Illinois Women's Open

The Illinois Women's Open is a three-day, 54-hole state championship of golf administered by the Chicagoland Golf Publishing Co. of Naperville, Illinois, and the non-profit Chicago Friends of Golf, Inc.

The tournament, founded in 1995 by Chicagoland Golf editor and publisher Phil Kosin, is open to female-at-birth professionals and amateurs aged 17 and over who reside within the states of Illinois, Michigan, Indiana, Kentucky, Missouri, Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin. Special age and residency exemptions are also considered.

The traditional dates of the Illinois Women's Open are the Thursday, Friday and Saturday immediately following the week of the British Open Championship in late July. The IWO championship field is limited to the top 96 players, and a qualifying round is scheduled if needed. The event's home course is the upland links-style Mistwood Golf Club in Romeoville, Illinois, designed by Ray Hearn.

Each year's champion has her name added to the Elaine Rosenthal Memorial Trophy, which honors one of Chicago and the nation's early women's golf pioneers. Ms. Rosenthal played in many championships in the late 1910s through the mid-1930s, representing the Chicago area and playing out of Ravisloe Country Club in Homewood, Illinois. She volunteered her services as part of "The Dixie Kids" a foursome of talented teenage golfers who barnstormed the United States in 1917-18 playing exhibition matches. Those charity matches marked the first time in the history of golf that spectators paid for tickets to watch a golf event. In this case, the money raised went to the American Red Cross to buy medical supplies for use on the battlefields of Europe. Equally remarkable are the identities of the four teens: Elaine Rosenthal and Alexa Stirling were the women; Perry Adair and Bobby Jones were the men.

The 2009 Illinois Women's Open is tentatively scheduled for July 23-25.

Tournament hosts

*1995-1998 Odyssey Golf Course, Tinley Park, Illinois
*1999-2008 Mistwood Golf Club, Romeoville, Illinois

Winners

* a-denotes amateur
*Source: Chicagoland Golf Publishing Co., Phil Kosin and Joanne Miller

Footnotes

1-The inaugural 1995 Illinois Women's Open (IWO) was shortened to 36 holes due to cloud-to-ground lightning and torrential rain during the first round. None of the groups had completed nine holes, so the entire round was wiped out.

2-The original July 17-19, 1996 Illinois Women's Open was washed out when 16-inch rains flooded the Chicago area. The golf course, built partially on a flood plain, had over five feet of water on seven holes. The IWO was rescheduled for August 14, 15 and 17.

3-Sarah Johnston is now playing the LPGA Tour under her married name of Sarah Lynn Sargent.

4-Annika Wellander of Winnetka became the youngest IWO champion when she won three days past her 19th birthday. She held off a fierce back-nine charge from 20-year LPGA Tour veteran Allison Finney (also a Winnetka native) to win the title by one stroke. Both Welander and Finney's 54-hole scores broke course and tournament records.

5-In 1997 the golf course was blasted with a 110-degree heat index and tropical humidity for the final round. Amateur Kerry Postillion, the only player in the field who eschewed use of a roofed power cart, set an IWO record when with eight holes remaining, owned a whopping nine-shot lead over her nearest chaser. Her huge lead quickly disappeared when she began suffering from heat exhaustion; she and runner-up Diane Daugherty ended in a tie after 54 holes. However, Postillion won a three-hole, aggregate-score playoff with a one-over-par 12 to Daugherty's 13.

6-The 2007 Illinois Women's Open ended with a state-record 10-hole playoff. At the end of regulation amateur Nicole Schachner was tied with professional Jenna Pearson at 1-under 215 (Pearson missed a 15-foot eagle putt on the final hole of regulation for an outright one-stroke victory.) After the duo played a four-hole, aggregate-score playoff over holes 1-2-3-3 and were still tied, the format reverted to sudden-death on Mistwood's 528-yard par-5 third hole. The twosome played the hole five more times with the same result as the first two times through during the four-hole playoff -- seven straight two-putt pars. Finally on the 10th hole of the playoff and sixth of sudden death, Schachner two putted from 13 feet and Pearson missed a 7-footer to extend the playoff. Also notable is both the first and second rounds began with shotgun starts for the first time in tournament history -- necessitated by the presence of severe thunderstorms and cloud-to-ground lightning in the area.

7-For the first time, the IWO received more entries than spots in the field (96) and held its first qualifier, with 18 players going for 9 spots. Neff in round two shot 7-under 65 at Mistwood, a course women's record (men's record 64) and IWO record.

External links

* [http://www.chicagolandgolf.com/ilwomensopen.html Official site]