Ruthkoski captures Chicago Open in playoff

    Tuesday, October 7, 2014

    Andy Ruthkoski wants to be the next Carlos Sainz Jr.
    He’s going about it the right way.
    Ruthkoski did today what Sainz did last year. He won the 25th Chicago Open. Ruthkoski collected the centennial version of the title, and $10,000, with a 10-foot birdie putt to beat Casey Pyne on the second hole of a sudden-death playoff at Cantigny Golf in Wheaton.
    Now Ruthkoski wants to emulate Sainz’ next step and gain a PGA Tour card.
    Sainz did that earlier this fall. Ruthkoski will chase a Web.com Tour berth – that’s the PGA Tour’s version of Triple A – in order to do so.
    The money the 31-year-old Michigan native earned for winning will help stake his quest. He’s already played on the Tour on several occasions, including playing in the John Deere Classic after grabbing one of the four spots in Monday qualifying. But he’d like to find his way to a regular berth to chase the weekly pot o’gold.
    For now, he can bask in the spotlight as the Chicago Open champion, on a list with Sarazen and Hogan and Snead, who won the original version when it was on the big circuit.
    “It will be an honor to have my name on that trophy alongside all those guys,” Ruthkoski said.
    He scored 4-under-par 68 to finish at 2-under-par 216, while Pyne, from downstate Bloomington, used a 3-under 69 to match his total. Back-to-back birdies on the 11th and 12th – the second and third on Cantigny’s Lakeside nine – keyed Ruthkoski’s rally. Pyne settled for par on the second playoff hole, the ninth on Lakeside, but Ruthkoski’s 10-footer for a 3 was true.
    A five-man deadlock for third included:
    • Sainz, whose bogeys on the 16th and 18th cost him a second straight title;
    • Ryan Martin of Prestonburg, Ky., who bogeyed the 18th to miss the playoff;
    • Matt Thompson, the 2013 runner-up whose back-nine rally couldn’t make up for a 4-over outward nine;
    • Illinois Open challenger Michael Davan of Hoopeston, whose birdie at the last earned him extra cash;
    • and Illinois men’s golf coach Mike Small, who ran off five straight birdies on the back nine, part of a six-birdie binge across nine holes, only to double-bogey the 16th, his 4-under 68 a stroke more than needed. He had five double-bogeys in three rounds.
    John Callahan of Hinsdale was the low amateur, scoring 72 for 5-over 221.
    – Tim Cronin

Can Thompson hold off Sainz?

    Writing from Wheaton, Illinois
    Monday, October 6, 2014

    Matt Thompson is where you want to be heading into the final round of the 25th Chicago Open.
    He’s in the lead.
    But the man directly behind him is one of the last guys Thompson would want in hot pursuit.
    That would be Carlos Sainz Jr., the defending champion.
    If this sounds familiar, it should be. Thompson was the runner-up to Sainz in last year’s Chicago Open.
    Thompson, a 25-year-old third year pro from Marshall, Mich., scored his second straight 1-under-par 71 in a stiff breeze at Cantigny Golf on Monday, and stands at 2-under 142 with Tuesday’s final round looming.
    Sainz added a 71 to his opening 72 and is at 1-under 143 in his quest to be the first back-to-back winner of a Chicago Open – albeit under different management and in a different era – since Ken Venturi, who captured the 1958 and 1959 Gleneagles-Chicago Opens at that Lemont course.
    Sainz would be leading but for a major malfunction on the 18th hole. A double-bogey 6 at the last dropped him behind Thompson, who was in his threesome.
    Until that miscue, Sainz had been on a tear, racing back from a three-strokes deficit via a combination of his birdies and Thompson’s bogeys, including a two-shot swing in the par-5 14th.
    They’ll be coasing the $10,000 first prize in the final threesome on Tuesday, along with Ryan Martin of Prestonsburg, Ky., whose 71 for even-par 144 moved him into a tie for third. He’s deadlocked with Michael Davan of Hoopeston, who has flirted with the Illinois Open title the last two years.
    First round leader Chris Brant of Edwardsville blew up with a 7-over 79 and fell to 3-over 147 and a tie for 12th. Mike Small, Illinois’ men’s golf coach, added a 73 for 4-over 148. He’s tied for 17th, six strokes in arrears with 18 holes to play.
    – Tim Cronin

Edwardsville's Brant leads Chicago Open

Sunday, October 5, 2014

So far, the long trip from downstate Edwardsville has been worth it for Chris Brant.

Brant, looking to add the Chicago Open title to the Metropolitan Open crown he earned near St. Louis in July, fired a 4-under-par 68 on Sunday at Cantigny Golf in Wheaton and holds a two-stroke lead entering the second round of the 25th Chicago Open. Seven birdies splashed across his scorecard, offset by a trio of bogeys, added up to a pair of 34s on the Woodside and Lakeside nines of the 27-hole complex.

Brant’s nearest pursuer in the 54-hole test is Matt Slowinski, the head pro at Conway Farms with a stint at Cantigny on his resume. He played the back nine in 2-under 34 and stands at 2-under 70. That’s a stroke better than the trio of Matt Thompson, Andrew Ruthkowski and Garrett Jones, the first two from Michigan and the third a Wisconsin resident. They’re all at 1-under 71, the only other players under par.

Defending champion Carlos Sainz Jr., who recently earned his PGA Tour card, posted an even-par 72 that featured birdies on his first three holes, then three bogeys across the final 12 to bring him back to level. Sainz’s victory last year at Cantigny brought back memories of the days he worked at the course in high school.

Illinois men’s golf coach Mike Small, always a threat when there’s a purse available – first place awards $10,000 from the $50,000 purse – fired an untidy 3-over 75 and is tied for 20th. A holeout for eagle 2 from the fairway of the par-4 12th was more than offset by a pair of double-bogeys on the second and fifth holes.

Mark Hensby, the Australian native who became as well-known for sleeping in his car in the Cog Hill parking lot as for winning the 2004 John Deere Classic, scored 78 in his first round, and, tied for 50th, is in danger of missing the cut. The field of 96 will be trimmed to 40 and ties after Monday’s adventure.

Hinsdale’s John Callahan is the low amateur through 18 holes thanks to an even-par 72.

– Tim Cronin

It's official: BMW to Indy in 2016

    Writing from Chicago
    Tuesday, September 9, 2014

    Crooked Stick Country Club members have approved the return of the BMW Championship to Carmel, Ind., club in 2016, the Western Golf Association announced today.
    The vote, taken Au. 28, was expected. Other details took longer to iron out. Crooked Stick hosted the 2012 tournament, won by Rory McIlroy, and spectators turned out en masse despite several downpours and wet conditions over the course of the week.
    It also earned close to $3 million for the Evans Scholars Foundation, the Western’s caddies-to-college arm.
    “We are thrilled to be bringing the BMW Championship back to Crooked Stick Golf Club, where we had such a successful event in 2012, thanks in large part to the tremendous community and business support in the market,” Vince Pellegrino, the WGA’s senior vice president of tournaments, said in a release.
    “We look forward to engaging again with the great people of Indiana and to producing the very best fan environment possible.”    
    The precise date has not yet been set. The 2016 schedule is complicated but not only the Ryder Cup, but the Olympics.
    Next year’s BMW – the 112th edition of the traditionally-named Western Open – is Sept. 17-20 at Conway Farms Golf Club in Lake Forest. Conway Farms is also expected to host in 2017, with the WGA settled into a routine that has the tournament in Chicagoland in odd-numbered years and out of town in even-numbered years.
    Tournament officials and the brass at Cherry Hills Country Club, which hosted last year’s edition, were thrilled with the response from the public, corporate support, and the players, but when the Western might return to the club, or go to nearby Castle Pines Golf Club, host of the old International, is the big question. The next available date is 2018.
    “It’s my personal opinion that the state of Colorado has to be looked at for the BMW Championship in the next five, 10 years,” club member George Solich, an Evans Scholar and the general chairman of the big week, told The Denver Post. “I know the PGA Tour wants to come back to Colorado.”
    Solich, also a member of Castle Pines, noted it’s in Cherry Hills’ charter to host championship golf.
    “We wanted to get in the conversation,” he told the Post. “I think we’ve done that.”
    – Tim Cronin

A Horschel of a winning color

    Writing from Cherry Hills Village, Colorado
    Sunday, September 7, 2014

    Here is how you go out and win the BMW Championship six days after after you fatted a 6-iron into the gunch and took yourself out of a shot at a trophy in Boston:
    1. You par the last 11 holes.
    2. You watch your closest pursuers, including the top-ranked player in the world and various pretenders to his crown, blow up down the stretch.
    Not a likely scenario, you say? Too many chances for someone to go wild on the scoreboard?
    Well, it worked on Sunday for Billy Horschel. He scored 1-under-par 69 for a total of 14-under-par 266 and a two-stroke victory over Bubba Watson, who didn’t quite bring Cherry Hills Country Club to its knees with his altitude-influenced length.
    The saving grace for Horschel was that while there were low rounds galore on Sunday – 45 of the 66 remaining players were under the par of 70 – the lowest rounds came from those too far back to challenge. A course-record tying 62 from Russell Knox. A 63 from Morgan Hoffman following a Saturday 62, which got him into next week’s chase for the bullion in Atlanta. And 66s from the likes of Watson, Jim Furyk, Adam Scott and Rory “Four Putt” McIlroy. Yes, he did it again on Sunday, and again on the 12th hole.
    Watson might have challenged had he not bogeyed the first and ninth holes. He was close at the finish only because he birdied the 16th and 17th. Hoffman finished third at 11-under 269 because he played the last 13 holes in 8-under, but a bogey and double-bogey in his first five holes prevented him from forcing the issue.
    Those who had that chance squandered it. Ryan Palmer, three back at dawn, and who tied Horschel briefly on the front nine, played his last seven holes in 5-over, finished with a 71, and stumbled into a tie for fourth at 9-under 271. U.S. Open champion Martin Kaymer, also in the final threesome, slept his way to a 73. Sergio Garcia was in the chase until the par-5 17th hole, where he landed in the rough behind the island green with his third shot, then rolled his overcooked pitch into the water. He made an 8. And McIlroy, the world’s top-ranked player, followed Saturday’s four-putt triple bogey 6 on the par-3 12th with a four-putt double-bogey 5. So much for hitting the green in regulation.
    Where was Horschel during all this? Serenely making par after par, 11 in a row to finish after a birdie on the par-4 seventh. The man didn’t three-putt all week, a big reason he ranked first in putting.
    “I sure didn’t make it as easy as I would have loved,” Horschel said. “But I was able to grind something out and get a victory at the end of the day.”
    Which was the point of the exercise. Aside from a photo session with an old trophy and $1.44 million to shove in his pocket, he also moves to the No. 2 spot in the point standings. A win next week in the Tour Championship, and he collects the $10 million FedEx is putting up for first spot.
    It was quite the turnaround from the bobble in Boston.
    “That never crossed my mind,” Horschel said. “I guess you say it’s redemption, but I was coming from behind (there).”
    Here, nobody could surpass him. A 22-foot birdie putt on the par-4 seventh following a bogey on the sixth put him back into the lead. Palmer nipped at his heels for a time, but his bogey on the 12th and double on the 13th took him out of the picture.
    Garcia was two back with two to play until his improbable snowman meltdown on the 548-yard 17th. Into the water with the fourth shot was not something anyone contemplated.
    “It’s what happens when you’re not just mentally sharp,” Garcia said, slyly referencing the four-week playoff grind – though he skipped last week. “If I was mentally sharp, if I was rested, the way I was at the beginning and the middle of the year, I would have talked myself into going for the green (on the second shot). Then just a mistake after another mistake.
    “At least if I’m up there, that’s what is important.”
    Watson ended up up there with a third straight 66. His back nine of 4-under 36 was only surpassed among the top finishers by Hoffman’s 6-under 30.
    “I turned it around,” Watson said.
    All except his putting. He took 119 putts, compared to Horschel’s 113.
    “You’re going to have weeks like that,” Watson said. “I had a chance to scare him (at the last), but I missed it. I’ll take it. Second place is a start in the right direction.”
    Just about the only run that was made was Horschel’s, up the hill in front of the 18th green. It was a 50-yard sprint by a man in need of relief.
    What Horschel is not – at least at this writing – is a well-known winner. Over 111 Western Opens, the old carnival has had its share of lesser-known champions. Joe Durant comes to mind, only because he wouldn’t otherwise come to mind.
    But, unlike Tom Watson’s breakthrough at Butler National in 1974, this isn’t Horschel’s first victory. He won in New Orleans last year. This victory, though, is bigger, thanks to the bonuses: the shot at the $10 million bonus, the automatic berths in the Masters, U.S. Open and British Open, the exemption through 2016, and the knowledge that he can beat the best, even if he didn’t think he was playing his best. And for someone who wasn’t going to look at leader boards, he broke down and peeked.
    “I looked on the 16th and saw Sergio was two back and Bubba was three back, and I liked my chances,” Horschel said. “On the 17th, before I hit my second, I saw that Sergio chipped into the water.”
    All he had to do was play the last two holes in par, as he had the previous nine. And he did.
    “It means a lot to win, especially an event in the FedEx Cup playoffs,” Horschel said. “Now I’ve got a chance to win $10 million. It’s another step down the road.
    “I like my chances (to win it all). If I was a betting man I’d put some money on me. I’m not going to go ahead and guarantee a victory, but I will say I expect to play very well and expect to have a chance to win on Sunday.”
    – Tim Cronin