Chandlers win SKCC in record fashion
- Updated: July 12, 2015
[corner-ad id=2]First father-son title tandem — the oldest and youngest individual winners — shoot 42-under-par, wins by 3
Ott Chandler (L) embraces son Dalton on the 18th green after they secured victory in the 37th annual Sunny King Charity Classic. (Photo by Greg McWilliams)
2015 SKCC SCOREBOARD
Final results
Chandler-Chandler 56-57-59—172 (-42)
McGatha-Clay 56-56-63—175 (-39)
Ellison-Shields 58-59-60—177 (-37)
Wigington-Fite 56-57-65—178 (-36)
Burgess-Hathorn 59-57-63—179 (-35)
Complete scores can be found at www.kingclassic.com
By Al Muskewitz
East Alabama Sports Today
Ott Chandler had won four previous Sunny King Charity Classic titles in his career, but none will carry more pride than the latest one he won Sunday.
The others came with good friends and great partners. The one Sunday was fruit from the family tree.
He won it with his 20-year-old son.
Ott and Dalton Chandler — always in that order, dad says — put on a marvelous display of clutch shot-making and putting, winning the 37th annual Classic in record-setting fashion.
They shot a final-round 11-under-par 59 in the best ball format at Anniston Country Club for a three-day total 42-under 172 that set the all-time tournament scoring record. They are the first champions to post all three rounds in the 50s.
They won by three shots over second-round leaders Jeremy McGatha and Brennan Clay, whose 39-under 175 would have tied the old modern-day scoring record and won all but one of the previous Classics. Jaylon Ellison and P.J. Shields finished third (177), followed by 2014 runnerups Gary Wigington and Freeman Fite (178) and 2013 winners Garrett Burgess and Cypress Hathorn (179).
The winners’ 59 was the lowest final-round score by a champion since Gary Wilborn and Ott posted it in 2004 in the first of their back-to-back titles.
“Just winning No. 5 is awesome, but to do it with your kid is just … indescribable; it’s hard to put into words,” Ott said. “That’s the way I feel even an hour later.
“All the fathers who have a son who plays sports just imagine playing with them and winning one of the biggest tournaments in the South, whatever the sport. It just doesn’t happen (in the Sunny King), because if it did it would have happened before, and this is something that may not happen for a long, long time.”
At 51 and 20, respectively, Ott and Dalton are the oldest and youngest winners of the King crown. Ott turned 51 two weeks ago and Dalton turned 20 the Monday before the tournament.
The modern-day scoring record was 39-under, held by Jeremy McGatha and Jaylon Ellison. The all-time scoring record was 41-under, set in 1987 before the current tournament handicap rules went into effect.
For the longest time 40-under was the Holy Grail of the tournament, the windmill on the horizon of a West Texas highway that just never seemed to get closer. The winners hit 40 with five holes to play Sunday and kept going. They parred 18 to close out the victory, but Ott used his final mulligan on the green in an attempt to lock down one final birdie.
“I was trying to get to 43 (under); the more the merrier,” he said. “I was just trying to get one more notch in that record, to give them something harder to shoot at.”
While they were hitting their approaches into the final green a rainbow was forming over their heads, adding to the magic of the moment similar to Davis Love III’s rainbow moment at the 1997 PGA Championship.
Actually, Ott said when they woke up Sunday morning the record wasn’t even on their mind. He called it “secondary” to doing the things they needed to shoot the 11- or 13-under he thought was necessary for them to win the championship.
He told his wife Christi before leaving for the course if he made seven birdies in the round they’d win, because he knew Dalton was going to make his share. He made seven.
And throughout the day they answered every shot McGatha and Clay threw at them. Dalton made a clutch putt on 16 to keep the team from carding its first bogey of the tournament.
“They played great,” McGatha said. “I told Brennan we needed to shoot 10-under. We shoot 10-under we win, maybe playoff, and that’s what it would’ve taken and they played great. They made the putts when they needed it. Every time we threw birdie at them they birdied on top of it.
“Thirty-nine under was the record for a few years. We tie it and lose by three, wow, what do you say. Great playing.”
McGatha can appreciate the emotion Ott was feeling after coming off the 18th green with his son as the title holder of a major tournament title. Just two weeks ago, he was walking off the same 18th green with his dad as a winner for the fourth time in Anniston Country Club’s annual Parent-Child Tournament.
“Winning the Father-Son this year with my dad was outstanding,” McGatha said. “A father and son winning the Sunny King, come on, it’s a great story. (For the Chandlers) to win the biggest two-man in the area as father/son, wow, exclamation point.”
This title that was forged in the womb happened, Dalton said, because “we just played good.”
They eagled six straight par-5s during the first two days of the tournament. On Sunday they birdied seven of their first eight holes, including six in a row at one point, to surge into the lead. And they never slowed down once they got it.
There were so many turning points. There was Ott’s near hole-in-one on 5 that tied them for the lead, Dalton’s birdie putt on 13 after McGatha birdied 12 to make the margin two, Ott answering McGatha’s iron shot into 15 to set up dueling birdies, Dalton’s par save on 16 and Ott’s birdie on 17.
“That’s just a lot of good playing,” Ott said.
For McGatha and Clay the turning point was easy to determine. It came on the par-5 11th when they made only par while Ott birdied to reach 39-under and lead by three for the first time.
“That hurt,” said Clay, a King runnerup for the third time. “We played good, but they played incredible.”
There may be more of it coming. Dalton said he planned to continued to partner with his dad in the tournament “until he can’t play amymore.”
The tournament reached its traditional goal of raising more than $100,000 for its local charities. This year’s Classic raised $102,000, an increase of $10,000 from the year before — with fewer teams entered in the field.
On the cover: Anniston Country Club pro Jake Spott (center) presents the Sunny King Charity Classic trophy to Dalton (L) and Ott Chandler.
Brennan Clay gives his putter a frustrated rap after missing a putt on the 11th hole Sunday that was the turning point to he and Jeremy McGatha’s fortunes in the Sunny King Charity Classic. (Photo by Greg McWilliams).
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