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Illinois Valley Men’s Golf Championship has another strong, deep field · Illinois Valley - Shaw Local

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  Speaker 1: Illinois valley Men's Golf Championship has another strong, deep field.
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  Speaker 1: Written by Kevin Schlum, this article is being read by
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  Speaker 1: an automated voice brought to you by Everlett. When John
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  Speaker 1: Prescott tease off this weekend to defend his Illinois valley
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  Speaker 1: Men's Golf Championship title, he's not putting any pressure on himself.
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  Speaker 1: It was good to get the monkey off my back
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  Speaker 1: last year, and I'll try to go back and win
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  Speaker 1: it again. But at the end of the day, we'll
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  Speaker 1: see what happens, Prescott said. I'm just going out there
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  Speaker 1: and having fun. We're not out there playing for millions.
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  Speaker 1: There's really nothing to stress about. I'll just go have
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  Speaker 1: fun and see what happens. That's all you can really do. Generally,
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  Speaker 1: when you're having fun and in a good mindset, things
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  Speaker 1: tend to work out. The tournament's first round is Saturday
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  Speaker 1: at Edgewood Park Golf Club in McNab, with the final
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  Speaker 1: round Sunday at Deer Park Golf Club in Oglesby. A
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  Speaker 1: lot of people consider both Edgewood and Deer Park to
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  Speaker 1: be bombers courses, but I think accuracy off the tee
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  Speaker 1: will be more important. Tournament director Mason Kimberly said, Edgewood
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  Speaker 1: has some rough that can be quite difficult to hit
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  Speaker 1: out of, and Deer Park has a lot of tighter,
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  Speaker 1: tree lined fairways. Both courses have a challenging set of
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  Speaker 1: par three s, and I have a feeling that those
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  Speaker 1: could be the deciding factor in every division. Along with Prescott,
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  Speaker 1: the field this weekend includes several other pass champions, including
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  Speaker 1: Bailey Lair twenty twenty four, twenty twenty, twenty, nineteen, twenty eighteen,
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  Speaker 1: Jeremy de Bernardi twenty thirteen, two thousand and nine, two
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  Speaker 1: thousand and eight, two thousand and six, two thousand and four,
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  Speaker 1: who is the Deer Park greenskeeper twenty twenty six, Barry
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  Speaker 1: Memorial Champion Josh Gas twenty sixteen, and Caleb Jirzinski twenty
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  Speaker 1: twenty three. There are one hundred and seventy two golfers
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  Speaker 1: in the field, forty four playing in Championship class. I
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  Speaker 1: think the strength of the field is pretty darn good,
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  Speaker 1: Prescott said. Tournament co directors Mason and Patrick goy do
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  Speaker 1: a great job of getting all the best golfers in
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  Speaker 1: the area to get into it. Many of the past
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  Speaker 1: champions are going to be there. It's not like back
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  Speaker 1: in the day where you could shoot over par and win.
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  Speaker 1: It's probably going to take four, five six under to win.
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  Speaker 1: When I started playing in it, there weren't many guys
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  Speaker 1: who were twenty twenty two, twenty twenty four playing in it.
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  Speaker 1: Now it seems like half the championship field is that way.
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  Speaker 1: Those guys hit it a long ways. It's good to
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  Speaker 1: see the younger guys getting into it. Other names who
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  Speaker 1: Kimberly fields could be in contention this weekend are twenty
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  Speaker 1: twenty five es class won A state champion, Wyattnavatni Ben Sear,
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  Speaker 1: Jaden Nambo, TJ. Templeton, and Drake Stout. I feel the
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  Speaker 1: field gets stronger and deeper every year with the influx
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  Speaker 1: of talented young players we have in the area, Kimberly said.
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  Speaker 1: I have a feeling it will take at least a
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  Speaker 1: few under par to win it this year. Prescott said
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  Speaker 1: he's played pretty well this summer and has been under
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  Speaker 1: par pretty consistently, but he's only played at Mendota Golf Club.
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  Speaker 1: I've obviously played the Turnomate courses before, but it's always
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  Speaker 1: a little different, Prescott said. Deer Park is one of
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  Speaker 1: the nicest courses in the area. Deer Park is always
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  Speaker 1: kind of tough. If you keep it on the fairways,
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  Speaker 1: it can reward you pretty well. It's never been very
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  Speaker 1: kind to me, but we'll see what happens this year.
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  Speaker 1: I haven't been to Edgewood since the last time there
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  Speaker 1: was a tournament round there, so that was probably three
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  Speaker 1: or four years ago. It's a nice course. It's scorable,
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  Speaker 1: but it can also penalize you. Gas is coming off
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  Speaker 1: winning the Berry Memorial at Pine Hills and the Eastwood
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  Speaker 1: six strokes ahead of Kimberly, who also competed last week
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  Speaker 1: in the Illinois State Amateur for the second time. My
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  Speaker 1: competitive rounds have not been as consistent as most years,
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  Speaker 1: but I'll be going into the weekend with some confidence,
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  Speaker 1: Kimberly said. If I keep it in play off the
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  Speaker 1: tee and make some putts, I feel pretty good about
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  Speaker 1: my champ. Kimberly is hoping to break through after coming
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  Speaker 1: close several times, including runner up finishes last year and
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  Speaker 1: in twenty sixteen. It's just an honor to be the
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  Speaker 1: steward for an event with so much prestige and history,
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  Speaker 1: said Kimberly, who is in his eleventh year as co
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  Speaker 1: tournament director. I don't know if you'll find a better
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  Speaker 1: golf tournament in the state that is purely local like
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  Speaker 1: this one is. With that being said, there isn't a
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  Speaker 1: golf tournament I'd rather win more than this one. It
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  Speaker 1: would certainly be the icing on the cake. In A
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  Speaker 1: and B class, Kimberly said, golfers to watch are Jake Strabala,
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  Speaker 1: Brandon Urbantz, Rich Williams, Noah Plim, Steve whitek Chris Sear,
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  Speaker 1: Jonathan Due, David Penny, and Austin Sonado. Nick gansbou Fancher,
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  Speaker 1: Tonya Rait and Jason Engelhardt could be in the mix.
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  Speaker 1: In C class. Spark Larkin, Steve Harvey, Gary Zeeman and
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  Speaker 1: Dave Khalil are names to keep an eye on. In
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  Speaker 1: Senior class. Brian Lair, Fred Steele, Tony Muscuado and Rick
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  Speaker 1: Crumbsheide could contend in Legends class, and Nam Novatni, Carson
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  Speaker 1: Zellers and Carson Rowe could be in the hunt in
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  Speaker 1: the twenty one and underclass.