IJGA gets creative to offer June tournaments

Competitive amateur golf is getting closer to returning in Illinois but it's not there yet.

The Illinois Junior Golf Association announced this week that all of its scheduled June tournaments in Illinois have been canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The IJGA did find a few courses in Wisconsin and Indiana to hold June tournaments.

Those events, part of the IJGA's Mid-American Junior Golf Tour, begin June 8-9 in Kenosha.

"I don't think there is a word to describe how these last couple of months have transpired," IJGA executive director Matt Wennmaker said. "We are happy to provide some playing opportunities to our membership in June. While they may not be ideal for everyone, my board of directors and staff felt that this was a step in the right direction and we are hopeful that the state of Illinois lifts restrictions and we can have events in Illinois starting in July."

Tournaments and shotgun starts are prohibited in Illinois during Phase 3 of Gov. J.B. Pritzker's reopening plan. Wennmaker is hoping by the end of June Illinois will move to Phase 4 and tournaments can be played in Illinois in July.

Until then there will be MAJGT events throughout June at Bristol, Lake Geneva and Racine in Wisconsin, and Chesterton, Crown Point and St. John in Indiana.

The players from Illinois headed to play in these out-of-state tournaments include Henry Quinn from Hersey and Ben Klimenko from Wheaton Warrenville South.

Quinn said he's going to tee it up June 8 at Kenosha and will play in several of the other June tournaments.

Klimenko is glad that ranges in Illinois are opening and foursomes will be allowed, and that the IJGA has added the Wisconsin and Indiana tourneys.

"This affects my tournament schedule a lot," Klimenko said. "I had a majority of tournaments in state scheduled in June. One thing the IJGA did well was scheduling tournaments out of state. They did a great job trying to help as many kids as they can which is great to see. I am going to be taking this challenge one day at a time and try to make the most out of it."

The IJGA sets up its MAJGT courses harder.

"We lengthen tees so kids can put this on their resume that they have played from 7,000 yards, or over 6,000 for girls," Wennmaker said.

Signups began Friday for the June tournaments and Wennmaker expects the fields, between 78 and 90 players at each, to fill quickly. He's heard from parents from Michigan and Kansas but said the majority of players will be from Illinois.

"I think it's great," Wennmaker said. "It's the best we can do. We have been working on this revised schedule over a month now to offer something in June."

While the equivalent of the IJGA in neighboring states Wisconsin, Indiana and Iowa are all able to hold their normal June youth tournaments like usual - "pretty much everybody is back up and running," Wennmaker said - Illinois is adjusting. That includes moving its Illinois State Junior Amateur to Aug. 11-13, which will now be invitation only instead of qualifying based on summer tournament results.

"While these restrictions are not ideal, we must abide by them in hopes of being able to run tournaments in July," Wennmaker wrote to IJGA members.