Hallberg’s hall of fame career began in Barrington, now includes IJGA honor
Gary Hallberg revealed a key perk that, as a boy growing up in Barrington, drew him to Northern Illinois Men’s Amateur Golf Association junior tournaments.
“The trophies were huge. Mom would drop you off at the course, you’d get there and you’d walk by that trophy, and you really wanted to win that thing,” Hallberg said.
That desire helped spark a prominent golf career, while NIMAGA also progressed. In 1983 it changed its name to the Illinois Junior Golf Association, which on Wednesday inducted Hallberg and five others into the IJGA Hall of Fame at a ceremony at Cantigny Golf in Wheaton.
“Gary Hallberg is the most prolific champion in the history of the IJGA in terms of his junior career, in terms of his college career — the first four-time, first-team NCAA All-American in golf history — a huge, terrific professional record,” said IJGA President John Buckley.
“But more importantly than that, Gary is a better person than he is a golfer.”
Hallberg, 66, now living in Castle Rock, Colorado, has career earnings of nearly $3.6 million on the PGA, Champions and Korn Ferry tours since being named 1980 PGA rookie of the year. He won three times on the PGA Tour with 38 top-10 finishes.
Hallberg prefaced that with a stellar amateur career, medalist at the 1974 Illinois High School Association tournament, the 1977 Illinois Open and 1977 Western Amateur, and the 1979 NCAA Championship for Wake Forest, where he received the Arnold Palmer Scholarship.
Staying in Barrington with his mother, Eva, while here to accept the IJGA honor, Hallberg told the crowd at Cantigny of the support he received from his Barrington High School coach, the late Robert Murphy.
“It changed my life,” Hallberg said.
He also addressed his first prep tournament as a 98-pound Broncos freshman.
Playing in the Lake Park Invitational, on a rainy, 45-degree day under a “howling” wind, Hallberg said, he shot a 69 to win by 10 strokes.
“At that point I thought, ‘Maybe I should keep doing this,’” Hallberg said.
Barrington also was represented by the Makray family. Paul Makray Jr., accompanied by his wife, Cecilia, accepted the hall of fame honor from 2024 IJGA Illinois State Junior Amateur champion Owen Coniaris of Glen Ellyn.
Since 2007 the Makrays have offered the Makray Memorial Golf Club in Barrington as host site for the Illinois State Junior Amateur.
“For me,” Paul Makray said, “the state championship is the highlight of the golfing season.”
Also inducted were former DePaul coach and IJGA board member Betty Kaufmann; Cog Hill teaching professional Kevin Weeks; and, posthumously, IJGA board member Bruce Slovitt and Roger Ulseth of Elmhurst and Glen Ellyn, the IJGA’s first paid executive director.
The IJGA Hall of Fame inducted six members into its inaugural class in 2022: John and Jean Barney, Frank Jemsek, Blue Kinander Kelly, Dan Kochevar, Kevin Streelman, and Mike Spinello, formerly of Buffalo Grove, who founded the association in 1967.