University of Illinois seeing success on golf courses
The college golf season isn’t underway yet but, no matter how you slice it, the University of Illinois is already making its presence felt at a variety of levels.
Over the weekend Jackson Buchanan, an Illini senior from Dacula, Ga., advanced to the semifinals of the 124th U.S. Amateur at Hazeltine in Minnesota.
Another match win would have given Buchanan a spot in next spring’s Masters, but Iowa sophomore Noah Kim beat him 2-up before losing the title match to Spain’s Jose Luis Ballester, who plays collegiately at Arizona State. Both finalists qualified for the Masters.
Buchanan was last year’s Big Ten Player of the Year and qualified for this year’s U.S. Open.
Campbell is PGA-bound
Another Illinois-connected player, Brian Campbell, earned his PGA Tour card for the 2025 season. Campbell, another of Illinois coach Mike Small’s stars of the past, assured himself a place in the top 30 on the Korn Ferry Tour standings at season’s end. (He’s No. 10 now, and the top 30 get PGA Tour cards).
Campbell, 31, turned pro in 2015 and earned his card for the 2017 season but couldn’t retain it. He’s been a Korn Ferry player since then.
Beginning Monday, Small goes after his 15th title in the Illinois PGA Championship at Elgin Country Club. Small, who took his first title in 2001, won last season at Thunderbird in Zion. That made him the winningest PGA professional at the section championship level across the PGA of America’s 41 sections nationwide.
Weather hampered last year’s event. It was scheduled for its traditional 54 holes, but had to be cut to 36. This year’s tourney concludes Wednesday and also determines nine qualifiers for next year’s PGA Professional Championship.
Rahm vs. Niemann at Bolingbrook
LIV/Chicago, coming up Sept. 13-15 at Bolingbrook Golf Club, represents that circuit’s individual championship. However, only two players — Jon Rahm and Joaquin Niemann — are mathematically eligible to win the season-long individual title. It’s determined on a point basis.
Rahm didn’t win Sunday’s last regular season LIV event at West Virginia’s Greenbrier, losing to Brooks Koepka in a playoff, but he did pass Niemann in the point race.
Niemann, who won two of the season’s first three tournaments, led in points all season until Rahm’s strong showing at Greenbrier. Niemann tied for 15th there. Top bonus money will be on the line when they tee off at Bolingbrook.
“I’m probably going to need to win,” said Rahm, who has been in the top 10 in 11 of his starts in his first LIV season. “(Niemann) is going to be up there. I’m going to need another good week, and hopefully get it done.”
The third-place finisher also gets a point race bonus. Five players — Tyrrell Hatton, Sergio Garcia, Louis Oosthuizen, Cam Smith and Koepka — still have a chance at getting that consolation prize.
HERE AND THERE: Brien Davis and John Ehrgott teamed up to win the ninth Chicago District Amateur Four-Ball Championship at Mauh-Nah-Tee-See in Rockford. The CDGA will conduct its 32nd Illinois State Mid-Amateur Monday and Tuesday at Park Ridge Country Club.
Chicago golf community leaders Paul Voykin and Chris Bona recently passed away. Voykin, who was 93, was a prominent superintendent who spent 47 years at Briarwood in Deerfield. Bona, 59, was head professional at Boulder Ridge in Lake in the Hills since 2007.
The PGA Tour announced its 2025 schedule with the John Deere Classic, Illinois’ only annual stop on the circuit, keeping its dates of this year — June 30 to July 6 — at TPC Deere Run in Silvis. The BMW Championship, conducted by the Chicago-based Western Golf Association, will be played at Cave’s Valley in Maryland for the second time. Dates are Aug. 11-17.
Whistling Straits in Kohler, Wis. is back on the U.S. Golf Association calendar. The course will host the 2028 U.S. Amateur, the 2033 U.S. Junior Amateur and the 2037 U.S. Girls Junior.