The Red Devils will look to become this fall the first Class 3A school to win four consecutive state titles at the Den at Fox Creek in Bloomington.
Hinsdale Central returns four starters from last year’s championship squad, including individual state champion Kenneth Li, a senior from Westmont.
Senior Drew Shepherd is back after verbally committing Aug. 4 to Kansas, where he plans to join former Lyons golfer Dan Hudson. Shepherd finished 29th at the Illinois Open after shooting a final-round 68. He tied for 11th at both the American Junior Golf Association Midwest Junior Players Championship and the Mid-American Junior Golf Tour Sanctuary Open in April. Senior Grant Labedz won a qualifier for the Chick Evans Junior Championship this summer but did not make the cut at Itasca Country Club. Junior Brendan O’Reilly also returns after placing third at state.
The Red Devils golfers will compete in a national tournament over Labor Day weekend. They were invited for the first time to play Sept. 4-5 in the Antigua National Invitational at McCormick Ranch in Scottsdale, Ariz. Other Illinois teams in the field are Homewood-Flossmoor, St. Viator and Providence. The two-time defending champion is Brophy from Phoenix.
“It will be a learning experience,” Devils coach Jess Krueger said. “We start school earlier (Aug. 17), so we’re losing good preparation time.”
Hinsdale Central is favored to win its seventh state boys golf title. Normal U-High won six consecutive titles in three classes in the 2000s, while Rockford East won four titles in a row back when there was only one class from 1941-44.
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Kenneth Li, senior: Li’s 67 in the second round of the Class 3A state meet locked up the individual title by five shots. The Westmont resident became Hinsdale Central’s first individual state champion since Jim Cheney in 1963.
He will miss the first two days of tryouts this week in order to compete in the American Junior Golf Association New Era Junior Championship Tuesday, Aug. 11, through Friday, Aug. 14, at Harvest Hill Golf Club in Orchard Park, N.Y. Li played in the Western Junior Amateur with teammate Brendan O’Reilly.
Brendan O’Reilly, junior: After finishing third in the Class 3A state meet, the junior will be considered one of the favorites this season. Few area golfers traveled more this summer than O’Reilly, who played in the Footjoy Invitational in North Carolina and the Rolex Tournament of Champions in Oregon.
O’Reilly’s biggest tournament of the summer was the USGA Junior Amateur in South Carolina in July. He shot a 69 on his second day and finished in the Round of 32 in match play.
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“It was probably the most amazing (tournament),” O’Reilly said. “Everyone made me comfortable. That was probably the best golf tournament I’ve every played.”
O’Reilly placed 26th in the Western Junior Amateur in June. He won three tournaments in May closer to home, at Shepherd’s Crook, Maple Meadows and the Medinah Shrine Junior. To advance to the U.S. Junior Amateur, O’Reilly shot a two-day 139 to win the qualifier in LaSalle.
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