advertisement

Ziehm: PGA veteran Marty Schiene named head coach at DePaul

Marty Schiene spent 15 seasons playing on the professional golf tours around the world, qualified for four U.S. Opens and won the Illinois Open three times. Now he has landed a job he calls "a dream come true."

Schiene is taking over as head coach of the DePaul University men's team. Betty Kaufmann last week announced her retirement after 19 seasons as the Blue Demons' coach.

Kaufmann's tenure as head coach ended Tuesday when the Blue Demons finished fourth in the Big East tournament in South Carolina. DePaul led going into the final round, but Marquette rallied to take the title, the Warriors' third straight in the tournament.

Kaufmann, one of the few women to coach a men's college team in any sport, did a lot of good things while guiding the Blue Demons.

The Golf Coaches Association of American named her teams Academic National Champions four times. She also established an indoor facility on the school's Chicago campus and established a partnership with Ruffled Feathers in Lemont for outdoor practice and the home site of the school's John Dallio Memorial tournament.

Schiene began his coaching career with five seasons as head man at Chicago State and spent one season as associate coach for both the men's and women's teams at Loyola before becoming Kaufmann's assistant this season.

Both Kaufmann and Schiene also have been successful teachers at various golf facilities around the Chicago area.

"I hope to build on the tremendous success coach Kaufmann has had over the years in keeping a high academic standard and being a very competitive golf team," said Schiene, an all-American while playing collegiately for Illinois.

His Illinois Open wins came in 1991, 1992 and 1997.

Illini, NU await NCAA invites:

The Northwestern and Illinois women's teams received their invitations to the NCAA tournament last week. The men's teams at both schools should receive theirs Thursday.

On Sunday the Illini and Wildcats finished 1-2 in the Big Ten tournament at Baltimore Country Club. Dylan Meyer of Illinois was the individual winner.

Meyer's first-round 63 was a Big Ten record, and his title was the seventh straight for the Illini in the Big Ten tournament. Illinois has won the event three straight times and eight times in the last nine years.

Illinois coach Mike Small and Luke Donald, a former NCAA champion for Northwestern, will be featured in The Golf Channel's selection show Thursday. They also will throw out the first pitch at the Cubs-Phillies game at Wrigley Field, and then Donald will sing the seventh-inning stretch.

Meanwhile, the NU women will begin their bid for a spot in the NCAA finals with a three-day regional in Athens, Georgia, and the Illini women will put their hopes on the line at Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Both regionals start Monday. The men's regionals are May 15-17.

Then the competition switches to Rich Harvest in Sugar Grove, which will host the women's finals from May 19-24 and the men's finals from May 26-31.

Here and there:

• Klara Spilkova, the first golfer from the Czech Republic to win a professional tournament, has accepted a special exemption to compete in next month's KPMG Women's PGA Championship at Olympia Fields.

• Brad Hopfinger, one of the few golfers to win the Illinois State Amateur and Illinois Open, and Michael Schachner, a member at host club Ivanhoe, have received the first two sponsor exemptions into the Web.com Tour's Rust-Oleum Championship.

• The 66th Illinois PGA Match Play Championship, first of the section's four major tournaments, begins Monday at Kemper Lakes in Kildeer.

• The first local qualifier for the U.S. Open also will be played Monday at Midlane in Wadsworth.

• Mission Hills, which has operated mainly as a private club in Northbrook since 1926, has undergone an ownership change. The Northbrook facility is now operating as a nine-hole public facility.

• LPGA teaching professionals Tina Favia and Gay Crain are offering a short- game clinic for high school girls at Cantigny Youth Links in Wheaton.

• The Chicago State women's team has been invited to the 31st PGA Minority Collegiate Championship, to be played at PGA Golf Club in Port St. Lucie, Florida, from May 11-14. Elijah Collins of Lake Forest was invited to compete in the men's competition as an individual.

• Foxford Hills in Cary will hold its Par Under the Stars moonlight outing May 13.

• For more golf news, visit lenziehmongolf.com. Len can be contacted by email at lenziehm@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter @ZiehmLen and check out his posts at Facebook.com/lenziehmongolf.

Article Comments
Guidelines: Keep it civil and on topic; no profanity, vulgarity, slurs or personal attacks. People who harass others or joke about tragedies will be blocked. If a comment violates these standards or our terms of service, click the "flag" link in the lower-right corner of the comment box. To find our more, read our FAQ.