Why Rockford's best golf course is a perfect match for one of the city's best golfers
ROCKFORD — Aldeen brings out the best in TJ Baker.
And Baker does the same for Rockford’s premier municipal golf course.
Baker set three tournament records Sunday in winning the Aldeen Cup for the third year in a row: He shot 68-65, finishing with the lowest round in tourney history Sunday and winning by a record 13 strokes with a record-low 11-under-par 133 total.
“This course definitely holds a special place for me,” said Baker, the 2019 Class 2A state champion for Boylan who was first-team all-Ohio Valley Conference as a sophomore at Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville last year. “I have played well here the past three years. It’s doing great things and I hope it keeps going.
“This course is set up for good players and good ball strikers. It’s not something you can go and hack it around at, because you will get penalized. That’s the great thing about it. It’s a hard course, but it’s in great shape and it fits my eye and it fits the eye of everyone else out here.”
Baker began the tournament with birdies on six of his first seven holes Saturday. He finished it even better. He had no bogeys Sunday. That included a par on 16 after driving into the trees. But he cut the dogleg and hit the green on the 525-yard par-5 from over 200 yards out with his third shot and two-putted for par. He then birdied 17, the tightest hole on the course, and eagled 18.
Those three holes alone showed why the Rockford Park District never considered Aldeen when they chose one of their five golf courses to shut down two years ago. They picked Elliot even though Aldeen lost three times as much money ($2.3 million in subsidies) over the previous decade. But Aldeen is also a five-star, bent-grass course, that Golf Digest has named one of the 50 best places to play for under $50 in the country and also once as the best municipal course in the state.
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The last three players on the last three holes alone showed how different Aldeen is from Sandy Hollow and Ingersoll, the Park District’s two other 18-hole courses. Mike Morig (74-78—152) fell from third to sixth with a nine on 17 after pulling two tee shots into the woods, but then saved par on 18 after taking off his socks and shoes and hitting his second shot while standing in the pond on the left side of the fairway.
“I can’t remember the last time I did that, but it was probably here,” Morig said. “You really have to earn it out here. At Ingersoll and Sandy, I like the finishes there, because if your round is going sideways you can make a few up there. Sandy has back-to-back par-5s on 15 and 16. You are thinking of making birdie there. The finish at Ingersoll, once you get to 15, you figure you can birdie all of these coming in. It’s the opposite out here; 16 is a birdie hole, but 17 and 18 you’ve got to hold on tight. That’s what makes this course special. That’s why I love playing out here.”
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“The last 3 holes here are exceptional in terms of tournament golf,” said Robert Dofflemyer III, who finished third with a 73-75—148 after winning the County Amateur last week. “You have two par-5s and you always want to birdie the par-5s, but they are tough tee shots. No. 17 is an extremely tight and tough hole, but if you hit a good tee shot you put yourself in position to make birdie. If you don’t you are looking at bogey. Those are the best three finishing holes we have in town.”
Aldeen asks — or at least tempts — golfers to try shots that are seldom seen around Rockford. Tourney officials moved the tees up and to the left on 18 Sunday, so Baker, Dofflemyer and Morig had 250-yard carries over water with their drivers. Dofflemyer and Baker then went for the green in 2, even though the pin was up front, squeezed between water to the left and, barely 10 yards away, a bunker to the right. Dofflemyer went long and to the back of the green, but Baker went right at the flag, with the ball rolling past the pin and then back down the hill on the two-tiered green to within 10 feet of the pin.
“I had 195 yards to the flagstick and I had to hit it 190 over the water,” Baker said. “From the water to the bunker was 10 yards, maybe 15 yards wide. I had to land it perfect, but I told myself I might as well go for it.”
Aldeen offers the type of risk-reward that brings out the best in Rockford’s best golfers.
“It’s the best layout in the area,” Morig said. “What makes it special is birdies are out there, but big numbers are always lurking — like you saw with my on 17. Nine is extreme, but a double can creep up on you anywhere. You don’t feel that way at Ingersoll or Sandy.”
Elliot was the home course for East when Matt Smith was all-conference as a senior there in 1999, but Smith agrees there is no question Aldeen has always been the Park District’s flagship course.
“It’s night and day,” said Smith, who shot 75-71—146 to take second, his best local finish in 15 years. “I loved Elliot, don’t get me wrong, but I am glad they didn’t shut this down. This place is a gem.”
“A big difference is the greens,” Baker said. “It’s the premier Park District course. You get good lies. You get good rolls on the greens. The layout is very nice.
“This course is what Rockford golf is about. This place is key for Rockford. All the courses feed off this course. It motivates all the other courses to get better.”
Matt Trowbridge is a Rockford Register Star sports reporter. Email him at mtrowbridge@rrstar.com and follow him on Twitter at @MattTrowbridge. Sign up for the Rockford High School newsletter at rrstar.com. Matt has covered sports for the Register Star for more than 30 years after previously working for papers in North Dakota, Delaware, Vermont and Iowa City. He grew up on a farm in northwest Minnesota with six brothers and a sister. His four daughters all graduated from Rockford Public Schools.
2022 Golfer of the Year standings
(After Gold Medal, MNTS, Crosstown Classic, Ballard, County Amateur and Aldeen Cup tourneys)
TJ Baker 46.5
Robert Dofflemyer III, 38.5
Garrett Ralston, 22.5
Justin Christiansen, 20
Brian Silvers, 17.5
Danny Gorman 17.5
Grant Romine, 17.5
Cody Rhymer, 15.5
Ryan Arnold 14.5
Mike Morig, 14
Marcus Smith 13
David Nagel, 10.5
Andrew Canfield 10
Adam Tobias 9.5
Matt Smith,. 9
Jason Wombacher, 8.5
Jon Silvers, 8.5
Patrick Gorman, 8.5
Dennis Reedy 7.5
Ian Scott, 7.5
Matt LaMarca 7
Matt Marinaro, 6.5
Kyle Rhymer, 6.5
Javier Jazo, 6.5
Owen Hultman 6.5
Brett Benning, 6
Zach Braconier, 6
Mike Lange, 5.5
Justin Sick, 5
Matthew Tamar, 4.5
Ken Lee, 3.5
Jake Guse, 3.5
Ron Reece 3.5
Varun Menon 3.5
Andrew Marcum, 3
Jeff Adas, 3
Nolan Adas, 3
Jamie Hogan, 2
Eric Arnold 2
Kyle Nelson, 2
Johnny Canova, 2
Raul Leon, 1.5
Peter Junor, 1
Peter Schmeling, 1
Kevin Beckett, 1
Jeff Holmgaard, 0.5
This article originally appeared on Rockford Register Star: TJ Baker smashes records in winning third straight Aldeen Cup
