Can Ivanhoe head pro make another IPGA run?
A year ago Jim Sobb almost pulled off an unprecedented double to jump-start the Illinois PGA’s tourney season.
The 23-season head pro at The Ivanhoe Club won five matches to capture the Illinois PGA Senior Match Play Championship at Shoreacres, then won six more the following week to get to the final of the IPGA Match Play at Kemper Lakes.
A newcomer to the area, Travis Johns, ended Sobb’s run there with a 4 and 2 victory that started Johns on his way to IPGA player-of-the-year honors.
The Illinois PGA has a handful of senior players who can still compete with their younger rivals, but not one has matched the level Sobb produced in those two weeks, and he’ll soon try to do it again.
The IPGA Senior Match Play Championships returns to Shoreacres in Lake Bluff beginning on Monday, and the IPGA Match Play proper is back in Kildeer at Kemper Lakes the following week. They represent the first majors of the season for Illinois pros, and there’s no reason to think Sobb won’t be back in the thick of things.
Those tournament venues are friendly territory for Sobb, who also won the Senior Match Play at Shoreacres in 2008 and was a three-time winner of the IPGA Championship at Kemper before turning 50.
“A lot can be said for that,” said Sobb. “I played Shoreacres so many times. Knowing that golf course so well is the key there. And Kemper Lakes is a little different. A lot of our assistants (pros) hadn’t played there like I had during the 24 years our section championship was held there.”
Sobb didn’t win another IPGA major last season, but he was the section’s senior player-of-the-year for third time in five years. He was also the full section player-of-the-year in 2000.
Sobb believes the 2000 season, during which he won the IPGA Match Play and the IPGA Championship, was his best campaign but last year’s start — considering that gave up lots of years to his rivals at Kemper Lakes — ranks right up there.
“Just a good stretch of golf,” he said. “The news is you can ride (a power cart), so I rode. That helped.”
Sobb has qualified for both the Professional Players National Championship at Hershey, Pa., and the Senior PGA Championship in Louisville this year to supplement his local tournament play, but the next two weeks may represent his best chance to win. His duties at The Ivanhoe Club will be more demanding after that.
“Once the summer comes you can’t find much time to play, and your game suffers,” said Sobb. “And when you’re a senior it really gets tough. But I love to compete. It’s my release.”
U.S. Open countdownWhile Jim Sobb renews his match play aspirations, a bigger group of pros and amateurs will start their bids to qualify for next month#146;s U.S. Open at Congressional in Washington D.C. The U.S. Golf Assn. accepted 8,300 entries for this year#146;s, open and only 156 can tee off at Congressional. Chicago#146;s local qualifying rounds are Monday (May 9) at Orchard Valley Golf Course in Aurora and May 16 at Oak Grove Golf Course in Harvard. Survivors advance to the sectional eliminations.The Chicago District Golf Assn. will conduct both Open locals in the throes of a hectic start to its season. The CDGA concluded the 20th staging of the Illinois Public LInks Championship on Tuesday at Foxford Hills in Cary and will conduct the 19th Illinois Mid-Amateur Championship next Tuesday and Wednesday (May 10-11) at Flossmoor Country Club.Esposito begins clinic seriesEmil Esposito, one of the few players to win both the Illinois Open and Illinois PGA Championship during his long stints as a club pro at both Kemper Lakes and the Glen Club, begins a new venture on Saturday. He#146;s planning a series of teaching clinics, the first of which will be held at the Libertyville Sports Complex.First sessions will run from 10-11:30 a.m. and 1-2:30 p.m. Fee is $45, and there#146;ll be a limit of 30 golfers in each session.Did you know?Illinois and Northwestern finished one-two in last weekend#146;s Big Ten men#146;s championship hosted by Purdue, with the Illini winning the title for the third straight year. Illinois#146; Luke Guthrie, runner-up in last year#146;s Illinois Open, was the medalist. #133; Illinois and NU, as well as Illinois State, will all be in the women#146;s NCAA Central Regional beginning Thursday at Notre Dame#146;s Warren course. #133; Emily Fletcher, the NU women#146;s coach, shared Big Ten coach-of-the-year honors with Wisconsin#146;s Todd Oehrlein. #133; Cantigny will be the only Chicago area location for next month#146;s PGA Tour Academy junior camps. There#146;ll be 27 of them held nation-wide.Ÿ Len Ziehm#146;s golf column appears each Wednesday in the Daily Herald and online at dailyherald.com.