Mike Small

Three-time PGA Professional Champion, and men’s golf coach since 2000 at the University of Illinois. Has competed in 15 major championships prior to competing at Harbor Shores. The list includes 10 PGA Championships - 2004, ‘05, ‘06, ‘07, ‘09, ‘10, ‘11,’12, ‘13, ‘17, with best finishes T-69 in 2007 and 2011. Three U.S. Opens - 1994, ’98 and 2007; and two U.S. Senior Opens, where he finished T-42 in 2017 and T-43 in 2016….Finished T-33 in the 2022 PGA Professional Championship….Is one of the most successful PGA Professionals to serve as an NCAA Division I men's golf coach...the Illini have advanced to the NCAA Championships in each of the last 13 seasons and in 15 of Small's 20 seasons...11-time Big Ten Conference Coach of the Year...Coached Illinois to a runner-up finish in the 2013 NCAA Championship, upsetting top-seeded Cal in the semifinals...Illini were quarterfinalists in 2011 and 2014 and semifinalists in 2015, 2016, and 2017... has coached two NCAA individual champions in Scott Langley (2010) and 2016 European Ryder Cup member Thomas Pieters (2012)...2016 Inductee Golf Coaches of America Hall of Fame...2015 Dave Williams National Coach of the Year...Winner, 2006, '07, and '10 National PGA Professional Player of the Year and was named Senior PGA Professional of the Year in 2017...with victories in the 2005, 2009, and 2010 PGA Professional Championship, joined the late Larry Gilbert as the Championship's only 3-time winners (remains the only member of the Illinois PGA Section to win the PGA Professional Championship) - rallied to win in 2005 and 2009, and was the 54-hole leader in 2010, before holding on to win at French Lick (Ind.) Resort...He is the only player in Illinois PGA history to win the Illinois Open Championship and Illinois PGA Championship in the same year (2003, 2005-07)...Competed on the 2005, '07, '09, '11, and '13 U.S. PGA Cup Teams... He was the Low Club Professional in the 2007 and 2011 PGA Championships...in 2007, at Southern Hills Country Club in Tulsa, Oklahoma, he accomplished the feat after winning the Illinois Open four days earlier and flying to Southern Hills to compete...was a college teammate with Steve Stricker...Competed on the Web.com Tour (former Nike Tour), winning the 1997 Monterey Open and the 1997 Cleveland Open... was a member of the PGA Tour in 1998...posted a career-best T-9 in the 1998 Bell Canadian Open...has played in 10 PGA Championships (made three cuts) and competed in 1994, '98 and 2007 U.S. Opens...2013 Inductee, Illinois Golf Hall of Fame...Winner of a record 13 Illinois PGA Section Professional Championships (2001, 2003-10, 2013-14, '16, 2020)...Winner, 2003, '05, '06, '07 Illinois Open...Winner, 2017, '18, '19, '20, '21 Illinois PGA Senior Professional Championship...He followed the tradition of his father, Bill, as a captain of an Illini sports team... Bill served as captain of the Fighting Illini's 1963 Big Ten Champion men's basketball team, while Mike was captain of the golf team in 1989, and his younger brother, Andy, was an infielder on the 1990 Big Ten Champion baseball squad and also served as team captain... Stricker and Small served as a groomsman at each other's weddings (Stricker helped fund University of Illinois's premier outdoor practice facility).