Wooster native and former Akron Zips golfer Ryan Culbertson birdied his final hole of regulation then the first playoff hole to capture the 2020 Chippewa Championship over first round leader Chris Okeson of Lyndhurst.
The tournament looked to be firmly in Okeson’s grip with just a couple holes to play. Leading with an even par 71 after a wind-whipped Saturday, Okeson was cruising around Chippewa on Sunday in another even par round, level through 16 holes.
The only challenger was Culbertson, playing in the group ahead. A front nine 1-under par 34 put him within two shots of Okeson. A birdie at the par-5 11th narrowed the gap to one. But after a string of four straight pars, Culbertson made bogey at 16 and 17, and it looked like Okeson could cruise home.
But all that changed in the span of about 10 minutes.
Okeson hit his tee shot on the 17th to the front left fringe, a prime location to a sloping front pin. But instead of goosing it up there and taking the par, Okeson got a little frisky on his birdie effort and ran it by then down the hill. He missed the six foot come-backer for par.
As Okeson was making bogey on 17, Culbertson was finishing off his round in style with a birdie on the 18th.
Suddenly, the margin was just one shot — but Okeson didn’t know that, as he had a multi-shot lead on everyone in his final group and no information had filtered back.
His tee shot just inside the left tree line forced Okeson to go low with his second, and he played a crisp runner that found the rough just over the green. His chip back down the slope was solid, six feet below the hole for the win:
So it was on to a playoff, starting on the par-5 10th.
Okeson went right off the tee as Culbertson ripped one down the left side of the fairway. Okeson hit his second to the bottom of the hill, leaving a short wedge up the rise to a back-right hole location. Culbertson came out of his second shot just a bit, and left his ball just above the cart path in the freshly-cut heather with a playable lie.
Okeson hit his third onto the green, but left himself a long putt.
Then Culbertson hit the shot of the playoff.
Lobbing a 60-degree wedge that had to land just over a pair of sprinkler heads, Culbertson floated it up over the path, down the hill and just onto the green as required, leaving himself an uphill six-footer.
After Okeson left his long birdie try a bit short, Culbertson claimed the title by holing that birdie putt.
The other big money shot of the tournament belonged to Justin Trzebuckowski.
On Sunday on the par-4 fourth hole, Justin holed a 115-yard gap wedge for a deuce to win half of Sunday’s giant skins pot, a cut worth $1,287.50.
The other Sunday big skin winner was Adam Arman, who made a birdie-3 on the tough par-4 14th hole at the start of The Triangle, also worth $1,287.50. (Math.)
That’s why you play, right?
PHOTO GALLERY: 2020 Chippewa Championship >
FINAL RESULTS:
2020 Chippewa Championship
Chippewa Golf Club, Doylestown, Ohio
Sat/Sun, August 29-30, 2020
1st Ryan Culbertson 74 70 – 144 (playoff) – $500
2nd Chris Okeson 71 73 – 144 – $300
T3 Kloetzer, Shaun 77 70 – 147 – $162
T3 Levengood, Mitch 76 71 – 147 – $162
T5 Stefanski, Ryan 73 75 – 148 – $20
T5 Spino, Bobby 74 74 – 148 – $20
T5 Cutlip, Dean 75 73 – 148 – $20
T5 Arman, Adam 76 72 – 148 – $20
T5 Pattakos, John 77 71 – 148 – $20
T5 Clay, Josh 77 71 – 148 – $20
Out of the Money:
Snyder, Vaughn 77 72 149
Koprivec, Kenny 76 73 149
Wenger, HJ 72 79 151
Schustrich, Rob 75 76 151
Kabasky, John 77 74 151
Kovach, Ty 77 74 151
Wild, Jimmy 79 72 151
Harmon, Bobby 73 79 152
Simpson, Mike 74 78 152
Bishop, Shayne 78 74 152
Jacob, Kyle 76 76 152
Matthews, Nate 76 77 153
Schneider, Mark 80 73 153
Loftin, Alex 81 72 153
Gasser, Matt 81 73 154
LeMaster, Brian 81 73 154
Crewse, Aaron 75 80 155
Vincellette, Brian 76 79 155
Trzebuckowski, Justin 79 76 155
Hepner, Tim 79 76 155
Fleming, Doug 79 76 155
Freeman, Al 80 76 156
Trier, Dave 77 79 156
Decheco, Max 79 77 156
Loomis, Rob 77 80 157
Ramaglia, Chris 79 78 157
Armour, Mike 79 78 157
Armbrust, Mike 79 80 159
Velios, John 80 79 159
Pizzino, Mario 78 81 159
Czetli, Aaron 83 76 159
Seese, Ron 83 76 159
Stormen, Jeff 84 75 159
Cunningham, Ron 82 78 160
Toth, John 81 79 160
Ankrom, Tyler 80 80 160
Detweiler, Aaron 83 77 160
Wenger, Jeff 79 82 161
Drukenbrod, Zach 79 82 161
Filo, Adam 80 81 161
Stiller, Michael 81 80 161
Angelou, Mark 81 80 161
Terry, Dan 83 78 161
Zgrabik, Andrew 85 76 161
Lengyel, Adam 75 87 162
Stewart, Brad 83 79 162
Warren, Matt 82 80 162
Berkheimer, Bob 77 86 163
Shoup, Matt 86 77 163
Mendoza, Raul 80 83 163
Rice, Cody 82 81 163
Kasberg, Joe 82 81 163
Berkheimer, Dennis 81 83 164
Gamble, Brian 84 80 164
Jones, Brad 89 75 164
White, Ryan 82 82 164
Gabowski, J.J 86 78 164
Harbart, Brandt 81 84 165
Weber, Tommy 84 81 165
Karic, Zoran 78 88 166
Prok, Josh 82 84 166
Early, Joe 77 90 167
Lee, Chris 82 86 168
Zavdoney, Sean 82 86 168
Watkins, Tyler 85 84 169
Sovak, Brian 86 83 169
Richards, Bill 90 80 170
Larizza, Kevin 91 80 171
Coleman, Don 85 86 171
Gasser, Brian 83 89 172
Baksa, Bill 86 87 173
Biacsi, Fred 87 86 173
Hazen, Erik 93 81 174
Dealmeida, Dorian 87 87 174
Rudd, Kerry 88 87 175
Jeff, Jersey 87 89 176
Hanzel, Andy 92 85 177
Foschia, Nick 88 90 178
Rybka, Russ 85 94 179
Taylor, J.D. 94 85 179
Dealmeida, Demitrius 95 84 179
Jones, Ben 90 90 180
Wilson, Steve 90 90 180
Velios, Yanni 88 94 182
Swartzmiller, Zach 93 90 183
Behanna, John 93 94 187
Gainer, Mitch 94 94 188
Allard, Andrew 100 97 197
Ferguson, Scotty 103 94 197
Raye, Mike 108 92 200
Kutrubs, Brandon 99 102 201
Troutman, Kenny NC 84 NC
Skorman, Randy NC NC NC
SUNDAY SKINS:
Justin Trzebuckowski – Hole 4, Eagle-2; $1,287.50
Adam Arman – Hole 14 Birdie-3; $1,287.50
