The 2013 Armstrong Atlantic golf team continued its run of success in Georgia PGA tournaments this Summer, with Duluth’s Gus Wagoner scoring a victory in the Berkeley Hills Championship with an impressive surge late in the final round.
One month prior to Wagoner’s victory, Armstrong’s Corey Griffin won the Yamaha Atlanta Open in a playoff over Stephen Keppler, one of the Georgia PGA’s top players over the past 20-plus years.
Wagoner did not need a playoff to capture the Berkeley Hills title, breaking open what had been a tightly-contested final round with an eagle-birdie-birdie run on holes 15, 16 and 17.
Going to the par-5 15th at Berkeley Hills CC, Wagoner trailed Shawn Koch by one stroke. Wagoner’s eagle gave him a one-shot lead, but Koch was unaware that he had fallen behind as he stood on Berkeley Hills’ 18th tee. He elected to play safe and hit 5-wood on the 368-yard par 4.
But Koch’s tee shot sailed right and went out of bounds. Needing a bogey to tie fellow Georgia PGA member Tim Weinhart, who was in the clubhouse at 5-under, and maintain (he thought) a share of the lead with Wagoner, he pulled his driver and ripped his tee shot up the left side, leaving him a short pitch up the hill to the green.
Koch nearly holed the shot and tapped in for bogey to tie Weinhart. But two groups behind him, Wagoner was pulling away from his two main challengers.
A big tee shot at the 15th left Wagoner with only 246 yards, and he hit what he termed “a smooth 3 wood” that barely missed the cup as it went past, stopping within five feet. He holed the eagle putt to take the lead, and hit his approach on the par-4 16th to a similar distance for a birdie. A slightly longer birdie putt at the 17th concluded his torrid late round stretch and gave him a comfortable 4-shot lead heading to the final hole.
Like Koch, Wagoner’s tee shot at 18went right, but stayed in bounds. He punched his second shot just short of the green and wound up with a 3-stroke margin of victory when he came away with bogey on the hole.
Wagoner, the son of River Pines head professional Phil Wagoner, who won the 1993 Atlanta Open at Atlanta Athletic Club, finished at 8-under 136 with back-to-back scores of 68. Koch and Weinhart tied for 2nd at 139.
Koch, the Director of Instruction at Country Club of the South, shot 70-69, while Weinhart, an instructor with Standard Club-based Nuclear Golf, closed with a 68 after shooting 71 the first day. They split first and second place money, taking home $1,850 each, and also divided first and second place points among the Georgia PGA pros in the field.
Tommy Brannen, the head professional at Augusta CC, tied for 4th at 140 with Georgia State golfer Damon Stephenson. James Mason and Sonny Skinner were among a group of players tying for 6th at 141.
Wagoner, who is transferring to Georgia State and will sit out the 2013-14 season, also led after the opening round. He shot 68 both days, but there was little in common between the two rounds other than the score.
“I did not hit it very well yesterday,” he said after his victory. “Today I hit it pretty well.”
Wagoner said he missed eight greens in the opening round, but managed to get it up and down for par seven times, taking his lone bogey on the par-5 seventh. He picked up a pair of early birdies, including one on the long par-4 13th, his fourth hole of the day. Wagoner added a pair of birdies early in his final nine on holes 2 and 3 before a birdie at the ninth gave him the outright lead at the end of the day.
Brannen and Skinner were among five players tied for 2nd at 69, with 25 players beginning the second round within three strokes of Wagoner’s lead.
Birdies at holes 3 and 5 expanded Wagoner’s lead, but he three-putted the ninth for bogey. After reaching the par-5 10th in two for birdie, he missed the green at the 13th for a bogey that temporarily cost him his lead.
Koch started fast with three birdies on his first seven holes, but also bogeyed the 13th. He hit his second shot over the green on the par-5 15th, and on his first shot after the second of two brief delays late in the round, pitched in for eagle to take the lead at 6-under. He had birdie opportunities at both 16 and 17, settling for a pair of pars to retain his lead until Wagoner’s late heroics.
“This week was real helpful for me,” Koch said. “I’ve just gotten back to playing decent golf. It’s been a rough couple of years.”
Koch won the Atlanta Open at Dunwoody CC in 2006, and won back-to-back events, including the Georgia PGA Match Play Championship, to start the ’08 season. But he hasn’t won a points event since, and has struggled for the most part other than the Pro-Assistant Championship, which he has won three of the last four years with fellow CCoS instructor David Potts.
Things began to turn around for Koch late last year when he tied for 6th in the Georgia PGA’s qualifier for the national club pro championship. Even though he missed the cut in the recent event, he said he “played good in Oregon, and took a lot of positives” from his efforts.
Koch said part of his problem has been a mental outlook he described as “not good. I’ve been frustrated and not playing well. I’ve been paying attention to a lot of negative stuff and focusing on scores and results.
“I’m teaching full time and very busy, and when I play, I need to enjoy playing.”
Over the two days of the tournament, Koch certainly enjoyed playing Berkeley Hills’
par 5s. He was 8-under on them with six birdies and the eagle on 15 the final day.
Koch said he probably would have hit driver off the 18th tee if he had known he was behind, but said it was more poor execution than club selection.
“I did not hit a very good shot,” he said of his 5-wood from the tee, but managed to re-group and finish in a tie for 2nd.
It was Koch’s third straight top-10 finish in a Georgia PGA event this year and his second runner-up finish. He tied for 2nd in the Chicopee Woods Players Championship, one shot behind winner Clark Spratlin.
Weinhart shot 71 the first day and was in the first group off the first tee in the afternoon wave the next day. After a bogey on the par-5 seventh he made the turn in even par and was not in the picture, but responded with five birdies on the back nine, including three on the last four holes.
A bogey on the 17th after an errant tee shot momentarily stalled his fast finish, but he closed with a birdie at the 18th to put himself in position to share 2nd with Koch. Weinhart, a 7-time Georgia PGA Player of the Year, has won 15 individual titles in the Section, including all four of the Georgia PGA’s majors, with the 4-year-old Berkeley Hills event the only one he hasn’t won.
Wagoner won one tournament during his three years at Armstrong, taking an event hosted by Georgia College at Cuscowilla on Lake Oconee.
Holding the lead going to the final round of a tournament can be difficult for golfers not entirely accustomed to being in that situation, but Wagoner said his experience “was not too bad.”
He took an unusual approach to his status as leader, which afforded him a spot in the last group off the tee. Instead of sleeping in, Wagoner was on the job at River Pines at 6 a.m., working with the maintenance staff to help get the course prepared to play after some heavy rains the previous weekend.
“I had never done that before,” said Wagoner, who usually works in other areas at the club where his father is the head pro. He said that helped keep his mind off the pressure of holding the lead, and he played extremely well in the final round, hanging right around the lead the entire day before breaking away late.
Brannen, part of the large group of outstanding seniors among the state’s club professional contingent, had six birdies in his opening 69, but just two the next day in his 1-under 71.
Also tying for 6th at 141 were Dunwoody CC assistant Kyle Owen and college golfers Justin Cho and Daniel Kim. Owen shot 69-72, with his round beginning with five pars and ending with pars on the last 11 holes. Marietta’s Kim, who plays at College of Charleston, opened with a 69 and was among the leaders after playing his first eight holes the next day in 2-under. But he dropped out of contention with bogeys at 9 and 10. Alpharetta’s Cho, who plays at Purdue, had five birdies in a second round 70.
Tying for 11th at 141 were defending champion Stephen Keppler, the Director of Golf at Marietta CC, Sea Island GC head pro Will Hutter, Crooked Oak head pro Winston Trively, and amateurs Grant Cagle, Josh Crews and Brooks Colquitt.
Keppler had an up and down week in his title defense. He was 3-under after 10 holes in the opening round, but was 2-over the rest of the way and shot 71. He followed with another 71 after starting his round with three straight bogeys. He had five birdies after that, but played the par 5s 2-over for the day.
Hutter shot himself into contention with three birdies on the front nine in the second round to get to 4-under for the tournament, but took four bogeys on the back nine before closing with birdies on 17 and 18.
Colquitt was 3-under after six holes the second day to get to 5-under for the tournament, but three straight bogeys at 9, 10 and 11 ended his hopes of victory. Cagle, a Gainesville resident who plays at Georgia State, and Albany’s Crews both were 3-under on the day and 4-under for the tournament on the back nine before some late bogeys.