Shaker Heights’ Chris Okeson added his name to the Summit County Amateur Championship trophy for a second time, shooting 5-under par 66 on Sunday at Good Park Golf Course in Akron to capture the weather-shortened 2024 event.
Saturday’s first round was canceled after a lightning delay followed by series of downpours halted play, shortening the event to just 18 holes for the first time in its 50-year history.
Okeson, the playoff-winning 2020 Summit County Am champ, made the turn at 1-under par, posting birdies at the first and eighth holes against a scrubby bogey at the par-5 second. But he then lit up the back nine, making birdies at 11, 12, 15 and 16 without a blemish.
More impressively, he knew the score he had to beat and got the job done.
Zachary Huscusson, a 19-year-old from Canal Fulton, posted a 4-under par 67 early in the afternoon wave, making six birdies against two bogeys. He punctuated that finish with a clutch par save on the 224-yard par-3 ninth, his final hole of the day, pitching under some trees and over a bunker after his tee shot went right, then knocking down a 7-footer for par in front of a crowd of onlookers.
A log jam of seven players finished in a tie for third place at 2-under par 69. Past champions Darin Hudak, Solomon Petrie, and Howard Clendenin shared the third spot with Jonathan Lieser, Justin Grunstein, Gunnar McCollins, and Jake Ryan.
But the big story of the day was the gigantic, record-sized skins pot put into play on Sunday. Since only a few players finished the washed-out first round, the management at Good Park Golf Course agreed to allow Tournament Director Larry Zimmerman to put the greens fees collected for Saturday into the Sunday skins pot, which made the total a whopping $5,000 up for grabs for 18 holes.
Three players came away with a piece of that skins pot: David Laib made eagle-2 on the par-5 second hole; Josh Prok made a birdie to the deep hole location on the top ridge on the 178-yard par-3 fourth hole; and Nolan Haynes made an eagle-2 on the reachable 290-yard par-4 12th.
(Agonizingly for them, two holes were tied for skins by just two players: Ryan Gutowski and Shaun Kloetzer both made eagle on the par-5 fifth; and Jonathan Lieser and Nathan Vorthong were the only two players to make birdie at the tough par-4 tenth. Arrgghhh!)
Gift certificates to Foxy Golf will be available in the amounts listed below for use at either the Akron or Canton store after Tuesday.
Next up, the Senior Summit County Amateur Championship will be played on Friday, August 16 and Saturday, August 17. Players ages 50+, get your entries in now…
PHOTO GALLERY: 2024 Summit County Am >
FINAL RESULTS:
2024 Summit County Amateur Championship
Good Park Golf Course, Akron – Par 71
Sunday, August 4, 2024
Golf Genius Hole-by-Hole Results >
(Round 1 was canceled due to weather, shortening the event to a 1-day, 18-hole tournament.)
1 Chris Okeson 66 $1,000.00
2 Zachary Huscusson 67 $700.00
T3 Jonathan Lieser 69 $471.43
T3 Darin Hudak 69 $471.43
T3 Solomon Petrie 69 $471.43
T3 Justin Grunstein 69 $471.43
T3 Howard Clendenin 69 $471.43
T3 Jake Ryan 69 $471.43
T3 Gunnar McCollins 69 $471.43
T10 Kyle Buzaki 70 $325.00
T10 Dillon Pendergast 70 $325.00
T10 Justin Trzebuchowski 70 $325.00
T13 Nolan Haynes 71 $212.50
T13 David Trier 71 $212.50
T13 Shaun Kloetzer 71 $212.50
T13 Mike Simpson 71 $212.50
T13 Brian Myers 71 $212.50
T13 Josh Wright 71 $212.50
T19 Dustin Buehler 72 $133.33
T19 Dylan Dunn 72 $133.33
T19 Ryan Gutowski 72 $133.33
T19 David Oates 72 $133.33
T19 David Swab 72 $133.33
T19 David Laib 72 $133.33
T25 Matt Mullen 73 $107.14
T25 Max Crookston 73 $107.14
T25 Josh Clay 73 $107.14
T25 Kurt Peterson 73 $107.14
T25 Brian Beebe 73 $107.14
T25 Joshua Weiner 73 $107.14
T25 Doug Barber 73 $107.14
T32 Rob Loomis 74 $20.00
T32 Luke Schreck 74 $20.00
T32 Jordan Conjerti 74 $20.00
T32 Alex Micale 74 $20.00
T32 Brian Krusoe 74 $20.00
T32 Al Freeman 74 $20.00
T32 Tyler Ankrom 74 $20.00
T32 Ryan Stefanski 74 $20.00
T32 Jimmy Wild 74 $20.00
T32 Rob Schustrich 74 $20.00
T42 Joshua Prok 75
T42 Dean Upholzer 75
T42 Austin Schreiber 75
T42 Bob Henighan 75
T42 Mike King 75
T42 Chris Minear 75
T42 Grant Schlue 75
T42 Bob Spino 75
T50 Steve Marshall 76
T50 Garrett Cona 76
T50 Matt Warren 76
T50 Brian Vincelette 76
T50 Doug Fleming 76
T50 Ryan Dinan 76
T50 Xander Moran 76
57 Blake Hood 77
T58 Griffin Hrabak 78
T58 Rick Bryson 78
T58 Nate Shane 78
T61 Nick Winar 79
T61 Tom Skidmore 79
T61 Dylan Maninga 79
T61 Vaughn Snyder 79
T61 Cole Hostetler 79
T61 John Toth 79
T61 Cody Roberts 79
T61 Nathan Vorthong 79
T61 Zac Isla 79
T61 Larry Lahnan 79
T61 Matthew DeShane 79
T72 Mike Stefko 80
T72 Jeff Barbas 80
T72 Jim Cea 80
T72 Ty Van Bulck 80
T72 Nick Dye 80
T72 Steve Wilson Sr. 80
T72 Josh Gorham 80
T72 Anthony Yacovazzi 80
T72 Alex Rice 80
T72 Yianni Vellios 80
T72 Jeff Mihalick 80
T83 Tim Heavner 81
T83 Mark Ciccarello 81
T83 Steve Fricker 81
T83 Jason Zachardy 81
T83 Anthony Marozzi 81
T83 Dan Marr 81
T83 Randy Skorman 81
T83 Brian Thompson 81
91 Dean Cutlip 82
T92 Sam Scala 83
T92 Luke Stretar 83
T92 Nathan Stuyvesant 83
T95 Tyler Watkins 84
T95 Will Ellison 84
T95 Chris Dilworth 84
T95 John Entsminger 84
T99 Adam Filo 85
T99 Travis Miller 85
T99 Greg Wood 85
T102 Trevor Cannon 86
T102 Denny Krill 86
T102 Stephen Spalding 86
T102 Matt Dinan 86
T106 Steve Wilson Jr. 87
T106 Seth Marsh 87
T106 Mike Butler 87
T109 Mychal Agarenzo 88
T109 Jay Carpenter 88
T111 Nathan Ryan 89
T111 Jeffrey Dannemiller 89
113 David Aitken 90
114 Alex DiGirolamo 92
115 Jeff Mirelli 93
116 Aaron Childs 94
117 Eric Rush 102
SKINS: $1,667 ea
David Laib – Eagle on 2
Joshua Prok – Birdie on 4
Nolan Haynes – Eagle on 12
