Too tough

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 20^th 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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