Pros, honoring Steve Dunning, bounce back in Radix

Writing from River Grove, Illinois

Thursday, June 13, 2024

Losing two years in a row to their amateur buddies didn’t sit well with the pros of the PGA’s Illinois Section. That was clear from the start in the 62nd renewal of the Radix Cup, the annual competition between the best of each side at Oak Park County Club.

Each of the six two-man pro teams won the front nine, picking up a point in the three-point Nassau format, and went on to a 16-2 victory, the largest in Radix Cup history.

“We ham ’n egged it pretty well,” said Brian Carroll, professional at The Hawk in Crystal Lake. He was speaking of his association with Kevin Flack of Rockford’s Mauh-Nah-Tee-See club – they applied a 3-0 thumping of Chadd Slutzky of Royal Fox and John Ramsey of Glenview Park – but might as well have been speaking of the dozen pros as a whole.

Four of the six twosomes swept their match. The others applying the 3-0 vise: Andy Mickelson (Mistwood GC) and Jeff Kellen (North Shore CC), Chris Green (Glen View C) and Tim Streng (Wildcat Golf Academy), and Kyle Donovan (Oak Park CC) and Chris French (Aldeen GC).

On a steamy day when pesky cicadas caused many a player to flinch before taking a swing, Carroll downplayed his contributions, which included a 7-foot birdie putt at the last to seal the outcome of the first match, but the numbers were overwhelming. Not only did the pros sweep the front side, at one point it was 11-0. Only a late rally prevented a shutout.

The outcome was hardly inevitable. The many of the amateurs were returnees from the squads that won the last two years. In the four years since the cancellation of the 2020 playing because of COVID-19, each side has won twice.

The Radix, though, has never been just about the competition, competitive though it is. Honoring Radix, one of golf’s biggest boosters, since North Shore pro Bill Ogden and Oak Park pro Errie Ball conceived it in 1962, the camaraderie between the two sides is also a feature, from the lunch before play to the partaking of a libation after the final putt drops.

This year, there was another element. The flag at Oak Park was at half staff, honoring Steve Dunning, professional at the club from 1982 through 2009, who died on Saturday. A gentleman of the first order and a consummate pro, Dunning was 77.

“Steve was great to me when I was first getting started here,” said Carson Solien, the current head pro at Oak Park, told CDGA.org. “We’ll miss him. He was an integral part of Oak Park and a great guy.”

Dunning played in the Radix Cup eight times, with a record of 3-4-1. In his final appearance, in 2006, he and Jason Lee dropped a match to Mike Henry and Tom Miler. Henry played in Thursday’s match alongside Derek Meinhart of Mattoon G&CC, and managed a draw against veteran pros Roy Biancalana (The Hawk CC) and Travis Johns (Medinah CC). And there too was a Dunning connection. Henry’s family grew up at Oak Park.

“Steve was the head pro for as long as I can remember,” Henry told the CDGA. “What a gentleman. It was awesome to play with him and I know our entire family spoke very highly of him.”

In that, there was unanimity.

– Tim Cronin