Clear to partly cloudy. Low 64F. Winds light and variable..
Clear to partly cloudy. Low 64F. Winds light and variable.
Updated: June 19, 2025 @ 10:00 pm
Lyle Burns won his first UI Open title in 2024, holding off David Keenan in a playoff to earn the win by one stroke. The Mahomet-Seymour product — who played collegiately at Parkland and Bradley last decade — sat down with staff writer Joey Wright on Thursday to preview his bid for a second straight UI Open title when the two-day tournament tees off Saturday at the University of Illinois Golf Course in Savoy:
“The game’s kind of there or it’s not these days, with two kids and both of them getting older and more active. It seems like most of my practice has a 3-year-old following me around and involved in it.
“I don’t have crazy high expectations or anything like that. It’d be really cool to repeat, but I’m really just trying to bring the game I know I have this weekend. It’ll just be a matter of whether it shows up or not.”
“It was awesome. I think my son was maybe 4 months old at the time, so that was very fresh. And I didn’t know my wife was going to bring the kids out. So getting to 18 and my daughter running up to me, it almost kind of snapped me out of being a little nervous to get that ball up and down because I had to make sure she didn’t run out there and pick someone else’s ball up.
“Having them out here was cool. Anytime you can get your picture in the paper is kind of fun, but it’s more fun when you have your daughter and your son and wife there with you. That was special.”
“It’s always fun. It seems like Derek (Meinhart) gets up here every year for it. I really only see him at maybe the State Am and the State Mid-Am besides this week.
“And then, it seems like David Keenan kind of owns this place. I obviously play a lot of golf with him. Wish Dan (Patkunas) could be out here this week, but it seems like the one week a year where everyone plays, so you’re going to have stiff competition at the top. And that always kind of fuels the fire a little bit.
“For me, it’s almost a litmus test every time. Obviously, in my college days and even slightly after that, I had the opportunity to practice a lot. These days, with kids, it’s like, ‘Can I be mentally tough enough to come out and know that I’m probably not always going to have the best game, but maybe make up some shots on the field that way?’
“It’s just a lot of fun to compete, and it’s kind of nice to be able to continue to play a sport that gives you the opportunity to stay competitive with your peers.”
“It seems like Sunday, the pins get a little tougher. Especially a week like this where we’ve got so much water, it’ll probably dry out a bit on Saturday. It could play completely different Sunday versus Saturday with wind, and I think it’s supposed to be windy too, so with the wind and the heat, it could be really firm by Sunday.
“But honestly, it just comes more down to nerves than anything. The home stretch out here, especially the back nine in general, you kind of feel like you need to pin your ears back a little bit and make some birdies. But on Sunday, it feels like it’s always a little bit harder to do that.”
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