In IWO, a child will lead them

    Writing from Romeoville, Illinois
    Monday, July 27, 2015

    Madasyn Pettersen has been playing golf for 11 years.
    She’s 15.
    Monday, her 4-under-par 68 paced the field in the first round of the 21st Illinois Women’a Open at Mistwood Golf Club. And she wasn’t surprised at all.
    “It was just a normal day,” Pettersen said.
    For her, at least.
    The Rockford teen had fired a 68 in the middle round of last week’s AJGA Midwest Junior Players Championship at Mistwood, and eventually finished second to Naperville’s Bing Singhsumalee.
    This time, Pettersen leads Chelsea Harris and Jessica Yuen by two strokes, and Ember Schuldt and Katy Jarochowicz by three strokes, with 36 holes to play. Singhsumalee is tied for seventh after at even-par 72.
    Given the spate of youthful golfers on the international stage, this shouldn’t be a surprise.  Pettersen is just three years younger than top-ranked Lydia Ko, for instance. The two share one trait: They can putt.
    Pettersen scored five birdies, including three in a row, after bogeying the par-4 second hole on Monday. The 30-footer for a bird on the par-4 fourth hole was her longest.
    “I’m just a great putter,” Pettersen said, volunteering that she three-putted twice.
    She also has high goals.
    “I want to break Kathy Whitworth’s record of 88 wins,” Pettersen said.
    It’s impressive enough that she knows of Whitworth, whose last victory was 30 years ago. But Pettersen isn’t brash, just bubbly.
    And her resume is growing. She won the IWGA Junior last year, two years after getting disqualified for using a range finder she thought was allowed. At 7, she was playing so well the women who run the Rockford Women’s Golf Association were worried she would beat them in the Rockford Women’s Golf Classic, and arranged for her to play in the IWGA Junior instead.
    That was only her fourth year on the links. Last year, their worry finally came true, Pettersen winning after a year off to fight an inflamed shoulder, plus a stomach-related hopsital stay.
    So far this week, she’s again beating all the girls, young and old. And this time, it’s amateur and pro.
    Harris, for instance, is the assistant coach of the women’s team at Illinois State. She posted her 2-under 70 on the 6,249-yard layout playing with Yuen.
    “I focused on tempo,” Harris said. “Made five birdies. Having three bogeys in a row fired me up.”
    Those came on Nos. 8, 9, and 10, and were followed by birdies on the 11th, 13th and 15th holes – the latter a tap-in after missing a 6-footer for eagle on the par-5 in Kelpie’s Korner. She had been 2-under until riding the bogey train, but finished 2-under, which bodes well for the second round.
    “I’ve only played 10 times this summer,” Harris said. “But this is my favorite tournament of the year behind the U.S. Open.”
    Yuen’s 70 was less eventful, with three birdies and a bogey, but she closed with a birdie on the par-5 18th, one of only five there on the day, and essentially picked up two strokes on the field.
    Yuen, a Missouri recruit who will be a senior at Nequa Valley this fall, switched teachers last year, and says working with John Platt, Mistwood’s ace instructor, has paid off.
    “I feel more confident in my swing,” Yuen said. “I hit 15 greens. I was attacking the hole all day. Tomorrow, I want to repeat it or do better.”
    The field averaged 77.11 strokes, the most impressive the one by Brooke Ferrell of Edgerton, Wis., on the par-3 seventh hole. Her 166-yard 7-iron found the bottom of the cup.
    “I actually wasn’t very happy with the shot,” Ferrell said of her first impression of her hole-in-one. “It was a chunk-and-run.”
    Ferrell finished with a 1-under 71 and is in the thick of it.

    – Tim Cronin

Emotional Cooke captures Illinois Open

By Tim Cronin

Writing from Long Grove

Wednesday, July 22, 2015

The numbers were astounding. An aggregate score of 199, 16 under par for 54 holes. A total of 128 for the final 36 holes.

All were records, all set by 22-year-old David Cooke, who won the Illinois Open by five strokes on Wednesday at Royal Melbourne Country Club. That matched the largest margin of victory by an amateur, equaling Gary Hallberg’s success in 1977.

But there was someone missing on Wednesday, as there has been since Dec. 23, when Chad Cooke, David’s younger brother, died while he and David were playing a game of pick-up basketball in the western suburbs. A heart disorder was the cause.

“It’s been an emotional few months,” Cooke said at the trophy ceremony. With older brother Jay on his bag and his parents tagging along for the round, Cooke made Chad proud with a final-round 9-under-par 63.

“Chaddie the caddie, my dad said when I don’t have a caddie in my college events,” Cooke said. “It’s been really difficult. We’ve been helping each other out. But he was a strong encourager of everybody, and so I knew if it was up to him he’d definitely want me playing. I tried to focus on that, think about the positives.

“We had a lot of great memories, me and my little brother, and I wish more than anything I could have him back.”

Cooke, a Lisle resident who entering his senior year at North Carolina State, beat Web.com pro Vince India (11-under 204), who collected the $12,500 first prize, by five strokes and Bloomington’s Matt Miller (10-under 205) by six. Rich Dukelow of Evergreen Park would have finished tied for fourth at 5-under 210 after his final round 71, but signed for an incorrect scorecard and was disqualified. The miscue of signing for a 4 on the last hole when he scored 5 cost him $5,166.67.

Instead, he got nothing and Eric Meierdierks and Gary March, the two others at 210, earned $5,750 each.

Dukelow discovered the mistake and told the scoring department.

“You can’t be a cheat,” Dukelow said between puffs on a cigarette.

The only snag in Cooke’s round came on the 17th hole, where he airmailed his approach over the green and into the junk behind the hole. After his drop, he knocked a couple of leaves off a branch taking a practice swing, but was ruled not to have violated a rule against improving his swing because the practice swing was well away from the ball.

“I talked to Trey (Van Dyke, a rules official), he was the one who helped me drop, and he said it was OK as long as it wasn’t on the intended path,” Cooke said. “And it was only a couple, three leaves.”

Cooke, who bogeyed the 17th, would have won regardless of a penalty, so solid was his game. He opened with an eagle and two birdies, then birdied the fifth and eighth holes to go out in 6-under 30. He built a four-stroke lead over India at the turn and could coast from there.

“There were some nerves on the first tee, and I was just trying to get off to a good start,” Cooke said. “I was trying to take advantage of the first hole since it was changed to a par 5.  I had a good yardage and figured I could go straight at it.”

He did, drilling a 144-yard pitching wedge to six feet and dropping the putt for an eagle. That broke the overnight tie with Brad Marek, who birdied. Cooke didn’t stop there. Really, he didn’t stop until he was in the clubhouse, scattering nine birdies in all, including a curling six-footer at the last for the 63, a stroke off the course record.

“It was definitely nerve-racking, the first time with an overnight lead in a professional event,” Cooke said.

Cooke was not only the winner and low amateur, he was the low amateur by 13 strokes, that far ahead of Lincolnshire’s Jack Watson.

India, able to play because the PGA Tour’s stepping-stone circuit had the week off, played with Cooke and knew he’d have to go lower than the 67 he posted.

“I’d have had to shoot 11-under (61) to win,” India said. “I didn’t get in trouble all day and shot 5-under.”

His goal is the PGA Tour, but at 26 he still wants to win a state title.

“This one has eluded me,” India said.

Amateur Matt Weber, out in the day’s third group, fired a 10-under 62 to match the course record set by David Lawrence on Monday, when the course was set up as a par 71. For Weber, a Hinsdale resident who will be a sophomore at Indiana, the day was a dream round. He birdied six of the first seven holes, turned in 7-under 29, and ended up with birdies on 11 of the first 15.

Yes, 59, golf’s magic number, entered his mind.

“I was trying to just not worry about it too much,” Weber said.

His last birdie, on the par-5 15th, came about when he rolled in a putt from five yards off the green. But a lip-out on the par-5 17th and a closing bogey when he missed a curling six footer for an up-and-down forced him to settle for a 62 and an eventual tie for 13th.

For his part, Lawrence rebounded from Tuesday’s 80 at Hawthorn Woods with a 2-under 70 to finished tied for 9th at 2-under 213.

Cooke, Marek share lead entering Illinois Open's final round

Writing from Long Grove, Illinois

Tuesday, July 21, 2015

By Tim Cronin

LONG GROVE, Ill. – Everything lined up perfectly for David Cooke on Tuesday. The 22-year-old amateur from Lisle was in the second group off the tee at Royal Melbourne Country Club. The wind was negligible, the greens inviting.

And Cooke took advantage, scoring 6-under-par 65 for a 36-hole total of 7-under 136 and a share of the lead with Brad Marek of Arlington Heights going into the final round of the 66th Illinois Open.

Marek scored 6-under 66 in the afternoon at Hawthorn Woods Country Club, the other course the first two rounds were played on.

The duo has a one-stroke lead over Deerfield’s Vince India and a three-stroke advantage on Evergreen Park’s Rich Dukelow entering the final 18. India added a 1-under 71 at Hawthorn Woods Country Club for 6-under 137, while Dukelow toured Royal Melbourne in 2-under 69 for 4-under 139.

Bloomington’s Matt Miller, Algonquin’s Scott Cahill and Wilmette’s Eric Meierdierks, the 2010 winner, are a stroke further back at 3-under 140, Miller and Meierdierks firing 69s, Cahill a 72 at Hawthorn Woods.

Curtis Malm, the 2000 winner, and perennial contender Gary March are tied for eighth at 2-under 141.

The cut fell at 8-over 151, with 80 players, including 51 pros and 29 amateurs, surviving from the expanded field of 258.

“I was trying to stay patient,” said Cooke, who opened with a 1-under 71 on Monday at Hawthorn Woods. “The greens were still in perfect shape, still soft because of rains earlier in the week. It was the right time to play well.”

Cooke is entering his senior year at North Carolina State. He advanced to the Illinois Open by surviving a three-hole playoff in his qualifier at Royal Hawk Country Club. After opening the second round with a pair of birdies, he bogeyed the third hole, but birdied the sixth to go out in 2-under 33. The big noise came on the inward nine, starting with a 20-footer for a deuce on the 10th hole.

Cooke stood 4-under for the day on the 17th tee, and took what he called “a pretty aggressive line” on the dogleg-right par-5. That gave him the chance to go for the green on the 543-yard hole in two, and he drilled his second shot to eight feet, sinking the putt for an eagle 3 and, after one more par, 65.

“I knew it was out there,” Cooke said, referencing the record 9-under 62 of David Lawrence on Monday.

Dukelow’s game had been average until he took a putting tip from Medinah Country Club shop manager Preston “Pepi” Irwin. He’s responded with a 70 at Hawthorn Woods and Tuesday’s 69 at Royal Melbourne for 4-under 139 and a contender’s position entering the final 18 holes.

“I made some setup changes,” Dukelow said. “I’d gotten into some bad habits. How? By playing golf!”

He was even par for the day through 12, but dropped an 8-foot birdie putt on the par-4 13th after a splendid 6-iron approach from a tilted lie. It was the first of three straight birdies that jumped him up the leader board.

Meanwhile, there was a meltdown at Hawthorn Woods. Lawrence, whose 62 established course and championship scoring records Monday at Royal Melbourne, imploded with an 8-over 80. The stroke-a-hole higher score may be a record for a contender’s going higher in an Illinois Open. Lawrence, who managed but one birdie, and capped off his round with three bogeys and a double-bogey, still stands at 1-under 142 and tied for 10th with Josh Esler, Michael Sainz and amateur Varun Chopra entering the final day.

Northbrook’s Nick Hardy, whose summer included making the cut in the U.S. Open, also went in the wrong direction. The sophomore at Illinois added an 81 to his opening 66 to fall to 4-over 147 and a tie for 37th.

The kiddy corps had a mixed day. Morton’s Tommy Kuhl, 15, made the cut by adding a 76 at Hawthorn Woods to Monday’s 72 at Royal Melbourne. Lincolnshire’s Jackson Bussell, 14, missed the cut with a 81-79 showing for 17-over 160.

Record 62 for Lawrence in Illinois Open

Writing from Long Grove

Monday, July 20, 2015

By Tim Cronin

David Lawrence is one of the countless players with enough game to play in the big leagues of golf who has yet to have the opportunity to play for millions.

Monday, he may have moved a step closer.

Lawrence, a 25-year-old from Moline, scored a career low 9-under-par 62 at Royal Melbourne Country Club, simultaneously setting records for the course and a single round of the Illinois Open.

His afternoon delight in the opening round of the 66th edition pushed him four strokes ahead of Glen Ellyn’s Matt Slowinski, Deerfield’s Vince India, and Northbrook amateur Nick Hardy. Their 66s look positively bloated in comparison.

Lawrence, an Eastern Illinois graduate, is mostly living off mini-tour income while he counts the days toward the next PGA Tour qualifying tournament. That means grinding out rounds on Florida’s Moonlight Tour and in picture postcard outposts as Vermillion, South Dakota.

He’d managed a 29 over the winter, a suggestion that the mental coaching from Darin Hoff is paying off. Monday’s 62 on the 6,701-yard Greg Norman-designed layout was more than a suggestion. It was proof.

“I’ve always had a hard time keeping the momentum going,” Lawrence said. “He’s taught me to reset during a round.”
He punched the reset button early and often, the first time soon after his birdie on the par-3 10th, his first hole.

“It’s good to put a two on your card early,” Lawrence said of his 8-foot uphill putt.

Lawrence splashed 10 birdies across his card, sullied by only one bogey on the par-4 12th hole.

“I had two lip-outs and a couple of putts that could have fallen,” Lawrence said.

He birdied his first two holes, then the 14th through 18th to make the turn in 6-under 30, and added three more birdies in the middle of the front nine. No birdie putt was longer than 15 feet, indicating great accuracy with his approach shots.

Lawrence’s marvelous score erased the Illinois Open record of 64 set by Dusti Watson at Royal Fox Country Club in 1994 and matched by Scott Moore at the Glen Club in 2003. It also knocked off, by four strokes, the Royal Melbourne mark of 66.

The last time a course record in the Chicago area was broken by four strokes, the culprit was Robert Gamez, whose 64 on Cog Hill’s Dubsdread layout during the 1989 U.S. Public Links Championship erased a collection of 68s. Soon after, he was on the PGA Tour.

Earlier, Slowinski’s day on the golf course did not start propitiously.

“You never feel good hitting a provisional on the first hole,” Slowinski said of his opening drive at Royal Melbourne, which turned left and found driveway rather than fairway.

The day ended delightfully, with a 125-yard pitch for an eagle 2 on the 432-yard home hole. Slowinski’s deuce brought him in with a 5-under-par 66, good for a share of the lead in the expanded field of 258 competitors until Lawrence barged in.

He shared the lead with Hardy, who graduated from Glenbrook North 14 months ago and since then has played a key role in Illinois’ winning the Big Ten championship, its semifinalist finish in the NCAA Championship, and has made the cut in the U.S. Open. Hardy birdied four of his first five holes on Monday before coming back to earth and going around Royal Melbourne in 1-under figures the rest of the round.

“The experiences have been building up and the confidence has been growing,” Hardy said while hanging out at a luncheon table with fellow Fighting Illini player Alex Burge, who opened with a 75 at Royal Melbourne, and coach Mike Small, who is among those eight strokes back after a 1-under 70 at Royal Melbourne.

Slowinski, India and Hardy, at 5-under 66, would have been the tri-leaders in most circumstances. There are three players at 3-under, with amateur Philip Arouca and professional Scott Cahill scoring 68 at par-71 Royal Melbourne, with Casey Pyne posting a 69 at par-72 Hawthorn Woods Country Club, the other site for the first two rounds of this expanded-field Illinois Open. There are 258 players in the field, 132 at Royal Melbourne and 126 at Hawthorn Woods, with the field exchanging sites on Tuesday. The low 70 and ties will advance to Wednesday’s final round at Royal Melbourne.

“It’s nice to get more people in the field,” Slowinski said. “I think it’s just going to make the event better and build upon it from year to year.”

To Solwinski, the key to his round was a slight change in his putting stance. Putts rolled truer, and disappeared more often. After the opening bogey, he birdied the second, fourth and sixth holes to go out in 2-under 33, followed by a birdie on the par-3 10th. A string of pars ended with the hole-out at the last.

“I pushed it a little to the right, but it caught the slope and went in,” Slowinski said of his pured gap wedge.

Brad Hopfinger, the 2014 champion, is on the Web.com Tour and was unable to defend his title.

Dustin Korte of downstate Metropolis, who tied for second and was low amateur two years ago, was disqualified on Monday for carrying his own bag. Illinois Open rules require either a caddie or a cart.

More John Deere magic from Spieth

By Tim Cronin

Writing from Silvis, Illinois

Sunday, July 12, 2015

“Magic happens here,” goes the two-year-old slogan for the John Deere Classic.

It was coined after Jordan Spieth’s par save from the greenside bunker on the 18th hole catapulted him into the playoff he won that sent the then-19-year-old’s career into golf’s stratosphere.

Two years on, Spieth arrived at TPC Deere Run as the reigning Masters and U.S. Open champion, the No. 2 player in the world, and the favorite to win next week’s British Open at St. Andrews.

Critics said he should already have been touring the Old Course, where he played in 2011, to soak up its nuances, or at least play the Scottish Open on a links course.

Spieth knows his game and knows how to prepare for every eventuality. He came to the Deere, flirted with the cut line for 22 holes, then got down to business.

Sunday, after surrendering the lead and then roaring back from a four-stroke deficit, came the fruits of his labor, a second Deere title in three years. Once again, it came in a playoff.

This time, it was against one man, journeyman Tom Gillis, and it lasted two holes. When Gillis, who turns 47 on Thursday, sent his approach on the par-4 18th into the water from a sketchy lie in the right rough, all Spieth had to do was find the green with his approach and two putt for par. Mission accomplished.

Magic accomplished as well.

Spieth, who turns 22 on July 23, is the first player since 1990 to have four victories in a year before the British Open. Tiger Woods accomplished that feat what now seems like an eternity ago.

And he remains the nicest kid on the block that is big-time golf. Even Gillis, trumped in his best chance for a victory since finishing second, along with Woods, to Rory McIlroy in the 2012 Honda Classic, thought so, especially after Spieth started talking to him as they walked to the tee for the second hole of the playoff.

“He said, ‘This is fun, isn’t it?’ And I said, ‘This is what you strive for.’ And that’s the point where I say he’s a good person,” Gillis said. “He didn’t have to say anything. He’s grounded and he had perspective that he’s enjoying it, and I think that’s really important.

“I don’t want to say I’m in awe, but this kid’s the future of the game.”

Gillis was pleased to be competitive after a four-month layoff for shoulder surgery and struggling to make cuts. He came into the week 643rd in the world and 199th on the money list, and left with a ticket to St. Andrews and a spot on the Deere-provided nonstop charter to Scotland.

“There’s still tread on the tires,” Gillis said. “You start to get to the point where you wonder how much more is there. The window is closing, so anytime you get into a playoff or you could have avoided a playoff, you think about it.”

There was enough for him to fire a 7-under-par 64 in the heat of Sunday – both the atmospheric sauna and the pressure – while Spieth was struggling for the longest time en route to a 68. He was four strokes back after Gillis, who went out in 5-under 30, birdied the 12th hole and Spieth bogeyed the 11th. At that point, Spieth was tied for fourth, with Johnson Wagner and Zach Johnson between him and Gillis, and holes were running out.

Or were they?

“All we were saying is, we birdied five out of the last six two years ago to get into a playoff, so why can’t we do it again,” Spieth said of his conversation with caddie Michael Greller.

So he birdied the par-4 13th from 23 feet, the par-4 14th from five feet, the par-3 16th by chipping in from 21 feet, and the par-5 17th from 3 1/2 feet. The shock waves – not as loud as the M-80 that went off courtesy of a lout on a boat on the Rock River that caused Zach Johnson to jump two feet in the air, but close – reverberated around Deere Run.

Spieth, thinking ahead toward next week, liked the birdie on the 17th most.

“Seventeen gives me a lot of confidence because I know where I’m at,” Spieth said, referencing a drive in the fairway – one of only eight on his day – and a solid second shot. “I’m going to look back on that hole as how I performed under pressure. The most pressure.”

Much like he may feel next week.

Gillis had birdied the par-4 15th, but bogeyed the 16th, three-putting from 26 feet by missing a 4-footer for par. He saved par with a nifty chip on the 17th, forcing Spieth, Johnson and Danny Lee to match his total of 20-under-par 264.

Spieth did. Johnson lipped out a 14-foot birdie putt at the last after scrambling to save par on much of the back nine and finished at 19-under 265 via a 65.

Lee, who played with Spieth, fired a 67 and also missed by a stroke – one he never made. He was penalized a stroke on the par-4 fourth hole for picking up his ball, believing the day’s rules included the PGA Tour’s “lift, clean and place” regulation, as was the case Saturday.

It was not the case on Sunday, and he made a bogey 5 instead of a par 4. After a rally with birdies on the 14th, 16th and 17th to get to 20-under, Lee bogeyed the home hole, overshooting the green and failing to sink a 16-footer for par, misreading the break.

“I wasn’t thinking anything,” Lee said of his gaffe. “I just put a tee behind the ball and picked it up and, oh no, wait a minute, it’s not life, clean and place.”

In contrast with his climb back into contention, the playoff for Spieth was, if not easy, routine. Spieth missed the fairway to the right off the tee on the first playoff hole, but wasn’t blocked by trees, and had no trouble making par along with Gillis. The second time around, Spieth hit the fairway, Gillis missed wide right and was forced to manufacture an approach out of a sketchy lie. He overcooked it into the pond well short of the green.

“I tried to force it, and I’d do the same thing again in a playoff,” Gillis said. “I wouldn’t do it in medal play.”

Gillis’ consolation prize, aside from a career-best payday of $507,600, $6,000 more than he won at the Honda three years ago, is the last ticket into the British Open. He’s played in two of them, plus the Old Course on several occasions when he was a member of the European Tour.

“Spent five years over there and went back and forth,” Gillis recalled. “I said I wasn’t going if I got a spot. I think I was just talking big. Then I find myself looking at the board and thinking, man, I wouldn’t mind getting that spot.

“I don’t have any sweaters, I have nothing. I have a passport, but that’s it.”

Even as Spieth looks forward to the challenge of getting three-quarters of the way to the Grand Slam, Gillis looks forward to what may be one last whirl around the Auld Gray Toon and the course that made it famous.

“I’ve played it a bunch,” Gillis said. “Last time I was there was about three years ago for the Dunhill Links Championship, and every time you walk up that first tee, it’s emotional.

“I’ve never been like that anywhere else. I’ve never been to Augusta, but when I walk off the first tee at St. Andrews, it’s very euphoric.”

Given that, it can nearly be said there was two winners on Sunday at Deere Run. Magic works that way.

About next year

The presence of golf in the Rio Olympics is jumbling the PGA Tour calendar, and the Deere’s expected to be affected. Tournament director Clair Peterson said it wasn’t set in stone, but don’t be surprised if the Deere is scheduled directly against the men’s tournament at Rio in early August, which will likely mean Jordan Spieth wouldn’t be around the defend his title. The PGA Championship moved to July next year to open the way for the Rio tournament.

“We’ll worry about that later,” Peterson said. He expects to know next year’s date by late this month.

Around Deere Run

With 47 rounds under 70 and 60 of the 73 players breaking par, the average of 68.767 strokes was the lowest for the final round since at least 2003. The overall average of 69.648 was the lowest since 2013. There were 1,990 birdies over five days for the Birdies for Charity donors to write checks against. ... Chris Stroud’s 8-under 63 was the day’s best round, and vaulted him into a tie for fifth with Johnson Wagner and Justin Thomas at 18-under 266. ... Tom “Boo” Weekley had the day’s high round, a 7-over 78. ... Peterson doesn’t give out attendance figures for some reason, but said that compared to 2014, revenue from tickets, concessions and parking was up 200 percent on Wednesday, up 35 percent on Thursday and up 36 percent on Friday. He said they were about 30 cars from filling the main spectator parking lot at Quad City Downs, the shuttered horse racing track, on Thursday. “That’s never happened,” Peterson said. ... Sunday’s crowd, which appeared to be about 26,000, was the largest many longtime Deere attendees had ever seen. Even Spieth was impressed with how crowded the 18th hole was. ... Amateur Lee McCoy, first out and playing as a single, started at 7:10 a.m. and finished just before 10 a.m. Trailed by about 10 fans, he scored 1-under 70 and finished at 2-over 286.