|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Tuesday, September 22, 2009 12:15 AM CDT
Champ trying to salvage tough year
BY BRIAN NIELSEN, Sports Editor
bnielsen@jg-tc.com
MATTOON -- Last time Char McClear was at Mattoon Golf & Country Club, she was the runner-up of the Illinois Women’s Amateur state tournament.
Since then the McHenry golfer has become eligible for the Senior Women’s Amateur.
“Yeah, bummer,” she said with a smile.
McLear must not have minded too badly winning the Senior Women’s championship in 2005, ’06 and ’08.
If she gets a second repeat in the tournament to run today through Thursday at Mattoon Golf & Country Club, this will mark a comeback in a year of about 10 tournaments without her usual success.
“Pretty bad,” McLear said of her current season. “It’s been tough this year. It’s just starting to come around.”
What specifically is wrong with her game?
“Everything,” she said, “which usually means it’s mostly between the ears.”
Still, McLear came from McHenry to play as she has continued to do for a few decades now.
“I’m stubborn,” she said.
Maybe that’s the attitude that helped McLear receive the first women’s golf scholarship in 1971 at Northern Illinois in days before high schools offered female athletics.
On her way to becoming a member of Northern’s athletics Hall of Fame, McClear won a state title and the Illinois State University Invitational.
“It was the biggest event we played,” McClear said of the ISU tourney. “I still have a little plastic cup trophy. It probably cost about $3.”
McClear later qualified for the U.S. Women’s Open in 1978, ’80 and ’88.
Now we can assume the hardware offered to winners at this week’s Senior Amateur is worth a bit more than $3.
Salley Wessels, who interrupted McLear’s reign by winning the 2007 championship, is here this week with Laura Carson, Sue O’Connor, Maureen Sheehan, Patti Lee and Rose Barnett among the others considered top contenders who have gotten to know each other over the years of golf.
“It’s fun,” McClear said. “It’s spirited but it’s just spirited competition. It makes for an enjoyable round of golf even if you’re not playing well.”
Contact Brian Nielsen at bnielsen@jg-tc.com or 238-6856.
Add your comments
Not already registered?
Then click Here.
Comment policy:
JG-TC.com encourages readers to engage in civil conversation with their neighbors. Comments that are submitted are not posted to the site immediately. They go into a queue to be moderated and may take several hours to be reviewed. Comments posted on Saturday may not be reviewed until Sunday afternoon.
In order to keep the page a set width, long lines (mostly long links) will be chopped. Try putting spaces in your links or consider using tinyurl.com to make a smaller link that you can include.
We will never edit or alter your comments, but we do reserve the right to remove comments that violate our code of conduct.
No comment may contain:
* Potentially libelous statements; such as accusing somebody of a crime, defamation of character, or statements that can harm somebody's reputation.
* Obscene, explicit, or racist language.
* Personal attacks, insults, threats, harassment or inciting violence.
* Commercial product promotions.
If you have any questions, please contact our moderator.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
