Final 9 Drama
Final 9 Drama
Day 3 of the Amateur Championships at Bowling Green dawned clear and sunny. The warmest of the three days, it reached the high 70s by mid-day and into the 80s by mid afternoon. Another gorgeous day in Bowling Green, Kentucky!
As his army of volunteers got the competitors going across eight courses for Round 4, HB Clark and his right-hand man, Jeff Soule scurried about preparing the Final Nine course and setting up the trophies for the awards ceremony.
Once the pools finished their fourth rounds, they converged on the WahBah! Steakhouse to decide the divisional winners on the nine hole, par 29, Final Nine layout.
Oddly enough, of the ten divisions in the tournament, only three divisional champions were determined by play in the Final 9, with seven divisions remaining unchanged despite some divisions with very tight scoring spreads. Of the three, two broke ties and only one saw the lead outright change hands.
In the Advanced Master Men’s division, Howie Baird and Jerry Dobbins were tied for the lead after four rounds with scores of 221 each. In the Final 9 Howie was able to pick up two strokes on Jerry to win the championship.
The Intermediate Men’s division was also tied after four rounds with Bryce Wellin and Matthew Meyers leading at 204 throws each. And when the Final 9 was completed, nothing had changed, they remained tied for First. It took two sudden-death play-off holes for Bryce to finally emerge as the champion.
And if this weren’t drama enough, then came the Advanced Men. Ryan Ulmer who had led the A Pool after Round 3 was still in the lead after Round 4. Close on his heels, only a single throw back, was Kyle Chapman out of the B Pool. Kyle then tore up the Finals posting a 5 under par 24 across the nine holes (unofficially rated at 1092) to win the division by three strokes and be crowned the Advanced Champion.
The Champions:
Men
- Advanced Men – Kyle Chapman
- Advanced Master - Howie Baird
- Advanced Grandmaster – Joe Jaegers
- Advanced Senior Grandmaster – Donald Olendorf
- Intermediate Men – Bryce Wellin
- Recreational Men – Jackson Buzea