Champion, Eric Weierdierks and Runner up, Luke Guthrie.

Illinois Open Championship Crowns New King

The future of Illinois golf is in good hands. When the final putt dropped on the 61st Illinois Open Championship on July 28, Hawthorn Woods Country Club had become the site of bona fide youth movement as 25-year-old Erik Meierdierks, Wilmette, edged 20-year-old Luke Guthrie, Quincy, by one stroke to win the unofficial state championship of golf.

Meierdierks finished the first round atop the leader board tied with Garrett Chaussard, Chicago, on the strength of seven birdies en route to a strong 4-under performance.
“I played a lot smarter today, which certainly comes with me getting older and wiser on the golf course,” Meierdierks said after the first round. “When I was younger, I would always go for everything. Now I’m trying to keep the big numbers out of play, which comes with experience.”
That experience would come to serve him well down the stretch.

Guthrie, a member of the University of Illinois golf team who was named First Team All-Big Ten during the 2009/2010 season, would take the overall lead in the second round when he birdied the third hole (his twelfth hole of the day after starting on the back nine) to go 6-under par. He finished the day with a one-stroke lead after tying Craig Onsrud, Normal, for the best score of the second round.

“I got off to a good start right away with a birdie at 10 (his first hole),” said Guthrie after moving into first place after the second round. “Unfortunately, I gave it back with a bogey on the next hole, but after that it was just really solid golf. I didn’t make a five on the card today – my only bogeys came on the par 3’s.”

After shooting a 4-under 65 in Monday’s first round (the course played to Par 69 after converting the 17th hole to a Par 3 from a Par 5 due to the weekend rains) , Meierdierks bogeyed the final hole of the second round, which left him one stroke behind Guthrie entering the final day. When Guthrie increased his lead to five strokes through the first eight holes of the third round, it began to look like the rest of the pack would be playing for second place.

Turning of the tide
Guthrie ran into trouble when he double-bogeyed the par-3 ninth hole, however, and tallied bogeys on holes 10 and 11. This provided Meierdierks with the opening he needed as he drained a birdie putt on hole 11 to tie the score, and birdied again two holes later to take the lead for good.

“The door definitely appeared to be opened a bit,” Meierdierks says. “What I have learned the most over my years of playing golf by watching others around me is to stay in my own game; if I do that, I like my chances at the end of a week. If you stop and watch what others are doing around you, it can influence your game and make you fall apart. I kept the blinders down this week.”

Guthrie managed to keep the pressure on Meierdierks through the final hole when he hit first and put his ball in tight to a far left hole placement. He would birdie the 18th hole, but Meierdierks’ was able to two-putt from 20-feet away from the pin to preserve his lead with a par.

“He hit a great shot,” Meierdierks says. “I told my caddie that he had to make that putt or there would not be a playoff because I was not going mess around with that pin at all. I just wanted to be pin high and anywhere to the right. It’s always nice to have a two-shot lead instead of a one shot lead.”

The victory, which paid $14,000, is Meierdierks’ first in the Illinois Open – a tournament he first entered as a 16-year-old and has competed in for the past seven consecutive years.
Taking on the coach

While Guthrie finished in second place at -5 overall, the 2009 Illinois State Amateur Champion undoubtedly scored bragging rights among his Illini teammates by edging out four-time Illinois Open champion Mike Small, Champaign – who also happens to be his golf coach at the University of Illinois.

Small, 44, who finished in second place last year to Brad Benjamin, Rockford, after a three-hole playoff, fell behind early with a 1-over 70 in the first round. He would spend the next two days trying to claw his way up the leader board, but couldn’t seem to settle into a consistent flow. (Benjamin, 23, could not defend his championship because he had already committed to playing in the Porter Cup, a prestigious amateur tournament in Lewiston, N.Y., on July 28-31.)
“I’m just not playing very well right now,” Small commented after a 2-under second round. “I hit 19 greens in regulation out of 36 holes, so that’s just plain not very good. I’m going to go out and practice this afternoon and try to find it.”

He finished the tournament tied for third place at -2 overall.

While Small will have to wait another year to attempt to tie Gary Pins’ record of five Illinois Open victories, his third-place finish was far from a wasted effort. In addition to taking home a $10,000 share of the tournament purse, he was also able to scout school standout, Bennett Lavin, 17.

Lavin, who will be a senior at Deerfield High School in the fall, showed impressive composure by shooting a 2-under third round to tie Small for third place.

Josh Esler, 25, Wauconda, started off the third round with an early charge, birdying 5 of 6 holes during one stretch of the front nine. His 5-under 64 was the best round of the tournament, bringing him into a three-way tie for fifth place – and a $5,250 payday.

Next steps
After his victory, Meierdierks said he planned to follow-up his Illinois Open Championship with a trip to Kansas three days later in hopes of qualifying for the PGA Nationwide Tour’s Wichita Open on August 2-8. From there, he will compete in the Gateway Tour Championship at Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale, Ariz., on Aug. 25-27.

“It’s good to keep busy and competitive before heading to Q-School,” he says.
Small, who entered the Illinois Open Championship fresh off his second consecutive victory (and record-tying third overall) at the PGA Professional National Championship, where he earned a spot in the PGA Championship at Whistling Straits in Kohler, Wis., on August 9-15.
The 2010 Illinois Open Championship field was comprised of 156 participants, including 57 amateurs and five past champions. Following 36 holes of play, the field was cut to the low 50 scorers (plus ties) for the final round. CG