Schachner finding his game as he returns to his roots at Ivanhoe
As heavy rain pelted Michael Schachner before he teed up his golf ball in the Rust-Oleum Championship, he chirped his sister's name to get her attention.
Nicole Schachner stood outside the ropes at Ivanhoe Country Club with an umbrella shielding her. Her grinning big brother pointed to a large glass vase atop a pedestal that decorated the first tee box. The vase was filling up rapidly, rain-gauge style.
The grin quickly vanished, however, when Schachner prepared to tee off. On Thursday, for the first time, the former Libertyville High School star was playing in a professional golf tournament on the course he grew up on.
"I see what he does here all the time, so I know how he can play," said Bob Schachner, who's been a member at Ivanhoe since 1994 and has been toting his son and daughter to the club since they were kids. "I think he's got a lot of pressure on him, knowing that he's got a lot of people pulling for him and it's his home course. He knows all these guys. He's expecting a lot from himself."
Eventually, the rain stopped. Eventually, Bob Schachner's son found his golf game.
Rebounding from a 5-over-par 41 on the front nine, which included a missed 3-footer on No. 9, Schachner finished with a 3-over 75 in the Web.com event, which is making its Lake County debut this week. Schachner is 10 shots behind leader Austin Cook, who fired a 7-under 65.
Schachner thinks his 2-under back nine, which featured 2 birdies, can give him momentum going into today's second round.
"Putting is the best part of my game," the 30-year-old said. "If I can just have a decent putting day (Friday), I should be fine. I feel I'm hitting it well enough."
He didn't putt it well Thursday. He bogeyed his first two holes and dropped another stroke on the short par-4 No. 5, dunking a 3-iron off the tee. He then carded back-to-back bogeys on Nos. 8 and 9.
He had bombed a perfect drive on the daunting par-5 ninth, before hitting his approach into a deep sand trap to the right of the green. But his bunker shot went long, and his short par putt lipped out.
"My putter stunk," Schachner said after totaling 32 putts, including 19 on the front nine. "I normally have 15 or under (for nine holes). Very rarely do I have more than 30 putts a round. I just didn't feel comfortable with my putter at all. I missed everything left."
Schachner finally made his first birdie on No. 10, sinking a 9-footer.
"I moved my grip around a little bit," he said. "I putted a little better on the back nine."
He then settled in, making four straight pars, before rolling in a 16-footer for birdie on the par-5 15th. He finished a bogey-free back nine with 3 straight pars.
"Just disappointing," said Schachner, who had 5 bogeys on the front and zero one-putts. "I feel like I wasted shots."
Schachner tees off at 9 a.m., and despite sitting in a tie for 115th place, he's confident.
That vase is half full, not half empty.
"I've shot 66 out here a bunch of times," he said. "I can easily do that."