It’s Ty & Twig, in a playoff
- Updated: March 12, 2017
Wigington and Cole come from four shots back to win County Two-Man on second hole of playoff
By Al Muskewitz
East Alabama Sports Today
SILVER LAKES — It was a good thing Gary Wigington decided to stick around.
Wigington and Ty Cole both left themselves tap-in birdie putts on the second playoff hole Sunday to defeat Jeremy McGatha and Brennan Clay for the Calhoun County Two-Man Championship at Silver Lakes.
The winners came from four shots back at the start of the day to claim their prize. They went to the playoff after Clay pushed a four-foot birdie putt on the final hole of regulation after a brilliant gap wedge from 139 yards in the fairway.
Both teams were 18-under-par 126 for the weekend’s 36 holes; Wigington and Cole shot 11-under 61 in Sunday’s scamble round, McGatha-Clay shot 65. Ott and Dalton Chandler posted a final-round 66 and finished one shot out of the playoff.
Interestingly, the playoff almost didn’t happen – and not because of Clay’s putt on 18. Wigington was considering leaving the grounds right after posting the score, figuring the reigning Sunny King Classic champions were several shots out of the money, but stopping for a post-round beverage kept him around for a bit.
“I was within a few minutes of leaving, and especially after about 30 minutes when they weren’t here I was like I need to get on,” he said. “We said we really need to shoot 14 to have a shot and when we came in at 11 I thought we may ease up into second place, but I just didn’t think that would win it … with those two guys and Dalton; at least one of them was going to shoot double-digits.
“Yesterday I didn’t even come in. Today, I thought I’d come in and grab something to drink real quick and as soon as one of them comes in I’ll go and I almost left.”
Cole said he didn’t know that part of the story until they were just about to start the playoff.
“Let’s see, I made a par, he makes birdie, so it was good (he stayed),” Cole said. “Neither one of us were expecting a playoff — at all. When they said ‘Are you ready to go?’ we were like, ‘Go where?”
On the second playoff hole – the par-5 Heartbreaker No. 1 — Wigington hit an L-wedge from below the green that checked up inside 12 inches of the cup. Cole cozied his hopeful eagle putt down to just about the same length after hitting the elevated right tier of the green in 2. McGatha and Clay both ran their birdie putts past the hole.
“We shouldn’t have been in that situation,” Clay said. “We made putts like crazy on the front nine, but we missed some putts on the back we should’ve made.”
“We kind of got in match-play with the group we were playing with (Marcus Harrell and Garrett Burgess),” McGatha said. “I told him it happens every time (you do that) another group sneaks up on you.”
Curiously, as long as the winners are off the tee and as sharp as they are with their irons, they didn’t birdie a par-4 in the tournament until their seventh hole Sunday – and that came on a chip-in. They didn’t make their first birdie putt on a par-4 until their ninth hole. They got to 11-under on the day (and 18 for the tournament) with an eagle on the par-5 Heartbreaker No. 7.
“Both of us hit much better shots today and made some good putts today where yesterday we didn’t,” Wigington said. “There’s no excuse for us not to birdie any par-4 in a scramble out here from in play every hole. We played really good today and hung in there and just did it.”
The Chandlers stayed in contention one group and a couple holes ahead of the final pairing. They made a run of seven birdies in nine holes to reach 17-under (6 for the day) through 15 holes, but couldn’t coax another birdie out of the challenging three closing holes on the Heartbreaker 9 and finished third.
CALHOUN COUNTY TWO-MAN
At Silver Lakes
(Mindbreaker/Heartbreaker)
Final Scores
Championship flight
x-Gary Wigington-Ty Cole 65-61—126
Brennan Clay-Jeremy McGatha 61-65—126
Dalton Chandler-Ott Chandler 61-66—127
Marcus Harrell-Garrett Burgess 61-68—129
Caleb McKinney-Tanner Wells 63-67—130
Matt Rogers-Andrew Brooks 65-65—130
Dee Pruitt-Jeremy Willis 65-68—133
Mike Granato-Tim Spurgeon 65-78—143
First flight
Clay Calkins-Chris Hubbard 68-66—134
Cory Etter-Caleb Bowen 67-70—137
Lee Waldron-George Salmon 66-71—137
Austin Minter-Adrian Geeting 66-72—138
Art Bice-Chase Kennedy 68-72—140
Bobby Luttrell-Alan Darnell 69-78—147
Second flight
Kevin Daugherty-Jeff Champion 70-66—136
Jake Goggans-Tyler Andrews 71-66—137
Jake Nichols-Randy Lipscomb 70-67—137
Wayne Crow-John Williams 71-71—142
Chase Hollingsworth-Cain Hollingsworth 72-75—144
Jacob Sittre-Steven Crane 72-72—144
Kenny Fulmer-Jeff Noah 72-72—144
Patrick Crane-Terry Crane 71-76—147
Danny Whittaker-Andy Jenkins 72-80—152
Third flight
Clayton Chandler-Bobby Vasquez 74-67—141
Brandon Roberts-Nick Pollard 75-73—148
Blake Ambercrombie-Alex Jessen 74-77—151
T.J. McGatha-Rick Dickson 73-81—154
Michael Ray-Terry Cobb 73-85—158
Mark Gaines-Kevin Wells 80-80—160
Grant Cobb-Josh Whitley 82-86—168
x-won on second hole of playoff
LEADERS SCORECARDS
Mind-Heart 534 354 444 36 544 434 534 36 72 PO
Wig-Cole 424 344 343 31 433 334 334 30 61 44
McG-Clay 433 244 443 31 543 434 524 34 65 45
Chandlers 534 454 333 34 534 323 534 32 66 —
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