Talented field ready for this week's Rust-Oleum Championship
With the college teams gone after battling for two weeks at the NCAA championships at Rich Harvest Farms, Phase 2 of this extraordinary season for tournament golf gets underway this week.
The Web.com Tour has moved into Ivanhoe Club, with the $600,000 Rust-Oleum Championship teeing off on Thursday.
Immediately after the Rust-Oleum Championship comes the U.S. Open at Wisconsin's Erin Hills and then a women's major - the KPMG Women's PGA Championship at Olympia Fields. But don't wait for those bigger events. The Web.com Tour offers quality golf at greatly reduced ticket prices. (General admission for a weekly ticket is $20, and many charities also have tickets for sale).
So who are these guys who will play for the $108,000 first prize that will be handed out on Sunday?
Well, 11 of them performed well enough on Monday to qualify for the U.S. Open. Actually 15 Web.com members got through Open sectionals, but four didn't meet their tour's requirements to play at Ivanhoe.
One who did was Andy Pope, the only locally connected player to qualify for the 156-man starting field at Erin Hills through the sectional eliminations.
Pope checked in at Ivanhoe on Tuesday after flying from New Jersey, where he earned a berth in his third straight U.S. Open by tying for second in a sectional at Canoe Brook in Summit, N.J. on Monday. The day before Pope tied for 17th in the Web.com Tour's Rex Hospital Open, a North Carolina tourney that he got into via Monday qualifying.
He had hoped to get a sponsor's exemption from Rust-Oleum director Scott Cassin but - by finishing in the top 25 at last week's tournament - he didn't need one.
"It's been a great run," said Pope, who grew up in Glen Ellyn, attended Glenbard West and developed his game at Medinah before playing collegiately at Xavier. "This is a dream come true."
The Rust-Oleum Championship made its debut at Ivanhoe last year and Californian Max Homa produced 13-under-par golf to win the title. He's now struggling to survive on the PGA Tour.
This week's 156 starters at Ivanhoe include 17 players who have won on the PGA Tour. They include Jonathan Byrd, who has won five times on the premier circuit, and Robert Allenby, who counts a Western Open among his four PGA titles.
The Rust-Oleum field also includes two players who won both the Illinois Amateur and Illinois Open - Mark Hensby and Brad Hopfinger - and Deerfield's Vince India, who was an Illinois Amateur titlist. Luke Guthrie and Scott Langley were University of Illinois mainstays before turning pro. Ethan Tracy won the Western Amateur at North Shore, in Glencoe, in 2011 and Aaron Wise was the NCAA champion for Oregon last year.
Also in the hunt this week are Andrew Putnam, the top Web.com money-winner this season with $222,872; Conrad Shindler, who won last week's Rex Hospital Open; and Dan Woltman, the Cinderella player at Ivanhoe last year. Woltman got into the tournament through Monday qualifying and briefly held the lead on Sunday before settling for fourth place.
<h3 class="leadin">Here and there:</h3>
The final sponsor's exemption into the Rust-Oleum Classic went to Chicago-born Max Marsico. He has conditional status on the Web.com circuit and will be making his first start of the season on Thursday.
The Radix Cup matches between a team from the Illinois PGA and a group of select amateurs from the Chicago District Golf Association ranks will be played for the 56th time today (Wednesday) at Oak Park Country Club.
The next three members of the Illinois Golf Hall of Fame have been determined. They are PGA Tour veteran Gary Hallberg, longtime Bob 'Link pro Gary Groh and Horton Smith, the former Oak Park pro who won the first and third Masters tournaments.
Illinois' Nick Hardy and Doug Ghim, an Arlington Heights resident who plays for Texas, will be on the U.S. team for the three-day Palmer Cup matches that begin Friday at Atlanta Athletic Club.
Former Bears player Patrick Mannelly has taken over as host for Golf 360, which has made its season debut on Comcast SportsNet. Replays of the first show will run throughout the month.
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.