96th CDGA Amateur Championship
CHICAGO DISTRICT GOLFER DIGITAL EXTRA | 1
96th CDGA Am June 22-25
Champion: Alex Bu Runner-Up: Tee-K
mateur Championship 5 • Knollwood Club
urge (Bloomington) K Kelly (Wheaton)
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BURGEoning Star
outcome after he tallied 10 birdies in the weather-delayed 36-hole stroke play qualifying to earn medalist honors by three shots Bloomington native and University of Illinois golfer over defending CDGA Amateur Alex Burge wins the 96th CDGA Am at Knollwood champion Jordan Fahel. In match play, Burge’s dominance By Matt Baylor continued, dispatching of Sean then proceeded to carve his way Graham in the first round 6 and 5 University of Illinois golfer through the match play bracket, on Tuesday afternoon. Wednesday earns the top seed in the CDGA culminating the week with a saw Burge again make quick work Amateur Championship match nail-biting 1-up victory in the of the opposition, knocking off play bracket at Knollwood, then title match over fellow Big Ten Michigan State University product storms through the bracket to win Conference golfer Tee-K Kelly from Charlie Netzel 5 and 4 in the the title. The year was 2001 and the Ohio State University. quarterfinals, then Mattoon midFighting Illini player was current amateur Derek Meinhart 3 and 2 in Web.com Tour pro Joe Affrunti. “It’s awesome to win,” Burge said the semifinals. Until this week, it was the last time after winning the 96th edition of the CDGA Am medalist and top- the CDGA Am. “I’ve played CDGA “I did a really good job taking it seed had hoisted the Joseph G. events my whole life, so to join one shot at a time,” Burge added. Davis Trophy at the Championship. the list of winners is something “The course definitely caught my special.” eye, it is tree-lined, similar to a Turn the page to 2015, when course I grew up on. I drove the Illinois rising redshirt senior Alex Earlier in the week, there seemed ball really well all week and had a Burge took medalist honors with to be no doubt Burge would be lot of wedges in my hand.” a 6-under par 138 at Knollwood, a factor in the Championship
A
96th CDGA Amateur Championship
CHICAGO DISTRICT GOLFER DIGITAL EXTRA | 5
Kelly, on the other hand, had more of a flair for the dramatic. After earning the third seed with a 2-under 142 in stroke play, he also earned a 6-and-5 win in the first round, besting Kevin Ackford. From there, Kelly took it to the wire, besting University of Iowa grad Brian Bullington in the quarterfinals and fellow Illinois State Amateur champ and another Click above for a video recap of the 96th CDGA Amateur Championship Hawkeye, Raymond Knoll, in the semifinals, both by 1-up tallies. “I was feeling confident early on,” back to 1 down at the quarter post Kelly said. “I made two birdies in of the 36-hole final. In the championship match, the first three holes, he kind of gave Kelly looked as though he might me the first one with a bogey. But Kelly increased his lead to 3 up become the 11th golfer in history I know how good of a player he is, with birdies at the 11th and 13th to win the state’s biggest amateur so even though I was 3 up through holes and stood on the 15th tee golf events—the CDGA Amateur three holes, it wasn’t going to be with a 3-up lead after the pair and Illinois State Amateur—when that easy.” parred the 14th. However, like he took a 3-up lead following in his semifinal match with Knoll birdies at the second and third With birdies at the sixth and ninth, where he lost three of the final four holes. Burge showed his resolve, clawing holes, Knollwood’s closing stretch 96th CDGA Amateur Championship
(1) Alex Burge
(2) Jordan Fahel
Match Play Bracket
6 and 5
(15) Raymond Knoll
(1) Alex Burge
(16) Sean Graham 5 and 4
(15) Raymond Knoll
(1) Alex Burge
20 holes
(15) Raymond Knoll 3 and 2
(8) Charlie Netzel
(7) Matt Weber (1) Alex Burge
4 and 2
(10) Cully Johnston
(8) Charlie Netzel
(9) Brett Tomfohrde 3 and 2
(1) Alex Burge 1 up
(10) Cully Johnston 1 up
(5) Brian Hickey
19 holes
1 up
(6) Brian Bullington
(6) Brian Bullington
(12) Derek Meinhart
8 and 7
(3) Tee-K Kelly (12) Derek Meinhart
(11) Jake Erickson 3 and 2
(4) Glenn Przybylski
2 and 1
(12) Derek Meinhart
(13) Blake Johnson
(13) Blake Johnson
6 | CHICAGO DISTRICT GOLFER DIGITAL EXTRA
(3) Tee-K Kelly
1 up
(3) Tee-K Kelly
(3) Tee-K Kelly
6 and 5
(14) Kevin Ackford
WWW.CDGA.ORG
STROKE PLAY RESULTS Pos Player OVR R1 R2 Total 1 Burge, Alex -6 2 Fahel, Jordan -3 3 Kelly, Tee-K -2 T4 Przybylski, Glenn -1 T4 Hickey, Brian -1 T6 Bullington, Brian E T6 Weber, Matthew E T8 Netzel, Charlie +1 T8 Tomfohrde, Brett +1 T8 Johnston, Cully +1 T11 Erickson, Jake E +2 T11 Meinhart, Derek +2 T11 Johnson, Blake R +2 T14 Ackford, Kevin +3 T14 Knoll, Raymond +3 T16 Graham, Sean C +4 T16 Flavin, Patrick T +4 T18 Jewell, Zach R +5 T18 Flack, Kevin +5 T18 Prchal, Quinlan +5 T18 Wietecha, Jackson +5 T18 Peters, Michael +5 T18 Sellers, Joshua L +5 T18 Wright, John A +5 T25 Bauman, Greg T +6 T25 Hudson, Daniel +6 T25 Schlimm, Paul +6 T25 Tynan, Tim +6 T25 Wetsch, Jordan +6 30 Weber, Scott +7 T31 Huggins, Nicholas A +8 T31 Ehrgott, John +8 T31 Sawtell, Steve C. +8 34 Baker, Chris +9 T35 Barrett, Brian +10 T35 Schwab, Justin R +10 T35 Kois, Stephen D +10 T35 Murphy, Ben +10 T39 Denenberg, Andrew T +11 T39 Izzo, Eric +11 T41 Kay, Brad +12 T41 Lubnik, Dave +12 T41 Garrity, Jack +12 44 Sopko, Craig D +14 T45 Blakemore, T. J. +15 T45 Gohacki, Kevin +15 T47 Shiels, Aaron +16 T47 Sproles, Austin +16 T47 Montagne, Martin +16 50 Paek, Jason +18 T51 Ladone, Paul +21 T51 Gosden, Grant +21 53 Funke, Caleb +22
68 70 138 73 68 141 71 71 142 74 69 143 72 71 143 70 74 144 75 69 144 75 70 145 73 72 145 71 74 145 72 74 146 74 72 146 72 74 146 73 74 147 78 69 147 75 73 148 75 73 148 78 71 149 72 77 149 78 71 149 74 75 149 76 73 149 79 70 149 74 75 149 74 76 150 71 79 150 75 75 150 74 76 150 75 75 150 74 77 151 76 76 152 81 71 152 76 76 152 77 76 153 81 73 154 78 76 154 77 77 154 78 76 154 79 76 155 77 78 155 78 78 156 83 73 156 82 74 156 79 79 158 79 80 159 82 77 159 80 80 160 80 80 160 79 81 160 80 82 162 85 80 165 84 81 165 83 83 166
proved to be Kelly’s kryptonite, as Burge birdied the 15th, 16th and 18th holes—the last with a 35-foot snake—to square the match at halftime. When play resumed in the afternoon, Burge carried that momentum, winning the 19th hole after a Kelly bogey to take his first lead of the day. Kelly would punch back on the 20th hole of 96th CDGA Amateur Championship
the day, putting his drive on the 311-yard second to 15 feet on the front edge, then chipping to 2 feet to earn a birdie. Burge would restart the seesaw battle by putting a masterful backspin on his tee shot at the 172yard fourth hole, leaving his tee shot 2 feet from the pin for an easy birdie and 1-up lead after 22 holes. From there, Burge would never trail again, with Kelly only squaring the match at times, including an impressive 30-foot birdie at the 10th hole. The match was all square on the 15th tee, but Burge surged to the lead with a 20-foot birdie on the 400-yard par-4. On the 16th, Kelly’s tee shot was lost in the trees to the right of the fairway, allowing Burge to play to a conservative par and go dormie through 34 holes.
come and make a really good 2 on 17 to extend the match, and then to keep fighting all the way down the 18th hole and have another putt to extend the match that just missed. It was a good fight out there and it’s unfortunate that it ended that way.”
With the victory, Burge becomes the fourth player in the past six years with ties to the BloomingtonNormal area golf scene. Hailing from Bloomington and playing his golf out of The Den at Fox Creek, Burge is a resident of the area like 2011 champion Kyle English. 2010 champ Tommy Bliefnick and 2014 Kelly showed his calm champ Jordan Fahel played their under pressure at the collegiate golf at Illinois State 17th, draining a 20- University in Normal. foot birdie to extend the match to the 18th, Burge’s focus will now turn to but narrowly missed a the 85th Illinois State Amateur bending 20-footer for birdie on the Championship next month at final hole, halving the hole with Panther Creek Country Club in pars and giving Burge the victory. Springfield. Burge qualified for the event on the number at the “It was just a bad swing at a bad University of Illinois Golf Course time,” Kelly said of the fateful drive qualifier and seeks to become on the 16th. “It was my worst drive the first player to win both the of the week at probably the worst CDGA Amateur and Illinois State time it could happen. I just have Amateur in the same season since to take that in stride and be able to Joel Hirsch accomplished the feat build off the fact that I was able to in 1988. CHICAGO DISTRICT GOLFER DIGITAL EXTRA | 7
A golf tournament and a rock concert couldn’t be more different scenes.
One, quiet and serene on sprawling acres of nature. The other, deafening and crowded at indoor venues. Chicago’s Cully Johnston feels perfectly at home in both. Johnston is a rarity in that he excels at both of the conflicting disciplines. The 35-year-old reached the quarterfinals of this week’s CDGA Amateur Championship at Knollwood Club, totaling a 1-over par 145 in 36 holes of stroke play qualifying before besting Matt Weber in Round of 16 action. He also plays guitar in the local indie rock band Sequoia and spent about eight years in the music industry full-time. Golf, though, was Johnston’s first love. “I’ve been playing golf since literally before I could walk,” Johnston said after his CDGA Am quarterfinal defeat at the hands of Raymond Knoll. “My dad got me started really young. I’d step up, hit the ball, and fall down on my diaper because I couldn’t walk.”
Change of une CDGA Am quarterfinalist Cully Johnston handles a guitar as well as he does a golf club By Casey Richards
8 | CHICAGO DISTRICT GOLFER DIGITAL EXTRA
A native of the Washington D.C. area, Johnston excelled at golf throughout high school. Simultaneously, his passion for music deepened at the age of 16 when he switched from drums to guitar. When it came time to go to college at Florida State and focus on one as a potential career, Johnston chose music, moving to Chicago in 2001. “It was a music scene thing,” Johnston said of his decision to move to Chicago. “I’m really a big fan of the Midwest noise rock and indie rock scene. “This was the epicenter of the kind of music I was interested in, which was big-guitar-based noisy math rock type stuff.” Johnston spent time in various bands and enjoyed his stint as a full-time musician. However, as he aged, Johnston made the WWW.CDGA.ORG
commitment to the game. “That was mind-blowing,” Johnston said. “It showed me I have a lot of work still to do, because they set that course up really difficult. To get into match play there is my next goal. I kind of wanted to just take in that whole experience and not put a huge amount of pressure on myself to get into match play, but rather just learn what it takes.”
In addition to golf, Cully Johnston excels at playing guitar in the rock band Sequoia. Click above to visit the band’s website.
Even with his full-time job and burgeoning amateur golf career, Johnston still finds time to strum his guitar. His four-person band practices about once a week, and is putting the finishing touches on their second album, which will be released on vinyl in the coming months.
decision to search for a steadier lifestyle.
realized the work that would be “It’s a blast,” Johnston said of his required. time spent with Sequoia. “It’s “I did it very seriously in my 20s, “It was harder than I thought,” something that is always going but never got that big break you Johnston admitted. “In high school, to be in my life. Once you have need to make it a profession where I was a pretty decent player, and that bug and that love for music, you make money instead of going I thought I would be able to pick you never stop. I’m always sitting from job to job,” Johnston said. it right back up. To a degree, the around fiddling with the guitar.” “When I turned 30, that was kind natural motion was still there, but of a turning point. I didn’t want to the quality of golfers in the area is While golf and guitar may have go on tour in a minivan and sleep so high that it made me realize, ‘I’m many differences on the surface, on floors. I wanted to have a little going to have to work really, really Johnston has come to identify one bit more of a comfortable life on hard to be able to play in these similarity between the two over the years: the hard work required my back.” events and compete.’” to excel. Johnston secured a full-time position as the box office manager at Second City in Chicago. His night and weekend hours allowed the time for Johnston to re-discover his first passion: golf.
Johnston’s main goal when returning to golf was to qualify for a USGA event, which it took him just four attempts to accomplish. He clinched a spot in last year’s U.S. Mid-Amateur Championship in Bethlehem, Pa., with an evenDespite rarely playing for over a par 71 at Riverside Golf Club. While decade, some aspects of Johnston’s he missed the match play cut game returned easily. To play at after shooting rounds of 83 and the highly-competitive level he 81, the experience was enjoyable sought, though, Johnston quickly for Johnston and deepened his 96th CDGA Amateur Championship
“They take a lot of repetitive practice and dedication to get even competent at,” Johnston explained. “The learning curve is steep. You’ve got to really want to do it to do it well.
“Everybody who is really good at golf works really hard at it, because you have to. Music is the same way.” CHICAGO DISTRICT GOLFER DIGITAL EXTRA | 9
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