Ziehm: Barrington’s Butler defending Illinois State Women’s Amateur title

Few of the big Illinois golf tournaments have undergone as many recent changes as the Illinois State Women’s Amateur.

The Galesburg-based Illinois Women’s Golf Association conducted the tournament for 90 years, then in 2024 passed it on to the Chicago District Golf Association. The tourney was played in a match-play format through 2023, then the CDGA went to a three-day, 54-hole stroke-play format in 2024.

Last year the tourney champion was awarded an exemption into the U.S. Women’s Amateur for the first time, and a separate 25-and-over division was added, creating an Illinois Women’s Mid-Amateur Championship as well.

This year’s 93rd championship will have a site change. After four years at The Grove in Long Grove, the tourney will be played at Elgin Country Club starting Monday. Barrington’s Bridget Butler is the defending champion.

Butler helped Barrington to the IHSA Class 2A state championship in 2021 and was a member of four straight Mid-Suburban League title teams before starting her college career at Stetson in Florida.

Her win at last year’s State Am was noteworthy because Butler had gone 11 months without playing in a tournament. She had transferred to Nebraska and took a redshirt season there, but still posted a 4-under-par 212 winning score, three strokes better than Northbrook’s Alexis Myers and Rockford’s Kayla Sayyalinch. They tied for second and both will be back in the tournament next week. Myers is paired with Butler in the first round.

Tee times start at 8 a.m. each day and only the low 20 and ties will compete in the final round.

College update

Illinois Wesleyan was the runner-up for the second straight year in the NCAA Division III finals. Wesleyan was edged by California’s Claremont-Mudd-Scripps in a sudden-death playoff at Mission Inn Resort & Club in Florida. Sophomore Pablo Carstro from Palatine was the top Wesleyan player, finishing in a tie for seventh.

Northwestern’s men finished tied for eighth and Illinois tied for 11th in the NCAA Division I Georgia regional, so neither made it to the NCAA finals at Omni LaCosta in California.

Illinois’ Ryan Voois, though, was named one of three finalists for the Byron Nelson Award, given annually to college golf’s outstanding scholar-athlete. The winner will be announced June 15. Illinois’ Jackson Buchanan was the first Illini winner last year.

Here and there

Brandt Snedeker, captain of the U.S. Presidents Cup team, has named his first two assistant captains — Keegan Bradley, the most recent U.S. Ryder Cup captain, and Jim Furyk, the winning U.S. captain in the Presidents Cup played in Montreal two years ago.

Hawthorn Woods member Jerry White won the 24th CDGA Senior Amateur on his home course, beating Bloomington’s Mike Henry in a sudden-death playoff.

The 36th Thompson Cup matches, pitting the Illinois PGA’s top senior players against the top area amateurs, will be played Thursday at Chicago’s Ridge Country Club. The IPGA Assistants Championship will be conducted Monday at Bryn Mawr in Lincolnwood.