| by: Len Ziehm - 7/28/2003 6:48:30 AM |
| Assuming there's no playoff, golf tournaments always finish on the 18th hole. This year's Illinois Women's Open was decided there--literally.
Mistwood's finishing hole, set at 485 yards for the IWO, was kind to Berwyn's Nicole Jeray and brutal on Abby Pearson. Pearson made bogey on the last hole of all three rounds at the Romeoville course. Jeray made birdies in the first and third rounds and a par in the second. Jeray played the 18th in 13 strokes, Pearson in 18. The difference in their scores over the tourney's 54 holes was three, Jeray finishing in 4-under-par 212 and Pearson in 1-under 215.
Jeray's finishing birdie came with the pressure on. Pearson, the assistant coach at Ball State University in Muncie, Ind., had cut Jeray's lead from three strokes to one with birdies on the 15th and 17th holes of the final round.
"She (Pearson) was in a zone, and I was nervous," Jeray said.
Jeray took a bathroom break before hitting her last tee shot. Pearson had hit first, putting a 5-wood dead left and into three-foot high rough. The gallery was needed to help her find her ball, it finishing about 50 yards short of where Pearson thought she had hit it. The search took about five minutes. Jeray, meanwhile, smacked her tee shot long and down the left side of the fairway.
She hit the green with her second shot. Pearson, getting a decent lie in the rough, escaped to 100 yards of the green with her second and hit her approach in the same spot Jeray did. Both left their first putts short. Pearson missed her par putt before Jeray tapped in from two feet for her finishing bird.
Now comes the fun part. What will Mark Hersch do?
The IWO champion of the last two years has received a sponsor's exemption to the Kellogg-Keebler Classic, Chicago's annual LPGA Tour stop Jeray, who won her second IWO title at Mistwood, doesn't think she'll be accorded a similar invitation.
Chicago's only LPGA Tour member, Jeray blasted Hersch, the Kellogg-Keebler director, after he rejected her exemption request in May and did it again after edging Pearson.
"I'm sure the rules will change (on Hersch inviting the IWO winner)," Jeray said. "He won't give me an exemption, no matter what, and that'll be fine. I plan to be on tour (as an exempt player) all by myself."
That'll depend on how she plays the rest of the season. Jeray has gotten into six LPGA tourneys this season and made the cut in three. She had the week off following her IWO win, then was qualified for the next four LPGA events. Her showing in those will probably determine her tournament schedule for 2004.
Just getting into events has been a problem this year, and Jeray is still wincing from Hersch's snub. He chose NCAA champion Virada Nirapathpongporn of Duke, who's still an amateur, instead.
"I really got stressed out about it," Jeray said. "Why give it to some out-of-state chick who'll never come to this state again? It's just sad, because I'm such a hometown player and it could have made such a difference in my career."
Winning the IWO made a difference in her bank account. Jeray earned $2,000.
"I've been having a good year, but I still need the money. I'm broke," she said.
Jeray started the final round with a two-stroke lead over Winnetka amateur whiz Alexis Wooster and was four ahead of Pearson. A six-year member of the LPGA's Futures Tour before turning to coaching, Pearson qualified for this year's U.S. Women's Open at the Chicago sectional at Cantigny in Wheaton and hopes to be a tour player again next year. Wooster, about to enter her junior year at Tulane, won the last two Illinois Women's Amateur titles. She was a tough competitor in her first event going head-to-head with professional players.
Wooster, coming off a spectacular birdie at the par-3 14th, and Pearson, shaking off a three-putt bogey on the same hole, both trailed Jeray by three strokes on the 15th tee. Pearson made her move, getting birdies at the 15th and 17th. Wooster fell back with double bogeys on the same holes. Then came the fateful 18th.
The tourney drew a record 78 participants and a record 26 pros. Jeray became its third multiple champion, joining Kerry Postillion who had three wins and Emily Gilley, who took back-to-back titles before turning her attention to medical school studies. Neither competed this year.
Jeray's second IWO came on a day similar to her first weather-wise. The wind was blowing at 18 miles per hour with gusts to 31 during the final round at Mistwood. Her first victory came on a similarly windy day at Odyssey in Tinley Park in 1998. She had not competed in the event since.
Len Ziehm will be a 'Guest Columnist' this summer for GolfChicago.com. Zeihm has been covering the Chicago golf scene for over 30 years and is a sportswriter for The Chicago Sun-Times.
|
