Three-way tie in Illinois PGA, but Small may have the edge

Writing from Olympia Fields, Illinois

Tuesday, August 30, 2016

If you pick one hole of the 18 on Olympia Fields Country Club’s stout South Course and call it a difference maker, the par-5 10th may be the one.

At 500 yards, the dogleg left is reachable in two strokes for the big hitters in the field.

The tri-leaders when the second round of the 95th Illinois PGA Championship was suspended for darkness at 7:10 p.m. Tuesday all answer to the description of big hitters.

Curtis Malm, at 6-under with two holes remaining on Wednesday morning, is 1-under on the 10th after two attempts. Travis Johns, at 6-under with six holes left in his second round, is 2-under on it with back-to-back birdies. Mike Small, at 6-under and in the group with Johns, is 4-under on it. Eagle in the first round, eagle in the second.

Small has won the Illinois PGA 11 times, including the last two times it has been played at Olympia, where he’s an honorary member. Malm and Johns have done no better than second place.

Wonder where the smart money will be placed when the third round is played Wednesday afternoon?

Small is 5-under on his round, and it could have been better.

“I hit it pretty well, made a good up-and-down for par on No. 8 and was 2-under to there,” Small said. “Then I made a long putt (of 25 feet for birdie on No. 9 and an eagle on No. 10.”

Small’s second eagle in as many days was simple: Driver, 3-iron, putt. A 3 on the card allowed him to pick up nearly two strokes on the field. No. 10 was the only hole to play under par on Tuesday, at 4.81 strokes. He parred the 11th and 12th and kicked himself for missing makable birdie putts, but has a half-dozen holes on which to cash in after breakfast.

Malm was 7-under through 14 holes before a bogey on the par-4 15th. He parred the 16th and is semi-optimistic going into Wednesday’s activity.

“We’ll see if we can make one on one of those two (remaining) holes and see how the boys finish,” Malm said. “I haven’t played that well, just hit a lot of greens and taken care of the par 5s, but I’m not real solid. I’m hoping something clicks tomorrow and I can get back to my normal ways.

“It’s been a little ugly, but it’s worked out.”

He’s 5-under on the seven par-5s he’s played, including an eagle on the 18th in the first round. But he believes he hasn’t gotten everything out of his game given he’s hit 28 greens in regulation.

Johns said he played “OK” en route to his 3-under status for the round through 12 holes and 6-under total through 30. He scattered for birdies on his card, against one bogey, that on the treacherous sixth.

Nick Taute of Decatur’s South Side Country Club, Andy Schumacher of Indian Hill Club and defending champion Jim Billiter of Merit Club stand tied for fourth at 4-under, with Taute in the clubhouse,  Schumacher through 11 holes and Billiter a blistering 7-under on his round through 15, the feature an eagle on the par-4 11th sandwiched between birdies on the 10th and 12th. If Billiter, 6-under on the first six holes of the back nine, pars in, he’ll shoot 65.

The plan, barring more bad weather of the type that stalled play until late morning on Tuesday, is to finish the second round beginning at 8:30 a.m. and send the survivors of the cut on their way beginning at noon. With both tees in use, a 6 p.m. finish is hoped for.

Taute is at 4-under 140 thanks to Tuesday’s 5-under 67, six of his seven birdies were accumulated in 12 holes, accomplished largely because of an equipment change.

“I put a new putter in my bag on Saturday,” said Taute. “A new Ping.”

That was good from just about anywhere in that stretch, and couldn’t be blamed for his birdie at the last, when his tee shot landed in the right rough and things got worse from there.

Taute had one advantage on the threesome at 6-under on Tuesday night. He was finished five hours before the horn blew.

“It’ll be nice to have dinner and watch the Cubs game,” Taute said.

Notes from under the clock tower

The course has averaged 76.17 strokes so far in the second round, about two strokes better than the first round. ... The morning’s 3.5 hour delay came courtesy of lightning and about a half-inch more rain, added to the 10 inches the course has taken in the last 10 days. That meant a move to lift, clean and place through the green, for otherwise, in the morning, the course would have been next to unplayable. ... Along with the title, 10 spots in the PGA National Professional Championship, a.k.a. the club pro, are on the line Wednesday. ... 

– Tim Cronin

Malm Illinois PGA leader after first round

Writing from Olympia Fields, Illinois

Monday, August 29, 2016

Some days, one good shot can trigger a series of them.

Steve Orrick hit one of those shots on Monday morning, and it led to a handful of similarly good shots that brought him within a stroke of leader Curtis Malm after one round of the 95th Illinois PGA Championship on Olympia Fields Country Club’s testing South Course.

“I hit a little six,” Orrick said, thinking back to his 6-iron on the 180-yard 12th hole, his third of the day.

That little six hit the flagstick and stopped two feet from the cup, allowing him a kick-in birdie to trigger a opening nine of 3-under 33. That led, after a pair of birdies and a pair of bogeys on his inward half, to a 3-under 69 for the head professional from the Country Club of Decatur, matching Travis Johns of Medinah entering the second round.

Doug Bauman (Biltmore), Brian Brodell (Mistwood) and Adam Schumacher (Indian Hill) fired 2-under 70s, while a quintet including 11-time winner Mike Small stood at 1-under 71 at day’s end. In all, 11 players broke the South Course’s par of 72, and another eight matched it.

In his pursuit of Malm, Orrick had one other shot that kept his round going. He hit his second on the 18th into the trees on the right and didn’t have a great lie for his third shot.

“I just punched it out onto the front of the green, and then made it (for birdie) from 40 feet,” Orrick said.

Call it a bonus, and necessary to stay a stroke behind Malm, the professional from White Eagle Golf Club. Out in the day’s second group, Malm posted equal nines of 2-under 34, the feature attraction an eagle 3 on the par-5 18th, a 530-yard adventure. That followed a birdie on the par-4 17th, which followed bogeys on the previous two holes, and so sent him to the front nine for the second half of his round in good humor. He made three more birdies there.

Malm won the Illinois Open as an amateur in 2000, but has so far been shut out in the Illinois PGA. He was runner-up to Orrick at Stonewall Orchard in 2012, and shared the runner-up spot with Matt Slowinski behind Mike Small at Olympia in 2013.

Doug Bauman’s 2-under 70 might have been unexpected to outsiders, given that the Biltmore Country Club fixture is 59. But it shouldn’t have been. Three of his last five competitive rounds were 71s, including circuits of Onwentsia and Glen Flora.

“I’ve got a pretty long golf swing, and for years it was too long, but now it’s down to a proper length,” Bauman said with a wink.

He also has a pair of sons, Riley and Greg, who have given him all he can handle on the course, which also keeps him sharp.

“We had a match on Friday, and that helps me move it out there, because they hit it past me,” Bauman said.

He triumphed twice at Kemper Lakes, in 1996 and 1997, and if successful would wipe out Gary Groh’s mark of 13 years between victories. But he acknowledged it’s a long way between one good round and holding a trophy on Wednesday afternoon.

“I’m still not entertaining winning,” Bauman said. “I told Craig Bertrand and Katie Pius, who work with me and are playing in this, I’m just trying to make eight pars and one birdie per nine. That’s all I’m trying to do.”

It was six birdies and four bogeys, evenly split between nines, on Monday, but the net result was what Bauman hoped for, 1-under on each side.

As for Small, the 11-time winner opened with a 1-under-par 71, the highlight of the day an eagle on the par-5 10th, one of only two on the day on the hole.

“I played pretty good, just hit it on the wrong side of the hole all day,” Small said. “It was hard to hit the ball close to the hole, because the balls were spinning (back).

“I need to find my form better tomorrow.”

Those who have relished success so many times are never satisfied with an average performance.

Notes from under the clock tower 

Defending champion Jim Billiter (Merit Club) fashioned a 3-over 75. ... Oak Park head professional Frank Bruno dunked his approach on the par-4 16th from the fairway for a deuce. ... The field averaged 78.007 strokes. ... It was old-fashioned golf, with no motor carts allowed players because of the heavy rain from the previous week-plus. The soggy conditions prompted tournament director Robert Duke to invoke lift, clean and place for the fairways and closely-mown areas. ... Superintendent Sam MacKenzie and his tireless staff have dealt with 10 inches of rain, which caused the banks of Butterfield Creek to overflow on occasion. The club’s schedule of member championships is now written in pencil, the courses have been closed so often.

– Tim Cronin

Bryan, Marino lead soggy Deere

Writing from Silvis, Illinois

Friday, August 12, 2016 

Here is the secret to playing well on a day when you’re not sure when you’ll play.

Get up before the rooster and be at TPC Deere Run at 5 a.m.

Eat breakfast and practice until the 7 a.m. start is postponed.

Go back to the hotel, take a nap.

Eat breakfast again.

Finally get on the tee, shoot 6-under-par 65 and jump into contention in the 46th John Deere Classic.

That worked for Steve Marino on Friday. He’s at 11-under-par 131 going into Saturday’s third round.

That’s a stroke off the overnight lead concocted by Wesley Bryan, whose 66-64 combination for 12-under 130 was the best of those who had finished, which is to say, half the field. Thanks to overnight downpours on top of Thursday’s deluge, only a few groups in the afternoon half of the field had even teed off Friday evening before play was halted at 7:53 p.m. The marquee group of Zach Johnson, Brian Harman and Steve Stricker, with five JDC titles between them, was standing on the first tee when yet another shower hit the waterlogged course, which had already taken 2.17 inches of rain since late Thursday night. They will commence the second round at 7 a.m. sharp.

Close to 110 players need to complete the second round before the cut is made and the field is repaired for the third round, which should begin early in the afternoon. Thirty-nine haven’t even started. At this point, it seems unlikely the third round, expected to be played under the same “lift, clean and place” conditions as the second round, can be finished before nightfall.

Marino joked that he hadn’t seen an interview room in quite a while, but he played as if he owned Deere Run, interview room and all, on Friday, with seven birdies on his scorecard against one bogey. A long search for consistency may be paying off.

“I’ve really been struggling with my ball-striking all year,” Marino said. “I’ve been putting well and chipping well. It’s really the only thing that’s saved me.

“It’s nice to kind of see it come around and play really well.”

Marino was 3-under on each side of Deere Run.

“There were times when I could have got frustrated out there because the first nine holes I shot 3-under but could have shot 6- or 7-under,” Marino said. “Missed a lot of putts. Some good things happened near the end.”

Birdies on Nos. 7 and 8 and an up-and-down on the ninth, his last hole, “kind of saved the round,” Marino said.

Bryan, the recent graduate of the Web.com tour, is playing like a veteran Tourist. His bogey-free 64 included an outward 31 on the back nine. He credited use of “lift, clean and place”  for the low number.

“We were able to fire at a lot more flags with the ball in our hand,” Bryan said. “And scores are going to continue to go low.”

Bryan played 25 1/2 holes, having stopped Thursday night with his ball on the 11th green. He made 10 birdies in his last 22 holes on Friday, but, again sounding like a veteran, especially of the Deere, felt 12-under was nowhere near the number he needed to hold the trophy on – it is to be hoped – Sunday night.

“I feel if you double that (12-under total) I’ll be right in the thick of things,” Bryan said. “Nos. 18 and 9, they’re really tough holes on any golf course. There’s some stumbling blocks out there, but for the most part its a lot of wedges and good, soft bent greens. Scores are going to continue to go low and hopefully I can keep making some birdies.”

With the jumbling of pairings, it’s difficult to say the leaders are the leaders. But at the moment, first round co-leader Tom Gillis, who lost to Jordan Spieth in a playoff last year, is third at 10-under 132 after a adding a 68 to an opening 64. Kyle Stanley is fourth at 9-under 133, with five players at 8-under: Morgan Hoffman, first round co-leader Andrew Loupe, Ben Martin and Hudson Swafford are in at 134, with Kelly Kraft 8-under after 15 holes. Sang Kung (7-under 135) and Jon Rahm (7-under through 15, and 5-under on the day) are tied for 10th, but then there’s the whole group yet to begin, including Zach Johnson, 6-under in the first round and a clear favorite.

“A lot of golf to be played,” said Loupe, who made an 8-footer to start his day and added a 70 to his opening 64.

A lot of golf.

Around Deere Run

Before Friday night’s shower, the course had taken about 3.20 inches of rain from late morning on Thursday. The weekend forecast is good. ... CBS-TV will have live coverage from 2-5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. There’s no early-round weekend coverage on Golf Channel because of its Olympics coverage. ... 

– Tim Cronin

Loupe leads Deere, but work left in 1st round

Writing from Silvis, Illinois

Thursday, August 11, 2016

It was stop-and-go golf in the first round of the 46th John Deere Classic, and a good portion of the field didn’t even finish.

That’s why it can’t be said with certainty that Zach Johnson, Ryan Moore and Patrick Rodgers will be leading at TPC Deere Run when the last first-rounder turns in his scorecard. But among those who had finished, they shared the clubhouse lead at nightfall after rounds of 6-under-par 65, the best of a day that turned soggy.

The uncertainty comes courtesy of Andrew Loupe, who went around the first 14 holes of Deere Run in 8-under-par before the play was stopped because of darkness at 7:52 p.m. He has an eight footer to save par on the par-4 15th when play resumes at 7 a.m., and then three more holes after that. You can’t predict with Loupe, a third-year PGA Tour regular whose first-round 64 last week tied him for the lead in the Travelers, which he followed with a 76 to miss the cut for the seventh straight time.

“Fourteen and a half holes is not very much,” Loupe said. “I think I got caught up in it last week. I’m not going to get caught up in it this week.”

Loupe called the remaining eight-footer “puttable,” but footprints on the soft turf and the decision of another player farther away on his line not to putt convinced him to wait until the morning.

So he gets to think about it, and the rest of the field gets to think about him.

Tom Gillis is also 6-under, albeit with two holes left in his round.

Of the leading finishers, Johnson is the headliner, the Cedar Rapids native and a former winner who sits on the John Deere Classic board. He was followed by a large portion of the gallery on Thursday, at least before the horn blew at 11:38 a.m. signaling the arrival of a thunderstorm that dropped 1.09 inches of rain on the tournament parade. Johnson was 5-under at the time and added one more birdie in his five post-delay holes to follow Rodgers and Moore in with a 65.

His was the only bogey-free round of the three, which shouldn’t be a surprise. It’s his 12th spotless circuit of the D.A. Weibring layout.

“It was a solid day, not many mistakes,” Johnson said. “If I did get in trouble, I got out in a pretty consistent, good way.”

It would have been a surprise if Johnson wasn’t at least close to the lead. He ran his string of under-70 rounds at Deere Run to 21.

The presence of Moore and Rodgers wasn’t surprising either. It was Moore’s 21st straight under-par round on the course, while Rodgers, after missing the cut the last two years, returned to the form he showed in 2013, when he challenged for the lead as an amateur and finished tied for 15th.

“I definitely feel a hometown feeling here,” Rodgers said. “It’s my fifth time here, and people are incredibly generous.”

He also said missing the cut the last two year and not duplicating or bettering his amateur performance “left a bitter taste.”

Tying for second at last week’s tournament in Hartford, Conn., following some swing changes, helped his confidence as well.

“I’m hitting it flush and consistently through the bag,” Rodgers said.

Now all he needs is success. Moore would like more of it. He’s made the cut the previous seven years he’s played but never finished better than seventh, two years ago.

“It’s a course I’ve grown to like over the years,” Moore said. “Some courses set up well for me and this is definitely one of them. There are angles of play, and that means guys who hit it longer than me don’t have a significant advantage.”

Moore hit 10 of 14 fairways and 15 greens in the first round, with his five birdies and an eagle – on the par-5 17th – offsetting a bogey.

Around Deere Run

Erik Compton was disqualified from the tournament before it even began thanks to not being on site for Wednesday’s pro-am. Listed as the second alternate for the afternoon wave, he was in Detroit and flying in on Wednesday when two players pulled out of the tournament. They were in the afternoon half of the pro-am. With Compton not on the grounds, he was DQed from the tournament for missing the pro-am tee time he didn’t know he had but had to be ready for regardless. Jim Furyk was disqualified for a tournament for missing a pro-am a few years ago, but he overslept. ... The last groups in the afternoon wave have played only seven holes, and nobody in that half of the field has finished. ... The second round is scheduled to begin at 8:20 a.m., a hour later than planned. If expected bad weather misses, there’s a good chance the cut can be made on Friday night. ... D.A. Points went around in 3-under 68, the same as last year, when he missed the cut for the ninth time in 10 starts. He opened with a 66 the only time he’s cashed. ... Geoff Ogilvy, on hand for the first time in a dozen years, went out in 6-under 30 on the back and is 5-under through 12 holes.

– Tim Cronin

Meyer beats Horsfield to win Western Amateur

Writing from Lake Forest, Illinois

Saturday, August 6, 2016

This time, there wasn’t an impromptu water bottle shower from Illinois teammate Nick Hardy.

This time, there was a bear hug Hardy applied to Dylan Meyer on the 17th green after Sam Horsfield had conceded the 114th Western Amateur championship match at Knollwood Club on Saturday afternoon.

The margin was 3 and 1, largely because Horsfield, after missing the green on the par-3 17th with Meyer on the putting surface and dormie 2, felt it necessary to go for the cup to win the hole and keep the match alive. Horsfield overshot the mark and after one more stroke, took off his hat and offered his hand.

“He was 20 feet away and I had to make it,” Horsfield said. “I tried to get aggressive. It didn’t work out.”

“I didn’t expect that,” Meyer said. “I thought I’d be putting.”

It also might not have been expected that Horsfield, the world No. 2 amateur from Manchester, England via Florida, would surrender the 2-up lead he’d forged after five holes, especially after roaring back from four down on the back nine of his morning semifinal match against Davis Riley with eight holes to play.

But that happened, Horsfield ousting Riley, who scored 5-under 30 on the front, 2 and 1 by winning six of the last seven holes.

Then, four hours later, the reverse happened, elevating Meyer into the upper ranks of American amateurs. His name now resides on a trophy with the Nicklaus-Woods-Mickelson-Evans crowd.

“He played his butt off,” Horsfield said of Meyer.

The turnabout aside, neither Meyer nor Horsfield played particularly brilliant golf. Including the usual concessions, Meyer was 1-under, Horsfield 2-over, with Meyer hitting six of 13 fairways off the tee and just nine of 17 greens in regulation. Horsfield hit seven fairways and 10 greens.

Where the 140-pound Meyer excelled was in overcoming Horsfield’s prodigious distance off the tee with a tantalizing short game that outperformed his foe.

“That doesn’t bother me at all,” Meyer said of being outdriven consistently. “I know my place. I’m not going to be a Dustin Johnson. I’m going to be a Zach Johnson. I’m going to short-game the death out of a golf course.”

Meyer’s only bogey of the day came on the par-4 fifth, when he failed to get up-and-down from 18 feet to save par, and handed Horsfield his 2-up advantage.

After that, Meyer authored five par saves in seven holes, starting the run by winning the sixth – which Horsfield three-putted for the fourth time in eight competitive rounds – and seventh to square the match. He took the lead on the par-5 10th with his best approach of the day, a saucy wedge to two feet to set up a birdie 4, then ran down a 20-footer to save par on the 11th, punctuated by a fist pump.

“We had the game plan all week of being relentless, just keep on hitting fairways and greens and putting my self in good positions.”

“There was no point that I had total control, because anything can happen in the championship match,” Meyer said. “But going to 17 tee box I felt I had a pretty good chance.”

Horsfield was around the hole all day, but the putts weren’t falling on Knollwood’s stressed-out greens as they had during stroke play qualifying, when he collected 27 birdies. Now a putt would roll by the hole or lip out rather than topple in.

“I had four lip-outs on the back nine,” Horsfield said. “I didn’t play bad at all. Dylan played great. It was a couple bad breaks here and there and a couple lipped-out putts.

“It hurts right now. I’ve never really felt like this in a tournament.”

Meyer’s putts fell.

“I was rolling the rock this week, as Coach (Mike Small) would say,” Meyer said.

Asked what Small would say to him, Meyer said, “Next? Today you won but tomorrow nobody really cares. Enjoy it tonight and tomorrow get back after it.”

Meyer is the first Fighting Illini team member, or alum, to win the Western Amateur. He’s from Evansville, Ind., and grew up playing public courses like Fendrich and Oak Meadow. More recently, he plays out of posh Victoria National, a frequent host of the Big Ten championship.

“If it wasn’t for the support of the city of Evansville and the golf courses back in town, this wouldn’t be possible,” Meyer said.

Around Knollwood 

Meyer’s 4 and 2 semifinal victory over William Gordon was relatively simple. He won the first, fourth and seventh holes and never led by less than 2-up the rest of the way. ... By 5 p.m., about 90 minutes after his victory, Meyer was trending on Twitter, and with a handle like @DJ_DFunk, why not? ... Meyer ranked this as his best victory, ahead of the Fighting Illini Invitational at Olympia Fields. ... Horsfield on the sixth green, scene of his three-putts: “Me and that green didn’t get along.” ... Play on the 16th hole was briefly held up because someone had absconded with the flag. ... Both Meyer and Horsfield are in the field for the U.S. Amateur, played this year at Oakland Hills in Birmingham, Mich. ... Along with No. 2 Horsfield, Gordon was 51st in the world amateur rankings, Riley came in 52nd, and Meyer was 68th.

– Tim Cronin