Two golfers who competed in the 2016 TrueNorth Greater Cedar Rapids Open just three weeks ago have qualified to play in this week’s John Deere Classic on the PGA Tour.
Armando Villarreal (Dallas, TX) and former University of Iowa standout Steven Ihm (Peosta, IA) both advanced out of Monday’s general qualifier to make the field for the JDC.
It gives the GCRO a total of five alumni playing in the John Deere, including two-time Major champion Zach Johnson, who grew up in Cedar Rapids.
Johnson won the 2001 GCRO and a couple years later donated all $10,000 he won back to the tournament. Also in the field this week in Silvis, Ill., is PGA Tour veteran George McNeill and Australian Rhein Gibson.
McNeill, who has two PGA Tour wins under his belt and seven seconds, will be playing in his 257th career event when he tees it up Thursday. He hasn’t had a bad go of it, hauling in $11.6 million in career earnings.
Gibson, who tied for 16th in the GCRO in 2012, has made eight cuts in 18 events this year on the PGA Tour and has two runner-up finishes in eight starts on the Web.com Tour. Between the two, he has over $259,000 in earnings this year.
Villarreal, 27, will be playing in the third PGA Tour event of his career, which also includes the 2014 JDC when he was also a Monday qualifier. This past Monday he tied for second with two other golfers at Pinnacle Country Club in Milan, Ill., to earn his spot in the field. In 2014, Villarreal missed the cut by two strokes after qualifying to play with the big boys.
Ihm won a tense four-hole playoff for the fourth and final qualifying spot in the 156-player field. This will be Ihm’s third JDC, but the first where he had to fight through qualifying. His other two starts were on sponsor’s exemptions and he took advantage of one of those to win $30,000 by tying for 27th in 2014.
Ihm will tee off with Thomas Aiken and Lee McCoy off the 10th tee at 9:20 Thursday morning. Villarreal goes off with Michael Johnson and Miguel Angel Carballo at 2:20 p.m. off No. 10.
Villarreal, a native of Mexico, finished in a tie for sixth at Hunters Ridge last month, posting an 11-under-par 205. He finished six strokes in back of GCRO champ Seth Fair.
Ihm tied for 22nd at the GCRO, finishing at 7-under par. That came on the heels of a T9 last year for Ihm and a T24 in his first GCRO in 2014.
Go here for more coverage of the JDC qualifying round.
Also this weekend, a total of nine GCRO alums will be playing in the Web.com Tour’s Price Cutter Charity Classic in Springfield, Mo.
Past GCRO champs Andy Winings (2010) and Chris Baker (2013) lead the pack of golfers who have played in the GCRO and are trying to make it big. Others include Justin Hueber (GCRO runner-up 2013), Jhared Hack (T5 in 2014), Ryan Blaum (3rd, 2013), Chase Wright (8th, 2012), Chris Thompson (T2, 2011), Steve Friesen (3rd, 2010) and Chris Naegel (T7, 2014).
And the GCRO will also be represented in the U.S. Senior Open in Columbus, Ohio, where Doug Garwood (2013 GCRO Senior champ) and Barry Cheesman will compete.
Don Wojciechowski resides in the Hunters Ridge Golf Course community and plays the course on a regular basis. He’s a former sports editor for a suburban Chicago daily newspaper and an avid golf fan.