The beat goes on
- Updated: July 24, 2016
Cole taken to playoff before winning for third week in a row and sixth time in seven weeks
By East Alabama Sports Today
CULLMAN – Stop us if you’ve heard this one before.
Ty Cole won his fifth straight individual title and seventh tournament in a row Sunday when he captured the Chesley Oaks Open in a one-hole playoff.
Cole and Chip Willoughby shot 11-under-par 131 in regulation. Cole won the playoff with a par on the first extra hole; he shot a “pretty solid” 69 in the final round.
Willoughby, a sophomore on the Wallace-Hanceville golf team who shot 61 in the opening round, trailed Cole by three shots with six holes to play and made up the difference over a four-hole stretch to force the playoff. Cole had a six-foot birdie putt on 18 to win in regulation.
Both players hit the fairway off the tee in the playoff and put their approach shots about 30 feet from the pin. Cole two-putted for his par. Willoughby ran his first putt about three feet past the hole and missed it coming back.
It was the closest challenge yet to Cole’s summer run, but the streak wasn’t anywhere on his mind while they played.
“When we first started the playoff I was still mad for missing the putt to be in the playoff,” Cole said. “Once we teed off, it’s playing golf. You think about all that afterward.”
In addition to Sunday’s victory, over the last three weeks Cole has won the Dub Ellis Invitational at Cherokee County CC and the Sunny King Charity Classic with Gary Wigington. Before a week off he had another three-week stretch in which he won individual titles at Cane Creek, Gadsden CC and Silver Lakes. Two weeks before that he won the Cherokee County Two-Man with Wigington.
This week he plays in the Pine Hill Invitational, the next to last event on the Calhoun County Golf Tour before the County Championship that’s worth 1.5 times points for the Tour. Last year Cole shot 69-66 in the event and finished fifth; the year before he shot 70-69 and finished sixth.
“It’s going to be tough (to extend the streak),” he said. “Historically I don’t play good at Pine Hill – or I don’t score good at Pine Hill. But I historically didn’t score well at Centre either. I just show up, tee up and see what happens.”
CHESLEY OAKS OPEN
Championship flight
x-Ty Cole 62-69—131
Chip Willoughby 61-70—131
Trey Hanvey 67-70—137
Kevin Byrd 67-72—139
Trett Hardman 65-75—140
Bo Blackwell 67-74—141
Championship B
Corey Ray 71-69—140
Al Young 70-73—143
Kyle Pressley 70-73—143
Chris Smith 71-73—144
Cole Pearson 71-75—146
Bryan Haynes 69-78—147
Gary Stephenson 70-77—147
Eric Edmondson 72-77—149
Cody Martin 70-81—151
Todd Pressley 72-80—152
x-won on first hole of playoff
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