Women's Western field ready to tackle Mistwood

Writing from Romeoville, Illinois

Monday, June 25, 2018

It’s fitting that Jessica Yuen will be first off the tee Tuesday when the 118th Women’s Western Amateur commences at Mistwood Golf Club. By her estimation, she’s played “hundreds of rounds” on the course.

“I grew up playing this course,” Yuen said. “I’m really familiar with this course. Knowing I’m really comfortable here will really help this week.”

Yuen’s also taken lessons from many members, past and present, of Mistwood’s professional staff. The two-time IHSA champion from Bolingbrook will be a junior at Missouri in the fall, and on quality of play and knowledge of course, has to be considered one of the favorites in the elite 120-player field.

Lemont’s Lauren Beaudreau lives even closer than Yuen but isn’t nearly as familiar with the course. Regardless, it wouldn’t be a surprise if the Benet Academy senior, ticketed for Notre Dame and among the higher-ranked juniors in the country, went far this week.

“It’s very challenging,” Beaudreau said of Mistwood. “It makes you pick your way around it. You have to hit every type of shot here. And it’s good for match play, because you can be very aggressive.”

On the other end of the age spectrum is St. Louis star Ellen Port, 57, who has seven USGA championships in her pocket – four Women’s Mid-Amateurs and three Women’s Senior Ams, but hasn’t won this one yet.

“Juniors have something they can play in every day, but someone my age doesn’t have as many events,” Port said. “This is close, and it works with my family’s schedule.”

Port is also using the Women’s Western Am as a warmup for the inaugural U.S. Senior Women’s Open, set for Chicago Golf Club in a fortnight.

“You need to compete,” Port said. “You play your way into shape, and I’m rusty. This is going to be a great time for me to count all my strokes. Any time I get to play in a meaningful round of golf I really appreciate it, and the Western puts on a great tournament.”

Whoever wins will join an illustrious collection of champions and will have fought through an accomplished field. Players who have made it to match play over the years have accounted for victories in 133 of the 282 women’s professional major championships played since the first one, the 1930 Women’s Western Open. That’s a 47.2 percent success rate.

Mistwood will add luster to the achievement. It’s the first time since 2007, when Urbana’s Stone Creek was the site, that the tournament is being played on a public course.

The Women’s Western Am changed the size of its field this year, dropping to 120 from 156, and will cut to 32 players for match play rather than 64. It’s also dropping consolation flights, a vestige harkening back to the time when country club matrons comprised a large part of the field. This is expected to make for an easier championship to run, and gives the WGA a template to build on when it takes over management of the WWGA championships in 2019. The 36-hole final, which dates to 1924, remains and is slated for Saturday.

– Tim Cronin

Perkins knocks off ISU teammate Wallace for CDGA Amateur crown

Writing from Deerfield, Illinois

Thursday, June 21, 2018

The ducks that inhabit Briarwood Country Club were loving it on Thursday.

Eventually, David Perkins of East Peoria did as well. He outlasted Illinois State teammate Trent Wallace of Joliet to capture the 99th CDGA Amateur Championship on the 23rd hole of the rain-soaked title match.

Originally slated for 36 holes and trimmed in half before play began because of the ominous and on-target weather forecast, it began to look as if it might go 36 after all, so evenly matched were Perkins, who nips at the ball, and Wallace, who bludgeons it.

They played 11 holes in the morning before play was suspended at 9:45 a.m., and 12 more in the afternoon. More often than not, they were both on the fairway and on the green, and someone was making a long putt.

Perkins, moving into his junior year with the Redbirds, won it by sinking a 15-footer for birdie on the par-5 fifth hole during the hardest rain of the afternoon session. Wallace, a senior in the fall, had just missed his birdie bid from about 16 feet.

“I knew if I kept doing what I was doing, I’d stay in the match,” Perkins said. “It’s hard (to play Wallace) because in the back of my mind, he’s my teammate and I want to see him succeed. It’s different, that aspect. It was competitive and fun.”

“It is a little hard, because you know how they play, what to expect, and Perk doesn’t really miss fairways and greens,” Wallace said. “I knew as soon as he got the opportunity he was going to take advantage, and I was trying to get there first. Props to him for getting it done.”

The softened course aside, the quality of play was remarkable. Perkins scattered six birdies across his card on the scheduled 18 and scored 4-under 67, with the usual concessions. Wallace, with six birdies in his first 16 holes went out in 3-under 33, totaling 3-under 68. Their best-ball was 9-under 62.

Perkins led 1 up when play was suspended, and promptly won the 12th hole with a 20-foot par-saving putt after a bunker shot to go 2-up. Wallace answered, winning three of the next four holes with birdies to go 1 up, his first lead of the match.

“It was a great spot, and he birdied 17, a really good birdie,” Wallace said.

Perkins answered back with a birdie 3 on the 17th to square the proceedings, and after each bogeyed the last, it was back to the first tee. They parred the first four holes – Wallace doing go on the par-5 third after hooking a layup into the water – before Perkins ended it on the fifth.

“I thought I had him there,” Perkins said. “And on the first playoff hole, he drove it down the middle and I drove it right, and got up and down. Those were two good opportunities.”

Perkins’ name is now on a trophy with Chick Evans, Frank Stranahan, Marty “Fat Man” Stanovich and Joel Hirsch.

“I’m just honored to win this event,” Perkins said.

A few miles away, the Western Golf Association wasn’t so lucky. The continual rain washed out the final 36 holes of the Western Junior at Evanston Golf Club, leaving Jeff Doty of Carmel, Ind., the winner on his 36-hole aggregate of 7-under-par 133. He beat Karl Vilips of Lathain, Australia, by a stroke. Third-round play had begun but was suspended at 9:14 a.m. and never resumed.

– Tim Cronin

Gejo leads windblown U.S. Senior Women’s Open qualifying

Writing from Lake Forest, Illinois

Monday, June 18, 2018

Eriko Gejo hails from Kawasaki, Japan, is a veteran of the LPGA Japan Tour, and now plays on their version of the senior tour.

Clearly, she’s a superb wind player based on the 1-under-par 70 she fashioned Monday at Conway Farms Golf Club, where a superheated three-club wind howled from the west most of the day, playing havoc with shot selection.

Gejo’s score in 92-degree heat not only won the qualifying medal for the Inaugural U.S. Senior Women’s Open at Chicago Golf Club next month, it beat runner-up Elaine Crosby, a two-time winner on the LPGA Tour, by two strokes, and third-best Jamie Fischer, a teaching pro at Conway Farms, by seven.

“I played very good,” Gejo said. “My putting was the best today. It was windy, but I like windy.”

She scattered three birdies across her front nine, then hung on. The 51-year-old tied for fifth and seventh in tournaments in Japan last year.

Crosby’s 1-over 72 looked to carry the day until Gejo, in the penultimate group, returned her card.

“Score-wise, I lived up to it, but I didn’t hit it great,” said Crosby, now a high-school principal in Jackson, Mich. “I started with a three-putt and righted the ship on the back nine. The ball carried a long way, but the greens are hard too.”

Fischer was more nervous after her 6-over 77 score was posted than while she was playing. She was even par through 14 holes, and then things got “dramatic,” with a triple-bogey on 15 followed by a pair of bogeys. Fischer rallied for a birdie at the last for 77, and what turned out to be a cushion.

“I was coming off a stretch of not-good scores, and I said, ‘Let’s just find a way to make a four here. Somehow I did.”

Fischer had 105 yards in, played her approach to 18 feet, and sank it.

Also qualifying, on 7-over 78, were Kaori Shimura of Gotempa City, Japan and Annette DeLuca of Tequesta, Fla. Several of the 33 players in the field did not finish because of the heat.

– Tim Cronin

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Look for an fuller report on qualifying in Illinois Golfer’s special preview issue covering the Inaugural U.S. Senior Women’s Open, available here the week of the championship.

Amateurs rally to capture madcap Radix Cup

Writing from River Grove, Illinois

Wednesday, June 13, 2018

Just call it the craziest day in Radix Cup history.

An albatross. A ace. A guy chipping in three times. The host professional without his clubs on the first tee.

Throw in a rousing comeback by the amateurs, and Wednesday’s Radix Cup, the 57th in succession, is barely summed up.

The amateurs, the Chicago District Golf Association’s side, won 10-8 at Oak Park Country Club after trailing 4-2 at the turn by collecting eight of the 12 remaining points to knock off the Illinois PGA’s professionals.

It’s the second win in a row, third in four matches and seventh in the last 11 for the amateurs. However, mere statistics explain next to nothing.

Start with the albatross, or double eagle, if you prefer. Jim Billiter, the professional at Kemper Lakes Golf Club, authored it, and on the par-5 516-yard first hole, at that.

“I had a tree in my way so I was thinking high draw,” Billiter said of his second shot, from about 260 yards out. “I asked Dakun (Chung, his partner), ‘We didn’t come here to lay up, did we?’ ”

He pulled a 3-wood out of his bag.

“But it came off low off the heel, so I’m screaming ‘go, go.’ I was not super pleased with it, but it landed by the hole and went down. And (Brian) Brodell was screaming on the second tee. I said, ‘Did that go in the hole?’ ”

It did, the first albatross in Radix Cup history. And like that, he and Chung were 1-up on amateurs Greg Bauman and Matt Murlick.

Billiter and Chung were 5-under in the best-ball format at the turn, and scored a point for the pros. In the Radix Cup, each match has a point available on each side, and another overall.

Bauman and Murlick bounced back stunningly, especially Murlick, who plays out of the public Winnetka Golf Club. He took to Oak Park like he was a member, chipping in on the eighth hole, then twice more on the back, on the 13th and 16th holes, winning the hole each time. The amateur duo went around the back in 4-under to Billiter-Chung’s 1-under to win the inward point and the overall point as well.

Those two points won the Cup for the amateurs.

“They played great on the back and we just kinda stalled,” Billiter said. “It was a great day. I’ve made plenty of eagles in my time, but they were all 10-footers, no closer.”

The ace was almost routine in comparison. Amateur Dave Ryan of Taylorville accomplished that with a 4-iron from 200 yards on the sixth hole.

“It went past the hole, rolled back down the hill, and went in,” Ryan, the 2016 U.S. Senior Amateur champion, said matter-of-factly of his fourth career ace. “When you make a hole in one, obviously it’s lucky.”

“I’ve never hit that green, let alone get close to the hole,” said Illinois PGA Match Play champion Garrett Chaussard, who saw Ryan’s ball go in from the fifth fairway.

Ryan’s ace came some 10 minutes after Billiter’s albatross, and helped he and Oak Park club champion Justin Smith to a point on the front nine, but Oak Park pros Carson Solien and Ryan Peavey scored a point on the back and were able to halve the overall point for a draw.

Solien has been the head professional for about three months. It was he who left his clubs at home, not realizing that until scant minutes before the match.

“It just tells you how much golf I’ve been playing in the past three months,” Solien said. “I didn’t even know where they were. Luckily I don’t live too far from the club, so my caddie went home and got them. I had them by the middle of the first hole. I joined Ryan on the second hole.

“Makes for a good story, at least.”

You can’t make stuff like that up.

The only win by a pro duo was the 2 1/2-1/2 victory of Chaussard and Matt Slowinski over amateurs Brian Hickey and Chadd Slutzky. Otherwise, the amateurs either split or won the other three matches.

– Tim Cronin

57th Radix Cup Match

Oak Park CC • Par 72

Amateurs 10, Professionals 8

Pros Kyle Bauer, Chris Green 1 1/2, amateurs Michael Fastert, Charlie Waddell 1 1/2

Pros Ryan Peavey, Carson Solien 1 1/2, amateurs Dave Ryan, Justin Smith 1 1/2

Pros Garrett Chaussard, Matt Slowinski 2 1/2, amateurs Mike Cushing, Todd Mitchell 1/2

Amateurs Brian Hickey, Chadd Slutzky 2, pros Rich Dukelow, Travis Johns 1

Amateurs Brian Ohr, Trent Wallace 2 1/2, pros Brian Brodell, Brian Carroll 1/2

Amateurs Greg Bauman, Matt Murlick 2, pros Jim Billiter, Dakun Chung 1

Hardy pro debut Thursday in Rust-Oleum

Writing from Chicago

Wednesday, June 6, 2018

Nick Hardy is level-headed enough to not see the dollar signs in his mind when he addresses the ball on the first tee of Ivanhoe Club at 9 a.m. Thursday.

That’s not to say he won’t have been thinking about it for the days beforehand. That first swing will mark his debut as a professional after a fine amateur career that was capped by his second Big Ten individual title – this one outright – in three years.

The Northbrook native thus makes the transition on an up, even though his Illinois team didn’t carry the torch into the NCAA Championship match play segment this year. It wasn’t because Hardy and Dylan Meyer, who on Monday qualified for next week’s U.S. Open, didn’t try.

Even though he’s in on a sponsor exemption, Hardy is one of the headliners for this year’s Rust-Oleum Championship, the web.com Tour tournament that has decamped at Ivanhoe Club for the third year running. It’s a field of PGA Tour hopefuls and once-weres, and this year buttressed by former Masters champion Mike Weir, who’s using the tournament to prep for the Champions Tour. He starts Thursday at 12:55 p.m.

Also in the field are a pair of Illinois Open champions: Chicago’s Brad Hopfinger (2014) and Elgin’s Carlos Sainz (2016), Wheaton’s Tim “Tee-K” Kelly, who captured a tournament on the Latinoamerica circuit last season, Libertyville’s Michael Schachner, Chicago’s Vince India and Quincy’s Luke Guthrie, who had a few stellar outings on the PGA Tour early in his pro career and then fell back into the pack.

Eighteen of the top 25 on the tour’s money list – the cutoff for advancement to the PGA Tour at the end of the season – are on hand, including No. 1 Sungjam Im of South Korea. Other notables including 2003 PGA Championship winner Shaun Micheel and 2007 Western Amateur winner Jhared Hack. They’re in a threesome with Josh Teater off the 10th tee at 7:30 a.m. Thursday.

Tim Cronin