Drama ends drought

McGatha uses eagle-birdie finish to come roaring back and win the Pine Hill Invitational, his 11th win on the County Tour, first since 2019

PINE HILL INVITATIONAL
Jeremy McGatha	69	66	135
Brennan Clay	69	67	136
Gary Wigington	69	69	138
Ty Cole	67	71	138
Brad Moultrie	67	71	138
Landon Straub	69	69	138
Layton Bussey	70	68	138

By Brant Locklier
For East Alabama Sports Today

Jeremy McGatha led only once by himself in the Pine Hill Invitational this weekend and that was on his very last shot, a tap-in 12-inch birdie putt on his final hole of the two-day event.

The birdie capped off a brilliant eagle-birdie finish that thrust him to his 11^th career win on the Calhoun County Golf Tour and ended a frustrating three-year absence from the Tour’s winner’s circle.

McGatha shot a final-round 66 Sunday for a two-day 9-under 135 that was one shot better than his Sunny King Charity Classic partner Brennan Clay and capped a wild shootout on the final day. Six-time Pine Hill winner Gary Wigington was among five players tied for third at 138.

First-round leader Gage Ledbetter had another tough Sunday, shot 74 and finished at 139.

“It was a real honor to get the win and to go past some of the names I had to pass today,” McGatha said. “There were some tough names out there and it is kind of special to win this and know that I can still win out here.

“I never felt like at any point that I was gonna win; it just kind of happened real fast there at the end. Maybe it was easier to win not having to think about it all day. It is just never easy and I am grateful for the win today.”

It was his first win on the Calhoun County Golf Tour since the 2019 Match Play Championship and his first in a County Tour stroke play event since the 2017 County. He has played in every Tour event since its inception, and is the only player in Tour history to do so. He has 21 career runner-up finishes.

“I keep seeing Twig (Wigington) and Ty (Cole) get the wins and all their wins and I never thought I’d win again,” he said. “It’s hard to win on our county tour. For me to win this one, with 160 guys, our strongest field in a long time and I pull it out, wow, I’ll take it.”

The eagle-birdie finish was actually part of a larger closing run. He played his last five holes in 5-under-par, with birdies on 14 and 15. The 45-year-old lipped out a birdie putt on 16.

McGatha started the day four strokes behind Ledbetter, who held a two-shot lead on the field to start the day. He started out birdie-birdie to close within two, but gave them both back with a double bogey at the third and was back to four back.

“It was one of those holes that I am prone to have and they always seem to knock me out of contention,” said McGatha.

He finished out the front nine with birdies on 6 and 8 and was back to 5-under at the turn. Leader Ledbetter shot even par on the front nine and led by two shots over Ty Cole of Albertville, Brad Moultrie of Decatur, McGatha and Clay.

At one point there were seven players within sight of the lead.

It seemed as if Ledbetter was going to be able to hold off the pack with steady pars. He parred the first 10 holes and maintained that two-shot lead. Cole and Moultrie made birdies to chop the lead to one, but they followed up those birdies with quick bogeys.

The whole afternoon changed on 11 when Ledbetter missed a par putt and Cole birdied and with Moultrie’s birdie at 10 there was a three-way tie for first. McGatha bogeyed 12 and was three back with six holes to go.

At hole 14, Moultrie made a long putt for birdie to save par and Ledbetter and Cole bogeyed. McGatha snuck within one with a birdie at 14. He then birdied 15 to get to 6-under par and tie Moultrie.

Clay was on fire three holes ahead of them. He birdied his last four holes and got to 8-under, two ahead of McGataha. Ledbetter and Moultrie bogeyed 16 and Cole missed a short putt on 16 to fall off the pace.

McGatha then boomed his drive on 17 onto the green and rolled in a dramatic 30-footer for an eagle to suddenly tie for the lead.

His drive on 18 was in the fairway. His second shot on the 508-yard par-5 found the bunker next to the green. His sand shot was magnificent, as it took one hop, hit the pin and settled just 12 inches from the cup.

He knocked it down and the Pine Hill Invitational was his.

“It’s been a long time,” he said. “I still don’t know how 5-under in the last five holes happened. I just hit the shot and they went in. When that eagle putt went in on 17 I thought I had a chance I could win it. It’s been a while, but I could win this. Then on 18 I hit a great drive, hit a shot up there (into the bunker) and I was as nervous as all get-out. I was like please hit that close and then hit it to six inches.”

“It was great to see Jeremy win,” Clay said. “I had it at 5-under and then bogeyed 11. I was able to give it a good run by ending with four straight birdies.”

Pine Hill Invitational

CHAMPIONSHIP FLIGHT				FIRST FLIGHT
Jeremy McGatha	69	66	135	Layton Bussey	70	68	138
Brennan Clay	69	67	136	Gage Miller	71	69	140
Gary Wigington	69	69	138	Wesley Jenkins	71	72	143
Ty Cole	67	71	138	Mason Dennis	71	72	143
Brad Moultrie	67	71	138	Chip Howell	70	74	144
Landon Straub	69	69	138	Chance Harris	71	74	145
Gage Ledbetter	65	74	139	Greg Barnett	72	73	145
Jonathan Pate	68	72	140	Kobie Webb	70	76	146
Josh Reynolds	68	73	141	Jeff Noah	72	74	146
John Rollins	69	72	141	Chris Randall	71	77	148
Seth Wallace	69	73	142	Vance Lewis	72	77	149
Chad Calvert	69	73	142	Billy Thompson	72	84	156
Nick Ledbetter	68	75	143
Kenny Okins	69	77	146

SECOND FLIGHT				THIRD FLIGHT
Chase Hollingsworth	73	69	142	Mark McCaig	76	71	147
Randy Lipscomb	73	69	142	Hunter Carr	76	74	150
Kent Whitley	74	68	142	Will Brown	76	75	151
Daily Thomas	74	69	143	Nick Hubbard	76	75	151
Clay Calkins	73	73	146	Marcus King	76	75	151
Landon Winfrey	74	74	148	Sawyer Edwards	76	75	151
Riley Boyd	74	76	149	Bob Eaton	76	76	152
Craig Duncan	75	76	151	Josh Poole	77	75	152
Daniel Black	75	77	152	Cam Hurst	77	75	152
Chris Hubbard	75	78	153	Tony Hicks	77	76	153
Bradley Elliott	75	79	154	Casey Harmon	76	78	154
Cain Hollingsworth	75	80	155	Lamar Carter	77	77	154
Jimbo Phillips	75	80	155	Mark Durden	76	80	156
Matt Rogers	75	81	156	Brock Young	76	80	156
Tyler Teneyck	75	83	158	Houston Black	77	80	157
Coleman Messer	74	86	160	Joe Hedgepeth	76	81	157
Benji Turley	73	WD	WD
FOURTH FLIGHT				FIFTH FLIGHT
Shawn Ledbetter	78	72	150	Sean Kline	82	78	160
Shannon Page	78	72	150	Mike Wallace	83	78	161
Chris Sprayberry	79	75	154	Heath Waldrop	81	81	162
Samuel Wallace	79	77	156	C.J. Murphy	81	83	164
Nick Pollard	78	79	157	Wyatt Cotney	81	83	164
Patrick Cooper	79	78	157	David Coffey	81	84	165
Aaron Whitley	78	80	158	Frankie Hanvey	82	83	165
Jared Waits	80	78	158	Chris Reaves	81	85	166
Johnny Barnes	79	80	159	Heath Hammond	82	84	166
Mark Minton	78	82	160	Landon Holley	83	83	166
Austin Elliott	80	84	164	Greg Rainey	83	85	168
Shane Lee	80	85	165	Terry Cobb	81	89	170
Spence Florczak	79	88	167	Bart Smith	83	88	171
Zack Goss	79	92	171
SIXTH FLIGHT				SEVENTH FLIGHT
Mark Gaines	85	77	162	Logan Turner	90	84	174
Billy McCroskey	84	78	162	Shaughn Rankin	91	83	174
Taylor Vera	86	78	164	Keith Hutcheson	89	85	174
Blake Jones	85	79	164	Ryder Hudgins	88	87	175
Ethan Davis	86	79	165	Mason Nolen	89	87	176
Keaton Borrelli	85	81	166	Wimberly Scarbrough	94	88	182
Steve Taylor	84	83	167	Kelly Rogers	97	86	183
Austin Jones	84	83	167	Alex Whaley	92	85	187
Eddy Burks	87	80	167	Ken Renfroe	91	96	187
David Medders Jr.	86	82	168	Jeff Roszell	88	100	188
Jared Joiner	85	86	171	Mickey Sheppard	94	96	190
Jarred Driggers	87	84	171	Greg Goodwin	96	101	197
Warren Sewell	87	92	179	Johnston Smith	99	100	199
Scott Watson	86	94	180	Jake Moore	100	106	206
Mike Ledbetter	87	94	181
SENIOR CHAMPIONSHIP				SENIOR FIRST
David Sanders	71	69	140	Ted Heim	75	72	147
Robbie Hurst	69	72	141	Allen Mangham	75	73	148
James Beavers	72	73	145	Jerry Irwin	76	73	149
Jerry Kemp	73	72	145	David Toland	77	74	151
Mike Lett	71	78	149	David Messer	77	75	152
Rick Barthel	72	77	149	Dennis Austin	75	79	154
Tim Steward	74	76	150	Buddy Eiland	78	76	154
Ron Wheeler	74	80	154	Frank Toland	75	80	155
				Bob McClain	76	80	156
				Keith Haywood	77	79	156
SENIOR SECOND				SENIOR THIRD
Gary Austin	81	76	157	Frank Cobb	86	85	171
Randall Doss	79	78	157	Steve Perry	85	86	171
Lamar Ward	81	78	159	Bobby Vinson	85	86	171
Steve Williams	82	78	160	David Stephens	85	87	172
Wilton Page	82	81	163	Greg Thrower	86	86	172
Tim Hill	82	82	164	Ron Fleming	85	88	173
Jim Landers	81	83	164	David Medders Sr.	87	87	174
Robbie Robertson	82	82	164	Lee Clark	86	93	179
Carter Gable	82	84	166	Steve Borrelli	102	89	191
Steve Smith	83	83	166	Paul Dorsey	96	98	194
Mike Thompson	83	WD	WD	Sam Morgan	97	WD	WD

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