Fighting Illini By Greg Stewart It was a huge day for Illinois golf on July 18, when Oquawka native Todd Hamilton triumphed at the 2004 British Open in a three-hole playoff with Ernie Els. The same day, three-time State Amateur champ D.A. Points out of Pekin notched his second Nationwide Tour victory this year to clinch his 2005 PGA Tour card. ove over, Bob Goalby. Illinois has another major But there aren’t. Chick Evans, who won both the U.S. winner. Open and the U.S. Amateur in 1916, was born in It’s been 36 years since Goalby was declared Indianapolis. Hinsdale resident Jeff Sluman was born in the winner of the 1968 Masters. Until July 18, Rochester, N.Y., not far from where he won the 1988 PGA Mthe Belleville native was believed to be the only Illinois-born Championship at Oak Hill. Other accomplished Tour players player to win one of golf’s four major championships. with Illinois roots—Jay Haas, D.A. Weibring, Gary Hallberg, But unlike Goalby’s win—the result of Roberto De Vicenzo David Ogrin—never have won a major. being disqualified for signing an incorrect scorecard—Todd By now, most golf fans are familiar with Todd Hamilton’s story. Hamilton stared down one of the world’s top players in a four- The international press were tripping over their computer hole playoff and emerged as the 2004 British Open champion. keyboards to tell the tale of this 38-year-old rookie from “I never even thought about that,” Hamilton says of being Nowheresville, USA who toiled in obscurity for close to 20 the only other player from the Land of Lincoln to win a major. years in faraway lands before going toe-to-toe with Ernie Els. “I figured with all the good golfers who have come out of Hamilton was the lead in the golf story of the year that Chicago, there would be more than two of us.” unfolded at Royal Troon on the weekend of July 17-18.

Hamilton tees off on no. 2 at Royal Troon during the 2004 British Open. JD CUBAN/GOLF WORLD & STEPHEN SZURLEJ/GOLF

JULY/ AUGUST 2004 15 ILLINOIS BOY Born in Galesburg, Hamilton was raised in Oquawka, a town of about 1,500 resi- dents on the banks of the Mississippi River in Henderson County. As unknown as Hamilton was to the world before he held off Els, he was well-known in down- state Illinois. Hamilton’s interest in golf started as a youngster at Hend-Co Hills, then a nine- hole layout where the locals said he would practice chipping and putting for hours. “They like to tell stories about how they had to chase him off the practice green when he was a kid because he was wear- ing it out,” Monmouth’s Dale Brock says of Hamilton’s persistent practice habits. “They would say, ‘Todd, give it a rest.’”

Hamilton won his first tournament, the ©STAN BADZ/PGA TOUR Pepsi Little People’s Golf Championship, (Above) Hamilton blasts out of a bunker during the 2004 Bank of America Colonial. in Quincy in 1975. (Below) After his British Open triumph, Hamilton relaxes with son, Tyler, and daughter, Kaylee. Before long, his dad, Kent, would take time off from running the family busi- “That’s basically where he started play- ONE-MAN TEAM ness, Hamilton’s Super Market, to take ing competitive golf,” explains Kent Playing as an individual out of Union High him to tournaments. Hamilton. “(Former tournament director) School in Biggsville, Hamilton won the “I remember getting up at 5 a.m. so Earl Martin was very instrumental in his 1981 and `82 Illinois High School my dad could drive me to Peoria,” beginning.” Association (IHSA) Class A state golf title at Hamilton says of playing in the Peoria “He was the top player in the state of Arrowhead Country Club in Chillicothe. Park District Junior Open tournament Illinois for six years,” recalls Martin. “Nobody Union, a school of about 200 stu- series in the late 1970s. else even came close.” dents, didn’t have a golf team, so JD CUBAN/GOLF WORLD & STEPHEN SZURLEJ/GOLF

16 WWW. CDGA. ORG Hamilton hitched rides to tournaments with the team from nearby Monmouth Pointing Toward Prominence High School. Points had a bad case of the St. Louis blues on June 8. The “I was never a big fan of co-ops Nationwide Tour player missed advancing to the U.S. Open by because I was trying to help schools D.A. one shot in a sectional qualifier at Old Warson Country Club establish their own golf programs,” notes and left town sounding lower than at any point in his pro career. Bill Pieper, who retired as golf coach at “I’m pretty disappointed,” Points said as he rambled north on Interstate 55 on Monmouth in 1994. “As a favor to Kent, the way to Chicago for the LaSalle Bank Open. “I can think of 30 different ways I agreed to take (Todd) with my team.” I could have got back one shot.” The summer before his freshman year Points should thank the golf gods he never found that one shot. in college, Hamilton entered a junior Qualifying for the 2004 Open at Shinnecock Hills might have caused him to tournament in Streator. skip the Nationwide event in Glenview the week prior to the Open and certainly “The who’s-who list of past players in would have kept him out the next week in Scranton, Pa. Instead, Points this tourney is long,” remarks Don played the Nationwide schedule and put together the best two weeks of his Keeley, who grew up on Streator Country professional career. Club. “Todd shot a 61 on the first day of A second-place finish in Chicago was followed by a win in Scranton. A spon- the championship. It was the first time he sor’s exemption into the PGA Tour’s John Deere Classic, where he missed the cut, had seen our golf course. His card was followed by another Nationwide win in West Virginia. At press time, Points included an ace on no. 3. His score could was the leading money winner on the Nationwide Tour with nearly $293,000 and have been lower, but he took a bogey on had clinched a PGA Tour card for the 2005 season. no. 18 for a 28-33. It’s still the lowest 9- “Everything happens for a rea- and 18-hole round ever on the course.” son,” says Points. “Looking back, not getting in the U.S. Open might SOONER YEARS be the best thing that ever hap- Hamilton’s success in the junior ranks pened to me.” earned him a scholarship to Oklahoma, A native of Pekin, Ill., Points grew where he was a three-time All-American. up near the 17th hole at Pekin He went to PGA Tour Qualifying Country Club, a member club of the School after college but met an all-too- CDGA. Before the sectional qualifier common fate in the fall of `87. A 73 in the in St. Louis, Points made an appear- final round would have earned him a ance in his hometown, where he Tour card on his first try. spoke of “finding the swagger” that “I shot 76,” Hamilton remembers. made him a three-time Illinois State

“But I was all over the place. I was put- Amateur champion in the 1990s. TOUR ©CHRIS CONDON/PGA ting my eyes out just to shoot that.” Playing out of Pekin High School, In February of 1988, Hamilton took Points won the 1993 IHSA Class AA off for the Asian Tour. Regular stops in state title. After graduation, he exotic locales such as Calcutta, India; made his mark against the big boys Taipei, Taiwan; Seoul, South Korea; and by winning the ’95 Illinois State Points emerged victorious at the 2004 Bangkok, Thailand opened Hamilton’s Amateur Championship at Illini Northeast Pennsylvania Classic. eyes to the abject poverty in the Eastern Country Club in Springfield. hemisphere’s Third World nations. “The State Amateur is the biggest Illinois tournament you can win,” Points “I’ve seen a lot of strange things,” he remarks. “Winning that first one really helped me because it showed me I had the says of his 16 years overseas. “Calcutta is ability to win on another level.” a place I really don’t care to see again. But Points won again at Rend Lake in the ’97 State Amateur, but counts his third my experiences over there definitely title—the ’98 State Am at Eagle Ridge in Galena—as the crowning achievement helped me. Most of the courses we of his amateur career. played weren’t real spectacular, and you “I was really excited when I won that last one because I won it in such decisive spend a lot of time by yourself. I think it fashion,” Points recalls. really helped my patience.” A 7-under-par 65 gave Points a winning total of 280 on the North Course, eight The patience to handle intercontinen- shots better than runner-up Adam Turner. tal travel, among other things, on a regu- “I finished my Illinois amateur career playing about as well as I could.” lar basis. Hamilton would fly to Asia, stay Points turned pro that fall for the Chicago Open, advanced to the Canadian and play for six weeks or so, return home Tour and made enough money to move up to the Buy.com Tour. for a spell, then go back. “When I think of the CDGA, I think of the guys in the blue coats and the white, For 16 years. floppy hats,” Points says of the familiar uniform worn by tournament officials. The grind paid off in 2003, when he “Their role of putting on good events at nice courses is very important to a play- won four times on the Japan PGA Tour er’s development. It’s always nice to play in quality, well-run events, and the and collected $117,547,151 yen or $1.1 CDGA does a great job of that.” – G.S.

SEPTEMBER/ OCTOBER 2004 17 million. A no. 3 finish on the Japan PGA But when he missed, he looked very pain to do all that stuff one after anoth- money list earned him invitations to the dejected. I might not have had the advan- er, but in a roundabout way it was kind British Open and PGA Championship, as tage in the playoff, but I felt like I had a of fun to do it because I play golf all the well as an exemption to the final stage of good chance.” time, every day. This was a once-in-a- the 2003 Q-School. Playing holes 1, 2, 17 and 18, lifetime deal.” Hamilton made four pars. Hamilton was already building a new LATER YEARS “I still can’t believe neither one of us house near Dallas when he won the Hamilton got his Tour card, of course, and made a birdie,” he says of the playoff. “It British. The only extravagant purchase in March birdied the final two holes to seemed like there would be one shot from to come from his winnings of $1.4 beat Davis Love III at the Honda Classic. Ernie or myself that was great and was million was a new Mercedes S500 for his Already a hometown hero, Hamilton going to be the difference. It happened on wife, Jacque. received that hero’s welcome in July dur- the playoff on 17, but Ernie hit a bad shot “Which means I have to start making ing the John Deere Classic (JDC) in Silvis, and had a difficult up-and-down.” some putts again,” he says. “But winning played less than an hour from his boy- the British Open gave me a lot of confi- hood home. RELUCTANT CELEBRITY dence. Now I feel like I’m playing on Hamilton was one of 13 players at the Ironically, Hamilton made some comments house money.” JDC who had qualified for the British at the JDC about how he was a fairly Hamilton isn’t sure when he will get to Open. Much of the pre-tournament cov- private person and could do without all the visit Oquawka again. erage focused on why the established media attention he received after his win at “I have no clue right now,” he says. “I stars—such as Vijay Singh and Nick the Honda and his appearance near his was looking forward to taking it easy Price—would play in the Quad Cities the hometown. Winning the British Open toward the end of the year. Now it looks week before the British. didn’t exactly dim that spotlight. like I’ll be playing overseas a lot.” “You’re talking to a guy who made five “I’ve been pulled and pushed from all or six trips a year to Japan on 13- and 14- different directions,” Hamilton says of Greg Stewart is a sports reporter for the hour flights,” Hamilton says. endless interview requests. “It was a Peoria Journal Star. “Plus, if I wouldn’t have played (the JDC), I probably would have been cruci- fied. I know my dad would have had some words for me. My mother, too. I THE TOP 10 have no problem getting on a flight Sunday night and shooting over there.” Todd Hamilton appeared July 20 on “The Late Show with David Letterman” Shoot over there he did, where he to present his list of top 10 perks that come with winning the British Open. carded rounds of 71-67-67-69 — 274. They were: “Throughout the whole day Sunday, I thought I was going to win the entire time 10 “Everywhere I go, I’m recognized by middle-aged fat guys.” except for once,” recalls Hamilton, who 9 “Whenever Tiger Woods and about a dozen other guys turn down an played in the final group. “I thought (Els) endorsement deal, I get the call.” was going to make that putt (in regula- tion) and I was ready to shake his hand.” 8 “Claret Jug is full of Sambuca.” 7 “Get to appear on MTV’s ‘Pimp My Cart.’” 6 “If you beat your caddie with a pitching wedge, the PGA looks the other way.” 5 “President Bush called me. He kept calling me Ernie, but it was still nice.” 4 “Certain my boyhood home in Oquawka will soon become the No. 1 tourist spot in America.” 3 “You become a household name like past winners David Brown and George Duncan.” 2 “For the next week only, Big Ben will be renamed Big Todd.” And the No. 1 perk: 1 “I’ve been filling up some divots, if you know what I mean.”

Hamilton, who appeared on the show with Halle Berry, said he has yet to see the tape of his performance. “If I would have gone out there cold without any practice, they wouldn’t have been able to do the show because I would have been laughing the

©CHRIS CONDON/PGA TOUR whole hour,” he said. Hamilton competes at the 2004 Memorial.

18 CHICAGO DISTRICT GOLFER