it,” Chang said. “But it was a long day.”

The second round concluded with Chang at 5-under-par 139 thanks to a back-nine 1-under 35, enabling him to complete a bogey-free 3-under 69 across two days. He led 12-time winner Small by one before he withdrew, and Johns by two, with Roy Biancalana, Brian Carroll and Curtis Malm four back at 1-under 143. They were the only players under par, and only Sean Gervais, Chris Green and Eric Ilic were at par 144.

Even with lift, clean and place in the fairway – a condition that continued in the final round on the waterlogged course, which has taken nearly three inches of rain since Monday morning on top of downpours before play began – the field averaged 77.44 strokes in Round 2.

The cut came at 12-over 156 and included 65 players. With five withdrawals, including Small and host professional Jeff Pajula (who had to pick up his children from school), 60 started the final round, which began at 3:30 p.m. Nine finished their rounds, while Medinah head professional Marty D’Angelo had to withdraw. He had two holes remaining but has to be at work on Thursday. That leaves 50 yet to finish.

– Tim Cronin

Small, Chang lead Illinois PGA, with Biancalana lurking

Writing from Grayslake, Illinois

Tuesday, August 28, 2018

By his reckoning, Roy Biancalana has played eight rounds of competitive golf in the last eight years.

Evidently, that means he’s fresh. He’s three off the lead at Stonewall Orchard Golf Club after his first two rounds in the 97th Illinois PGA Championship. He followed Monday’s 2-under 70 with a 1-over 73 and stood at 1-under 143, three strokes behind leaders Mike Small and Dakun Chang, when the storm-tossed tournament, delayed twice, was suspended for the day.

Where has he been? In Florida, for a start, and working his other job, that of a relationship coach.

“I was out of golf,” the 58-year-old Biancalana said. “I hit balls on the range, but I wasn’t playing tournaments. So it’s taken me a while to get my competitive chops back. I don’t feel really comfortable yet like I used to.

“I don’t know about expectation. I was surprised it’s taken me a while to feel, competitively, into it. I thought maybe I’d struggled in mechanics, but those are fine.”

Biancalana, an ordained minister who captured a pair of Illinois Opens in his first stint in the state, had three seconds in the Illinois PGA in a five-year span, the last time in 2007.

He went away from golf to concentrate on his relationship coaching, he said, after having “so many relationship disasters.

“Guys ask, ‘What got you into that?’ and I say, ‘Well, I got help and tried to figure out my personal life. I did to some extent and thought maybe I could help other people with the kind of questions that I asked.”

That began 11 years ago, which cut into his golf in the summer, and finally halted it completely until this year, when he returned from Florida. He’s teaching golf at St. Andrews in West Chicago when he’s not relationship coaching.

The trio of Small, Travis Johns and Curtis Malm finished in the gloaming, with Small carding his second consecutive 2-under 70 to stand at 4-under 140 entering the final round. Chang went out in 2-under 34 and stood at 4-under through 27 holes. He’s in one of 14 groups which will finish on Wednesday morning. The final round is planned for Wednesday afternoon.

“We’ll be in it tomorrow unless Dakun goes nuts on the back nine,” Small said. “I started off strong, birdied the first two holes, and then kinda hung in there the rest of the day.”

Small, the 12-time section champion, bogeyed the seventh hole but rebounded with a birdie on No. 14 to play the last 11 holes 1-under.

Johns birdied the seventh, eighth and 14th holes and was tied for the lead before a three-putt bogey on No. 15.

“It was fairly uneventful for me,” Johns said. “I had very good opportunities on 10, 11, 13 and didn’t make any of those.”

Johns has four top-five finishes in the last seven years, including joint second in 2013 and 2016. Chang tied for third last year and tied for seventh in 2015.

Small and Chang leads Johns (70 for 3-under 141) by a stroke and Biancalana, Malm and Brian Carroll by three. They’re the only six players under par, with Sean Gervais and Chris Green at even-par 144 and Eric Ilic even through 17 holes.

“I think the course is playing really hard,” Biancalana said. “Every hole’s a crosswind, and it’s difficult to get the distance. There are some places you don’t want to go.

“And these are probably the toughest conditions we’ve played all year, in terms of hot and sticky and windblown and the course is difficult. That’s why I feel exhausted.”

In Biancalana’s place, that was the par-3 fifth hole, which he double-bogeyed. He rebounded with birdies on the eighth and 13th holes before bogey on the 14th preceded a run of pars the rest of the way. He, Rich Dukelow and Brian Brodell had just arrived at the scoring area before the afternoon’s first rumble of thunder was heard. It came about a half-hour after the 89-degree heat and heat index of 96 subsided somewhat.

The day was bookended by heavy thunderstorms. The first one, which arrived before dawn and overstayed its welcome, dumped enough rain on the property to submerge the putting green and flood some bunkers.

Quick work by the Stonewall Orchard grounds staff allowed for a 9:45 a.m. start, 2 1/2 hours behind schedule, which meant the final threesome of the day commenced play at 4:12 p.m. They were on the course for just over an hour when play was suspended at 5:14 p.m., seconds after the first rumble of thunder from a storm that blew up just west of the course. That delayed play until 6:30 p.m., when the action resumed for 66 miutes until the flag was finally planted in the 18th hole for the day.

– Tim Cronin

Streng leads seven by one in Illinois PGA

Monday, August 27, 2018

Writing from Grayslake, Illinois

Tim Streng did Monday at Stonewall Orchard Golf Club what he teaches youth golfers to do the other six days of the week. Hit it close and make the putts.

Streng, an instructor at the Wildcat Golf Academy at The Glen Club, fired a 3-under-par 69 and leads the 97th Illinois PGA Championship by a stroke over a sevensome of notables, including 12-time champion Mike Small.

“It was a tough day with the wind,” Streng said of the 20-mph southwesterly breeze, “but I had my wedges dialed in. Hit a lot of them to 10-12 feet and capitalized on a few. All my numbers were in a good spot.”

Streng seemed impervious to the wind. He birdied the third, eighth, 13th and 14th holes, but was vexed by the wind on the par-3 fifth, where he said it was swirling, and scrambled for par. On most of Stonewall’s holes, there was a crosswind, and on most of the others, it was either with the player or in his teeth. His only bogey was on the downwind seventh.

Streng, who won the Illinois PGA Assistant’s title in 2015, leads Small, Dakun Chung, Curtis Malm, Brian Carroll, Rich Dukelow, Roy Biancalana and Kurt Rogers by a stroke entering Tuesday’s second round.

“I thought the wind was a factor,” said Small, who authored three top-10 finishes in as many weeks during a mid-summer swing on a Champions Tour, finishing with a tie for 10th in the Senior Players Championship. “I made some good par putts, made a couple two-footers for birdie and a couple of others, but otherwise made nothing.”

Small, winner of five of the six Illinois PGAs played on this Arthur Hills-designed course, was 3-under until a bogey on the par-4 16th.

Malm played with Small, hitting 15 greens in regulation and paying the price with bogey on his other three holes, the fifth, seventh and 16th. But he made five birdies, including on the last two holes, to more than make up for it.

“You just try to survive the early rounds,” Malm said. “Try to play well on Monday and Tuesday and get into contention.”

Malm, who won the Illinois Open as an amateur in 2000, has a solo second, two joint seconds and a tie for third in the section championship. His tie for second two years ago at Olympia Fields was painful, as he led in the late going before a triple-bogey on the penultimate hole.

“Obviously, I’d like to win it once,” Malm said. “The ultimate goal is to qualify for the PPC (the PGA Professional Championship, colloquially known as the Club Pro).”

Dukelow, a teaching pro at Medinah Country Club, eagled the par-5 eighth hole and scattered four birdies on his card en route to his 70, and did so playing hurt.

“I’ve been fighting a rib injury,” Dukelow said. “It’s 2 1/2 week now, but it still hurts. I don’t make a big deal about injuries, but this one hurts every time I swing. Maybe it makes my tempo better.”

Carroll, who tied for 10th last year, birdied two of his first three holes and didn’t make another until the par-4 15th, when he sank an 18-footer to make up for a bogey on No. 6.

“It’s a handful,” Carroll said of Stonewall. “I had a couple of chances early to take advantage of the course.”

Chang, off in the day’s second group, was 1-over through 10 holes, then clicked off birdies on the 11th, 14th and 15th holes, three of his five 3s on the back nine. That brought him in at 2-under 70, which held up as the lead until the early afternoon, when Streng asserted himself.

Biancalana, 58, returned to Illinois this year after a decade in Florida as a relationships coach, was bogey-free with birdies on the 16th and 18th to sneak into contention. He was a runner-up twice in the early 2000s.

Rogers, from Red Tail Run in Decatur, was the last of the field to join the crowd at 70, and did so with birdies on the ninth, 10th and 15th holes to offset a bogey on the sixth.

Defending champion Adam Schumacher scored 3-over-par 75 in uneven fashion, with a bogey-bogey-double bogey-double bogey stretch to score 43 on the front side, but raced home in 4-under 32. He’s tied for 28th. The cut will be to the low 60 and ties.

A downpour on Sunday prompted the declaration of lift, clean and place in the fairway, but it didn’t help scoring much. The field of 120 averaged 78.44 on the 6,935-yard par-72 layout. Of the top 20 players, the only one to play the most difficult stretch, holes 4-5-6, under par was Sean Gervais of Chicago Golf Club, who was 1-under thanks to a birdie on No. 4, which helped him to a 1-under 71.

– Tim Cronin