Ziehm: Illinois PGA revised schedule includes new event
How's this for a refreshing change of pace?
In a year where pandemic concerns forced the cancellations of many golf tournaments and the postponements of others, the Illinois PGA is adding an event to its greatly revised schedule.
The IPGA tournament season was to start in April, but the first event is July 6 with the first of five stroke play events. This one is at The Hawk Country Club in St. Charles.
New to the revised schedule is a two-day team event at Metamora Fields. For now it's being called The Fall Bestball. The IPGA tournament committee is working on entry and format details.
Also included in the revised schedule is a new site for the Illinois PGA Match Play Championship. It has been the first of the section's four major events and was traditionally held in May at Kemper Lakes in Long Grove. Now it will be held Sept. 15 to 18 at Elgin Country Club.
Three of the four majors, including the Match Play, were restructured. In the case of the Match Play the first round will revert to a stroke play qualifier for seeding with the low 64 advancing to the second round.
The Aug. 3 to 5 Illinois Open, first of the majors, had its field for the finals previously cut from 264 to 156 and only one site, White Eagle in Naperville, will be used instead of the two used in recent years.
Last of the majors, The Players, had been held at either Eagle Ridge in Galena or Metamora Fields. Now it'll be played Oct. 5 and 6 at Conway Farms in Lake Forest, and only the top 35 players on the season point standings will be eligible. The Illinois PGA Championship, Aug. 24 to 26 on Medinah's No. 1 course, is the lone major with the same format and location from the original schedule.
Streelman rebounds: Wheaton's Kevin Streelman finished a shot behind champion Dustin Johnson in the PGA Tour's Travelers Championship Sunday and credited his time at Cantigny and Arrowhead for his runner-up finish at TPC River Highlands in Connecticut. He said the two Wheaton courses were similar to the Tour site where he last won in 2014.
"Coming off (three straight) missed cuts, I'm very happy with this," Streelman said, "but being away from my family for three weeks is difficult. That was probably one of the hardest runs for me. The quarantine life out here - you just go back to the hotel, sit there by yourself and try to stay healthy. It gets lonely."
The PGA Tour isn't allowing players' families to travel to tournaments. Streelman's wife and two children live in Scottsdale, Ariz.
Korn Ferry update: Northwestern alum Dylan Wu tied for fifth in the Utah Championship and moved into the No. 3 spot on the Korn Ferry Tour's standings. The Top 25 at the end of the 2021 season advance to the PGA Tour.
Northbrook's Nick Hardy, who tied for 27th in Utah, is No. 19 and Deerfield's Vince India, bouncing back from a final round collapse the week before, tied for 18th and improved to No. 35 in the standings. The Korn Ferry circuit is in Colorado this week.
Frittelli tests positive: Dylan Frittelli, the reigning champion of the John Deere Classic, tested positive for the coronavirus after missing the cut in the Travelers Championship.
"I feel great physically," Frittelli said. "I was surprised and disappointed to learn of the positive test."
Because of the JDC's cancellation, Frittelli's JDC title defense was postponed until 2021. The tourney announced this week that it will be held July 5 to 11, the same dates on the PGA Tour calendar that is has held in recent years.