Derek Meinhart is a two-timer winner of the UI Open, including last year. The Eastern Illinois graduate is the vice president of Innovative Staff Solutions, an employment agency in his native Mattoon. News-Gazette copy editor JOE VOZZELLI caught up with Meinhart ahead of this weekend's event at the University of Illinois Orange Course:
What goes into picking which tournaments you play in?
There is a Mid-Am circuit in the U.S. It's 25 or older. Kind of a career amateur tour so to speak. I probably play in seven of those events a year, and then some state stuff.