Too tough
- Updated: April 18, 2021
Cole breaks out of four-way tie for the lead to win Gadsden City Championship for his 20th win on County Tour
By Al Muskewitz
East Alabama Sports Today
GADSDEN – For all the fans of alliteration in the gallery, Ty Cole teed one high for them and let it fly.
Ty tames Twin Bridges to take 20th Tour title.
Cole became the second player to win 20 Calhoun County Golf Tour titles Sunday when he reached the milestone by winning the Gadsden City Championship – the newest County Tour event – for the second time.
The 45-year-old Etowah County native broke away from a four-way tie for the overnight lead early in the back nine and finished with a final-round 70 for a two-day total of 6-under-par 138.
He won by two shots over Corey Ray of Boaz, one of the other first-round co-leaders. Chad Calvert, Brennan Clay and Championship B flight winner Clay Calkins all tied for third overall at 142. Calkins shot the low round of the day (69).
Cole also won the event in 2014 and became its first two-time winner. It’s his first win on the Tour since last year’s delayed season opener at Silver Lakes.
“I won the first one last year and my game went south,” Cole said. “I think a lot of it was I played a ton of golf through the winter and I don’t ever do that and then you had all the COVID stuff pushing the tournaments further back into when I would normally not play or have to play as much. So, by the time golf got cranked up last year I think I was almost burnt out.”
Probably not much risk of that happening this year because his priorities have changed. As discussed after Saturday’s 68 he has other interests to occupy his time that might otherwise have been spent on the range. He enjoys getting away from it all riding four-wheelers and he absolutely loves coming home from work and playing with his 2-year-old son Camden, who helped hold the championship trophy Sunday.
“Golf just ain’t as high as it used to be,” he said. “I don’t know how much golf I’m going to play this year. I’m going to ride (ATVs). I’m going to hang out with him. I’m just not going to go and beat balls and do all that like I used to.
“Winning here is not going to change anything right now. I’m exhausted. Today didn’t give me the golf bug, if you know what I mean. I’m just going to be playing it be ear. How do I feel? Is anybody else doing anything I’d rather be doing than playing golf?”
Hearing Cole may play a more limited schedule may give hope to the players who have been chasing him all these years, but even if he isn’t playing as much as before, he’s still got enough game to be one of the favorites whenever he plays.
The key stretch Sunday came right after the turn when Ray found the hazard on 11 and made bogey, then Cole made birdies on three of the next four holes.
Cole and Ray separated themselves from the logjam by the turn. On 11, Ray misclubbed trying to get over the stand of trees that guards the green and found the hazard. He took a drop and had to make a long putt to save his bogey. Cole made par to take a one-shot lead.
“I had kind of weird lie right there, just outside the bunker in the rough and it was real bare there,” Ray explained. “Five-iron was the club for the yardage, but 6-iron was the club to make sure I got over the trees and I chose wrong.
“I hit it a little squirrelly and it rattled around what felt like an eternity in the (second) tree and kicked down into the water. After that is was tough to get out of that mindset. When you give up two shots like that it’s not insurmountable but you know he’s not going to really make a mistake coming in to have a big number.”
Cole extended his lead on 12 when he hit a 9-iron from 150 yards to three inches. He followed it with a birdie on 13 and added another birdie on 15 to go up four. He let off the accelerator and bogeyed two holes coming in, but had a big enough cushion that it didn’t matter.
Ray made a nice putt from off the green at 18 to secure solo second, but that was the part of his game that was most frustrating. He hit 14 greens in the round, but had 27 of his 30 total putts on them.
“Putting is what killed me,” he said. “It has always held me back; I don’t know what it is. I’ve always been a pretty good ball-striker and had a lot of good looks, but for whatever reason I can’t roll them.
“With a par putt I putt very freely, but when I’m over a birdie putt I tense up. My putting has always kind of held me back and that’s what happened today. I just didn’t putt well at all.”
NOTES: Calkins’ round featured two birdies and an eagle, offset by a bogey at 18. It was his best round on Tour since an opening-round 67 in the 2018 Pine Hill Invitational. It was one of only seven rounds under par Sunday. … Closest to the prizes went to Cole, Jeff Chapman (No. 3), Justin Goree (No. 8) and Timmy Woodard (No. 16). Cole’s and Chapman’s were inches from being aces … Every player in the third flight improved their score over Saturday’s first round. Flight winner Chapman (18) and Randy Watson (16) made the biggest moves. The entire flight improved by an average of 7.9 strokes. The second flight improved by an average of 2.8… The next County Tour event is the Oxford City Championship at Cider Ridge May 1-2.
Gadsden City Championship
| Championship A Ty Cole | 68 | 70 | 138 |
| Corey Ray | 68 | 72 | 140 |
| Brennan Clay | 72 | 70 | 142 |
| Chad Calvert | 69 | 73 | 142 |
| Gary Wigington | 68 | 75 | 143 |
| Harrison Hughston | 71 | 72 | 143 |
| Andrew Brooks | 72 | 72 | 144 |
| Caleb McKinney | 72 | 75 | 147 |
| Timmy Woodard | 68 | 81 | 149 |
| Jake Goggans | 70 | 81 | 151 |
| Will Brown | 71 | 81 | 152 |
| Championship B Clay Calkins | 73 | 69 | 142 |
| Dane Moore | 73 | 71 | 144 |
| Jody Wooten | 75 | 72 | 147 |
| Norman Clifton | 73 | 74 | 147 |
| Tanner Wells | 73 | 75 | 148 |
| Logan Forrester | 73 | 76 | 149 |
| Jeremy McGatha | 75 | 75 | 150 |
| Matt Miller | 75 | 75 | 150 |
| Casey Harmon | 75 | 77 | 152 |
| Hunter Carr | 74 | 80 | 154 |
| Bill Gilchrist | 74 | 82 | 156 |
| Chase Hollingsworth | 73 | NC | NC |
| Championship C Tee Brown | 76 | 72 | 148 |
| Chance Harris | 76 | 74 | 150 |
| Chris Cox | 77 | 74 | 151 |
| Jeremy Willis | 77 | 74 | 151 |
| Layton Bussey | 76 | 76 | 152 |
| Josh Poole | 77 | 77 | 154 |
| Danny Whittaker | 76 | 80 | 156 |
| Chandler Richards | 76 | 81 | 157 |
| Chip Howell | 76 | 83 | 159 |
| Nick Hubbard | 77 | 82 | 159 |
| Will Broome | 77 | 83 | 160 |
| Mike Hughston | 77 | 87 | 164 |
| Johnny Barnes | 76 | 97 | 173 |
| First flight Dustin Travis | 78 | 70 | 148 |
| Drey Reeves | 79 | 75 | 154 |
| Lamar Carter | 80 | 74 | 154 |
| Nick Pollard | 78 | 76 | 154 |
| Randy Lipscomb | 79 | 78 | 157 |
| Mason Dennis | 78 | 79 | 157 |
| Mark Guyther | 78 | 81 | 159 |
| Matt Greer | 80 | 79 | 159 |
| Eric Ray | 78 | 82 | 160 |
| Matt Rogers | 80 | 80 | 160 |
| Blake Grisham | 80 | 81 | 161 |
| Ted Heim | 79 | 84 | 174 |
| Daily Thomas | 78 | DNF | DNF |
| Second flight Corbin Holland | 82 | 71 | 153 |
| Drew Anderton | 83 | 72 | 155 |
| Dre Davenport | 81 | 80 | 161 |
| Craig Messer | 82 | 80 | 162 |
| Clay Smith | 86 | 76 | 162 |
| Justin Goree | 85 | 80 | 165 |
| Zach Mangum | 86 | 79 | 165 |
| Clayton Chandler | 85 | 85 | 170 |
| Nathan Williams | 86 | 85 | 171 |
| Daniel Ricks | 82 | 91 | 173 |
| Jason Payne | 85 | 91 | 176 |
| Third flight Jeff Chapman | 88 | 70 | 158 |
| Tyler Dopson | 88 | 78 | 166 |
| Greg Burnett | 89 | 81 | 170 |
| Mark Gaines | 87 | 84 | 171 |
| Kenny Fulmer | 90 | 84 | 174 |
| Randy Watson | 98 | 82 | 180 |
| Houston Black | 94 | 87 | 181 |
| Scott Jimmerson | 92 | 90 | 182 |
| Keith Hutcheson | 99 | 94 | 193 |
| Adam Benefiel | 106 | 102 | 208 |
| Maverick Smith | 89 | NC | NC |
| Kelly Rogers | 95 | DNS | DNS |
| Dennis Moyer | WD | ||
| Chase Thomas | WD | ||
| Mark McCaig | DNS |
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