Ghim's record 63 settles the question

    Writing from Chicago
    Wednesday, July 30, 2014

    Doug Ghim of Arlington Heights is the antithesis of the pampered private-course golfer. At 18, recently graduated from Buffalo Grove High School, he’s grown up on private courses.
    “I go wherever there’s a bargain,” Ghim said. “Buffalo Grove, Old Orchard, wherever.”
    His star has been shining bright for some time – he’ll be enrolling at Texas within weeks to start his college career – and gained national attention recently with his runner-up finish in the last playing of the U.S. Public Links Championship.
    Wednesday, he surpassed even that with a course-record 8-under-par 63 at Beverly Country Club in the second round of stroke play qualifying in the 112nd Western Amateur. Coupled with his first round 69, his 36-hole aggregate of 10-under-par 132 earned him a three-stroke lead over Bryson DeChambeau of Clovis, Calif., entering Thursday’s 36-hole chase for spots in the Sweet Sixteen.
    “We just played smart all day,” Ghim said. “My dad (his caddie and teacher) and I made sure, especially after yesterday, seeing how important having uphill putts is here, that pin high was about as far as we’re going to go into the green. For most of the day I was below the hole, and made a couple of putts along the way.”
    More than a couple, actually. After opening with five pars, Ghim birdied the sixth, seventh and ninth holes, then added birds on Nos. 10, 11, 13 and 14 for seven in nine holes, and one more for good measure on the par-5 18th. That one, a 10-foot left-to-right sidehill adventure, added a back nine 30 to his front nine 33.
    Ghim, who tied for 11th in the Western Junior at Beverly three years ago. He rides home with his dad every night. The feeling of familiarity and neighborliness has created a cocoon of comfort for him.
    “It’s a little bit easier when a tournament this big is at home,” Ghim told the WGA’s Barry Cronin. “Sleeping in your own bed, I’m not really that tired.”
    The rest of the field may tire of chasing him. DeChambeau added a 68 to his 67 for 7-under 135, while Illinois senior Brian Campbell, tied for third at 6-under 136, threw 11 threes on his card to post a 7-under 64, which would have tied the all-time course record, before and after the 2003 renovation by Ron Prichard, before Ghim worked his magic in the morning.
    “The wind was down, so the course was gettable,” Campbell said. “Just keep grinding for birdies.”
    Such as the one on the par-5 18th, where his second shot landed on a downhill slope to the front right of the green and with a small tree in the way. He slashed a lob wedge through the rough, the ball popped over the tree, bounced onto the green and finished on the collar, left and 25 feet from the cup.
    Now the fun began. Campbell surveyed the tilted green, which features a 5 percent slope where the cup was cut, and aimed high. The ball probably rolled 40 feet to find its target, falling into the cup from the high side.
    “It could have been the putt of my life,” Campbell said.
    Xander Schauffele and first round co-leader Geoff Drakeford are also at 136.
    A host of notables follow, including first round co-leader Zecheng Dou (tied for seventh at 5-under 137 after 1-over 72), 2012 U.S. Open contender Beau Hossler and Scott Scheffler (tied for 10th at 4-under 138), defending champion Jordan Niebrugge (tied for 13th at 3-under 139), and Frankfort’s Brian Bullington and 15-year-old Tianlang Guan of China (tied for 30th at 1-under 141).
    Niebrugge’s birdie putt at 18 which brought him in at 70 may have outdone the heroics of Ghim and Campbell combined. He was above the hole to the left, and had to aim slightly uphill and away from the cup to get the ball rolling on the proper trajectory.
    “Up the hill and 20 feet across, then 15 feet downhill,” Niebrugge said.
    He also said he was fortunate to be at 139, given his propensity to miss fairways, sometimes by wide margins.
    “I hung in and did what I could,” Niebrugge said. “When you’re not hitting fairways, it’s a struggle to attack pins. I’m hitting it fine. It’s more of a mental thing. But I’ve been able to get it up to the green somehow and able to make par.”
    The key for everyone on Wednesday was to get to the low 44 and ties to advance to Thursday’s 36-hole marathon, which will trim the field to the 16 eligible for match play. The cut fell at even par 142 and includes 50 players. Among those missing the cut: Trevor Sluman (nephew of Jeff Sluman), Wheaton’s Tim “Tee-K” Kelly, and Beverly club champion Dave Lubnik, whose 82-83 for 23-over 165 brought up the rear.
    – Tim Cronin

Texan Collins crushes IWO field

    Writing from Romeoville, Illinois
    Wednesday, July 30, 2014

    It’s a good feeling to have a five-stroke lead entering the final round of a tournament.
    Emily Collins had that feeling going into the finish of the 20th Phil Kosin Illinois Women’s Open.
    She had an even better feeling down the stretch, when she led by as many as 10 strokes.
    Collins, a recent graduate of Oklahoma who hails from Colleyville, Tex., scored a nine-stroke victory and collected the first prize of $5,000 with a final round of 1-under-par 71 and a 54-hole aggregate of 4-under 212 at Mistwood Golf Club, her first victory as a professional.
    “I had won a couple other little things (as an amateur) in Texas,” Collins said. “I wouldn’t say I was surprised (at the final round). This is definitely exciting.”
    Knotted in fourth place were a quartet at 5-over 221: amateurs Ashley Armstrong of Flossmoor, who hadn’t played since representing Notre Dame in the NCAA regionals, Ember Schuldt of Sterling, and Lisbeth Brooks of Waunakee, Wis., and professional Allyssa Ferrell of Edgerton, Wis.
    “It was boring today, one bogey, one birdie,” said Armstrong, whose summer golf has been truncated by internships the last two years. “I could have had four or five more birdies.”
    Including one at the par-5 18th, where her curling uphill 10-footer stopped on the lip.
    Still, not bad for someone who’s barely playing these days. An engineering major, Armstrong has spent most of the summer interning at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, working on developing new prosthetics.
    “Design engineering,” Armstrong said. “It’s been an incredible experience.”
    She’ll be a senior in the fall and play one more season for the Irish, and after that, she doesn’t know.
    Collins, who graduated from Oklahoma with a communications degree, has her sights set on the LPGA circuit. On Monday, she’ll try to qualify for the LPGA tournament in Grand Rapids, and has a trip to the tour’s qualifying tournament penciled in for the fall.

    – Tim Cronin

Red is the color of amateur golf

    Writing from Chicago
    Tuesday, July 29, 2014

    It is amateur golf in name only, the game the field at the Western Amateur displayed on Tuesday at Beverly Country Club.
    How about 33 players under the testing par of 71 and another 23 at par in the first round of stroke play qualifying?
    How about a pair of 6-under-par 65s, a post-course renovation record posted by Australian Geoff Drakeford in the morning, and matched by China’s Zecheng Dou in the afternoon? How about a 66 by Adam Schenk of Vincennes, Ind., and a trio of 67s, one by China’s 15-year-old Tianlang Guan?
    That was just the start of it. Defending champion Jordan Niebrugge of Wisconsin scooted around in 69, the same as Arlington Heights’ Doug Ghim, the recent runner-up in the U.S. Public Links Championship.
    Throw a field of proven pros on the course, and it’s not likely their average would have been much lower than what the amateurs posted in the opening round. These guys are also good.
    This international field has only just begun their barrage on Beverly. There’s another 18 holes on Wednesday, followed by a cut to the low 44 and ties, the survivors going 36 holes on Thursday. Then, after the equivalent of a PGA Tour tournament, the Sweet Sixteen advance to match play, which culminates in Saturday afternoon’s championship match.
    How low can they go? That, more than who will make the match play portion, is the question of the moment. Oh, and how many members will faint if a 64 or something lower goes on the board? (There have been 64s scored at Beverly before, but from shorter distances, both before the 2003 renovation and stretch to 7,016 yards by Ron Prichard, including as recently as a fortnight ago.)
    “It’s a terrific golf course, pretty challenging, especially on the greens,” Guan said after his 67. “You have to hit it on the fairway, on the green to score here.”
    Guan did that most of the time, though a sparkling save from a greenside bunker on the par-3 third also contributed to the cause. A 25-foot downhill slider for birdie on the par-4 ffith was even more impressive.
    And his drive on No. 8, a 424-yard par 4? Incomprehensible. It was a 330-yard bomb just to the left of the centerline bunker some 95 yards from the center of the green. Not only was he beyond everyone else’s drive, he was beyond everyone else’s divot. Was that the plan?
    “No,” Guan said. “But the wind was kind of crossing, and fairways were a bit firmer today.”
    Ghim, in Guan’s group, was impressed.
    “At any age, he’s a good player, and especially at that age,” said Ghim, himself merely 18. “It was an honor to play with him. Great to play with someone from the other side of the world.”
    Ghim was the rare player in the field who has tackled Beverly before. He played in the 2011 Western Junior, finishing 11th. Thus, good memories upon his return, and in one of his tournaments with an all-adult field. He was eligible to play in one more PGA Junior, but, with his enrollment at Texas imminent, thought it best to get into the big-time swing this summer.
    “For the first round, not bad,” Ghim said. “There are a couple of things I have to work on.”
    One of them isn’t putting. With a 10th tee start, he ran down three straight birdies from the 18th through the second holes and had four in all.
    Drakeford, who calls Traraigon South, Australia, home, birdied seven of his first 14 holes and was in sight of a 64, the mark established by Tom Weiskopf in the 1967 Chick Evans Pro-Am in advance of the Western Open. It has since been matched three times, but the Beverly that Weiskopf traversed, albeit with persimmon woods and a wound ball, was, at 6,867 yards, 149 yards shorter than the Beverly of today.
    “I missed three eight-footers on the front nine or it could’ve been scary,” Drakeford said of his round.
    He came in on a high, winner of last week’s Porter Cup in Niagara Falls, N.Y. Beau Hossler of Mission Viejo, Calif., who came in second in the Porter, scored 67 for a share of fourth place, including a sizzling 30 on his back nine.
    Drakeford was finished when Dou teed off. The Beijing resident who spent some of his formative years in Canada was 6-under after 12 holes and parred in, finishing on the front nine.
    “It was really windy two days ago, and I thought the course was going to play tough,” Dou said, recalling a practice round. “The wind was a lot softer, not moving as much.”
    
    – Tim Cronin

Hopfinger wins Illinois Open

    Writing from Glenview, Illinois
    Wednesday, July 23, 2014

    Brad Hopfinger had been in this position before. Contending for a title in the last round, feeling the pressure, needing to get the job done to lift the trophy.
    In Mexico in April, Hopfinger held the lead with a round to play in a PGA Tour Latinoamerica tournament, but stumbled and finished four strokes behind.
    Wednesday, he started the final round of the 65th Illinois Open at the windblown Glen Club two strokes behind leader Brian Bullington. But Bullington faded early and the race for the trophy came down to Hopfinger, who birdied three of the first five holes, and Travis Johns, who started the day a stroke back.
    “Every time you’re in position, you always learn something,” Hopfinger said. “I learned there along with the other times I’ve been on the leader board.”
    He learned well. Even with a bogey at the last, Hopfinger scrambled to a 1-under-par 71 and scored a one-stroke victory with a 54-hole aggregate of 6-under-par 210, a stroke better than Johns, who also bogeyed the par-5 18th.
    That was one of the holes where the tournament turned, but the drama began at the first. That’s where Hopfinger, a 25-year-old from Lake Forest in his third full year chasing birdies for dollars following a college career that started at Kansas and finished at Iowa, opened with a two-putt birdie after reaching the green of the downwind par 5 in two with a 5-iron. It’s also where Bullington scored bogey, the first of too many crooked numbers on a card that would eventually total 83. The Iowa senior finished tied for 16th.
    Hopfinger, who earned $13,500 from the purse of $66,590, would birdie three of the first five holes to reach 8-under and led Johns by one and Michael Daven of Hoopeston, Kyle English of Bloomington and Max Scodro of Chicago by two at that point. But there was much golf yet to be played, and much wind to play it in. Down the street at Chicago Executive Airport, it was steady from the north-northeast at 16 to 20 mph, and gusted to 28. On certain points of The Glen Club, it was stronger. In the wind tunnel that is the 17th tee, for instance, might have gotten to 35 mph.
    “It’s hard from a timing standpoint,” Hopfinger said. “And putting in the wind is as hard as it gets.”
    Twice, Hopfinger backed off a par putt on the eighth green because of the gusty conditions, and then sank it. He led Johns by two strokes at the turn, then bogeyed the par-3 11th. When Johns birdied the par-4 12th, the game was afoot. But Hopfinger knew nothing of his status.
    “I actually never looked,” he said. “Not until 15, when I asked my caddie where I stood and shouldn’t have, because I made five.”
    That bogey moved him back to 7-under. Johns, the teaching pro at Medinah Country Club, had played the 12th through 15th in 1-under and also stood 7-under in the group behind. but Hopfinger made only more more mistake down the stretch, bogeying the 18th thanks to a plugged lie in a greenside bunker with his third shot. Johns made a pair of mistakes.
    “I was hitting it everywhere on the back nine,” Johns said. “Exciting, fun to watch.”
    The par-3 17th was into the teeth of the gale. Johns wanted to be below the hole, and was, but also off the green and facing a difficult chip. He got to the proper level of the green, but tried to adjust his par putt to account for the wind, and missed it.
    Johns was bogeying the 17th and dropping to 6-under the same time Hopfinger was bogeying the 18th to get to 6-under.
    “I knew I had a shot,” Johns said. “I’d heard he was 7-under. I was not going to do anything but try and birdie. I’m not going to bank on him bogeying. And I’m fairly aggressive.”
    Johns took a mighty blow and hooked his shot into the right fescue, a swing so hard his hat blew off.
    His next tee ball found the middle of the fairway. An approach got him to wedge range, and he took dead aim.
    “It must have come pretty close,” Johns said of the shot that finished about four feet behind the cup.
    He made that, knowing it was for bogey. Hopfinger, watching with his family, also knew.
    “My little brother was scouting for me,” he said of Mitch. “I knew that four-footer was for a 6. But I didn’t want to celebrate until it was official.”
    It will soon be back to the Latinoamerica Tour for Hopfinger, where a good finish will get him exempted to the second stage of Q school and a potential shot at the web.com Tour in 2015.
    “There are lots of scenarios,” Hopfinger said.
    Most all of them good. Hopfinger, who captured the Illinois Amateur in 2011, is the seventh player to win both state titles. The others: Roy Biancalana, Gary Hallberg, Mark Hensby, Bill Hoffer, David Ogrin and Gary Pinns.
    Michael Davan had the best round of the day, a 2-under-par 70 highlighted by an eagle 2 on the par-4 15th, which was drivable thanks to the use of a forward tee. That vaulted Davan into third place at 4-under 212. Kyle English, at 2-under 214, was the only other player to finish under par.
    The low amateurs were Brian Payne of Flossmoor and Daniel Stringfellow of Roselle, among those tying for fifth at even-par 216.
    With the wind, the field of 57 averaged 77.46, higher than the first two rounds, when the full field of 156 competed in relatively docile conditions. Among the 15 players shooting 80 or more: four-time champion Mike Small, whose 77-66-80 reading for 7-over 223 and a tie for 23rd was the most topsy-turvy of the championship.
    Defending champion Joe Kinney tied for 16th at 4-over 220.
    – Tim Cronin

Illinois Open: Bullington sees red ... numbers

    Writing from Glenview, Illinois
    Tuesday, July 22, 2014

    Brian Bullington came to The Glen Club this week with a plan.
    “Every day I’ve set a number for myself,” the Frankfort resident, a senior at Iowa in the fall, explained.
    For the first two days, he’s posted that number, and that’s good enough to hold the lead entering the final round of the 65th Illinois Open.
    Bullington’s 2-under-par 70 on Monday placed him four strokes behind leader Michael Davan. Now, after his 5-under 67 on Tuesday, Bullington’s aggregate of 7-under-par 137 earned him a one-stroke advantage on Oswego’s Travis Johns and two strokes on Bloomington’s Kyle English, Lake Forest’s Brad Hopfinger, and amateur Daniel Stringfellow of Roselle.
    Bullington didn’t have the look of a leader on his front nine. He was 1-over after eight holes, but birdied the 10th and 11th – the latter from 35 feet.
    “That kind of lit things up,” Bullington said.
    Three more birdies followed mid-round, and he finished things off with an 8-foot downhill slider for a bird at the par-5 18th to score 6-under 30 on the back nine. And never mind that it got windier with each completed hole. Bullington rode it like a Hawkeye.
    “It was a favoring wind,” Bullington decided. “For the tough holes coming in, they’re not really birdie holes.”
    Bullington’s had success elsewhere, but he’s been in the middle of the pack for his first two Illinois Open appearances. This third entry may turn out to be much more successful, and in a year when a fellow Hawkeye has also made noise.
    “Ray (Kroll) qualified for the John Deere Classic and won the state amateur,” Bullington said, hoping to write his own headlines.
    Kroll, from Naperville, is among those lurking. He’s in an elite group at 1-under 143, six back of his teammate, through 36 holes.
    But Bullington will have more likely challenges from Johns, who closed with an eagle for 6-under 66 by dropping a downhill 20-footer at the last, and English, the head pro at his parents’ course, Crestwicke Country Club, whose crafty 4-under 68 included a 35-foot eagle putt on the par-5 14th.
    “Right at the end I holed a bunch of putts,” said Johns, who teaches at Medinah. “Right before, I’d missed several 6-footers for birdies. But I believe it all evens out in the wash.”
    English was happy to be the first leader to finish, given how the wind was freshening at the time. It laid down a bit later, but English forged on through the breeze.
    “It didn’t change my game plan,” English said. “I was lucky to play this morning.”
    His location in Bloomington makes him one of the more distant competitors, but he’s not a stranger to his fellow competitors.
    “It’s a bit of a haul every time, but I play in every (Monday) stroke play,” English said.
    Three of the four knotted with Knoll in ninth place are former Illinois Open winners: four-time champion Mike Small, Eric Meierdierks and defender Joe Kinney. Small made the big move of the day with his 6-under 66, climbing from a tie for 88th into the deadlock for 10th. (Johns, in moving into second, only jumped 20 places.)
    To catch Bullington, Small still has to pass Libertyville’s Michael Schachner (4-under 140), and a duo at 2-under 142: 2012 champion Max Scodro of Chicago, and Hoopeston’s Michael Davan. The overnight leader skidded to a 76 on Tuesday.
    Proof that golf’s a family affair was reinforced with the performance of the Bauman clan. Daddy Doug, the 57-year-old pro at Biltmore, scored 2-under 70 to total 2-over 146, while sons Riley and Greg carded 73 for 147 and 76 for 148, respectively, all three making the cut to the low 50 players and ties.
    The cut fell at 5-over 149 and includes 57 players, with five former winners among the top 14 and ties. Twenty-five of those 57, beginning with Bullington, are amateurs.
    – Tim Cronin