Culbertson Birdies the Beefy 18th to Defend His Title
Wooster’s Ryan Culbertson went unconventional in backing up his title defense in the Chippewa Championship: he beat up the back nine at Chippewa Golf Club.
Culbertson started Sunday one shot behind first round co-leaders Dave Oates from Canton and Brian Smith of Amherst. He immediately fell even farther behind when he started his day bogey-bogey.
Oates jumped out of the gate on Sunday with a front-side 33, then added birdies at the back-to-back par-fives at 10 and 11. At that point, Oates looked like he might be the walk-off champion, as he had reached 7-under par for the tournament. But as quickly as Oates reached that high, he suffered back-to-back bogeys at 12 and 13 to fall back to 5-under par for the two days. Chippewa always seems to bite back.
Smith played his front side in 1-under par 34, but made par on both gettable par-5 holes that open the back nine. But to his credit, Smith kept making pars for the tough middle stretch of the back nine, including an incredible up-and-down on the 13th.
After the shaky start, Culbertson righted his ship on the front side with birdies at 3, 6 and 8, but a bogey at the ninth gave him an even par 35 turn. Birdies at the 10th and the difficult par-3 12th moved him in the right direction.
So heading into The Triangle (the diabolical 14-15-16th holes at Chippewa), Oates led the tournament at 5-under par, with Culbertson and Smith tied at 4-under par.
The 14th hole saw pars all around.
At the 15th, a two shot swing: Culbertson made a fantastic birdie while Oates hit a fat second shot that came up well short of the green and led to bogey. Smith made par.
Pars for all three players again at 16.
So as Culbertson stepped to the par-3 17th tee, he had a one shot lead over Oates and Smith. The hole was stretched to an extended 197 yards, the pin deep and the tees sitting on what is normally the 15th tee box.
Culbertson’s tee shot went straight at the flag but also landed hole-high right, then bounced over the back of the green short-sided.
Oates hit a solid shot that hit the green but rolled off into the swale just short and right of the hole location, a good leave.
Smith hit a poor iron shot, clank-pulling it short and well left into the hay. From there, Smith gouged it out to long-left of the green, but failed to get it up-and-down from there. It was a heart-breaking double-bogey 5 at the worst possible time.
Culbertson hit his pitch 10-feet past the hole, while Oates cozied his up to inside three feet. When Culbertson missed and Oates made, the game was tied again.
The 18th hole was played both days from the top-of-the-hill deep tees as a whopping 529-yard par-4. Oates hit a solid tee shot just into the first cut left, while Culbertson bombed his straight down the middle.
Oates hit a hybrid in for his second, and his adrenalin was clear: dead online, the shot landed just in front of the green but ran all the way through to the back fringe, leaving him a tricky downhill pitch. He was shocked.
Then Culbertson stepped up to his second and hit the shot of the tournament: with a long iron, he striped a low bullet that finished dead in the middle of the green, just past pin-high about 12 feet away.
Oates chipped his slick down-hiller to 8-feet below the hole. But he didn’t get the chance to make it matter, as Culbertson drained the birdie putt center cut to shut out Oates and win by one. Both Oates and Culbertson laughed after the winning putt went in, as it was a great competition and a fitting ending. (Yep, Oates did make his par putt.)
Culbertson toured the stretched-out back nine on Sunday at Chippewa with a score of 3-under par 33, making four birdies against the lone bogey at 17. An incredible come-back performance.
Three skins were won on the day, including a heroic hole-out eagle 2 at the par-4 eighth hole by Matt Frey. An eagle at the short par-5 11th held up for Anthony Yacovazzi, while Doug Fleming got his birdie money-maker on at the long par-3 17th. Each skin was worth a tidy $808.
Kudos to all of the staff at Chippewa Golf Club for the great golf, great food and another well run championship!
PHOTO GALLERY: 2021 Chippewa Championship >
FINAL RESULTS:
2021 Chippewa Championship
Chippewa Golf Club, Doylestown, Ohio
Sunday, August 29, 2021
1st Ryan Culbertson 69 68 – 137 – $500 (+ a 2022 Chipewa membership)
2nd Dave Oates 68 70 – 138 – $300
3rd Brian Smith 68 73 – 141 – $250
4th Shaun Kloetzer 74 68 – 142 $150
5th Jimmy Wild 74 69 – 143 $100
Out of the Money:
Simpson, Mike 72 72 144
Snyder, Vaughn 73 71 144
Shank, Eric 70 75 145
Frey, Matt 74 72 146
Cebula, Tim 71 76 147
Levengood, Mitch 76 73 149
Stefanski, Ryan 73 77 150
Okeson, Chris 74 77 151
Pollick, Brian 78 73 151
Schustrich, Rob 74 77 151
Trier, David 76 75 151
Trzebuckowski, Justin 71 81 152
Drukenbrod, Zach 77 76 153
Kabasky, John 77 76 153
Filo, Adam 77 77 154
Oyler, Kyle 76 78 154
Brees, Ryan 76 79 155
Osoteo, Mark 80 75 155
Freeman, Al 80 76 156
Hepner, Tim 79 77 156
Mendoza, Raul 77 79 156
Pattakos, John 78 78 156
Price, Glen 78 78 156
Vincelette, Brian 76 80 156
Yacovazzi, Anthony 81 75 156
Coleman, Eric 76 81 157
Armbrust, Mike 79 78 157
Harmon, Bobby 80 77 157
Vellios, Yanni 80 77 157
Wenger, Jeff 77 80 157
Norkin, Ryan 85 73 158
White, Ryan 81 77 158
Gamble, Brian 80 79 159
Prok, Josh 78 81 159
Duta, John 78 82 160
Zgrabik, Andrew 80 80 160
Fleming, Doug 77 84 161
Karic, Zoran 80 81 161
Loftin, Alex 74 87 161
Loomis, Robert 82 79 161
Thomas, Mark 79 82 161
Gerwig, Austin 80 82 162
Hostetler, Ryan 82 80 162
Lemaster, Brian 81 81 162
Ramaglia, Chris 75 87 162
Toth, John 85 79 164
Vellios, John 82 82 164
Berkheimer, Dennis 79 86 165
Matthews, Nate 85 80 165
Roberts, Travis 83 82 165
Seese, Ron 83 82 165
Sovak, Brian 85 80 165
Jones, Brad 80 87 167
Stuart, Matt 84 83 167
Kachurchak, Brandon 83 85 168
Wascak, David 85 83 168
Angelou, Mark 90 80 170
Mirelli, Jeff “Jersey” 83 87 170
Moneypenny, Mike 86 85 171
Palay, Landon 87 84 171
Shoup, Matt 85 89 174
Troutman, Ken 90 84 174
Baraldi, Mike 87 88 175
Hazen, Erik 81 95 176
Ricket, Kevin 85 91 176
Rybka, Russ 92 84 176
Zavodney, Shawn 89 87 176
Buehler, Dustin 86 92 178
Horner, Larry 89 89 178
Mohler, Todd 86 92 178
Stefko, Michael 85 93 178
Helaney, Chris 85 94 179
Gray, Alexis 88 92 180
D’Andrea, Dante 92 96 188
Patton, William 91 97 188
Pertee, Trevor 98 98 196
SUNDAY SKINS: $808 each
Matt Frey – Eagle-2, Hole 8
Anthony Yacovazzi – Eagle-3, Hole 11 $808
Doug Fleming – Birdie-2, Hole 17 $808
NOTE: all winning tournament wager payouts are available upon request at the Chippewa pro shop
