Dru Love had several things going for him coming into the 2015 Georgia Amateur Championship.
Love is the current club champion at Sea Island Golf Club, which hosted the Georgia Amateur on its Seaside course. Russell Henley (Idle Hour, 2008) and recent Kennesaw State golfer Jimmy Beck (Pinetree, 2013), had recently won the event on their home or college courses.
Lee Knox, a recent member of the U. of Alabama golf team, won the Georgia Amateur in 2010 and 2012. Love is a current member of the U. of Alabama team.
Both Knox and 2014 Georgia Amateur champion Robert Mize have fathers who are well known in Georgia golf circles. Love is the son of St. Simons resident Davis Love III.
Love won the recent Georgia Amateur, becoming the third player in eight years to win on his home course, the third U. of Alabama golfer in six years to take the title and the fourth winner in that span with a famous golfing father.
It took Love 77 holes to win the tournament, as UGA golfer Greyson Sigg of Augusta battled Love for five holes in a playoff before Love holed a lengthy birdie putt on Seaside’s first hole to claim the championship.
Love, Sigg and Dalton State golfer Sean Elliott, a Sandy Springs resident and the recent NCAA Division II individual national champion, all finished at 8-under 272 for 72 holes. Elliott was eliminated from the playoff after making bogey on Seaside’s demanding par-4 18th, the first extra hole.
Both Sigg and Love parred the next three playoff holes – Nos. 1, 17 and 18 – before they returned to No. 1 for a second time and Love rolled in his long putt for a winning birdie. Sigg almost won the playoff two holes earlier, but Love scrambled for par on the par-3 17th and Sigg missed his birdie try from just outside 10 feet.
The 17th almost cost Love the title in regulation. Leading by two shots with two holes to play, Love hit his tee shot into tall grass in the sand dune long and right of the green and made double bogey after having to hit his second shot sideways.
Love led the tournament from the opening round, taking a one-shot lead after an opening 66, expanding his advantage to two after a second round 67 and carding a third round 69 to lead by three going to the final day.
Sigg and his UGA teammate Zach Healy of Peachtree Corners were tied for second after 54 holes along with future UGA golfer Will Chandler of Atlanta. Sigg and Healy shared the lead at some point in the final round along with Elliott, who matched the low round of the tournament with a closing 67.
Healy and recent Mercer golfer Trey Rule of Eatonton tied for third at 273, one shot out of the playoff, with Chandler sixth at 274.
Love maintained the solo lead for most of the final round, but the tournament turned into a six-way battle for the top spot when Love started his round with 14 straight pars.
Healy and Chandler notched four birdies each on the front nine to close within one of Love’s lead . Healy pulled into a tie for first with a birdie at the 10th, but after making five birdies to that point, did not make another.
Chandler, who tied for second in the Georgia Amateur last year at Idle Hour, again closed within one when he birdied the 11th, his fifth in eight holes after beginning the final round with back-to-back bogeys. He had six birdies on the day, but also had five bogeys on his scorecard and never got closer than two shots of Love down the stretch.
Elliott pulled even with Love and Healy with a birdie at the 14th, his fourth in seven holes and sixth of the day. He parred in from there and was the first player to post 8-under, but trailed Love by two after the rising junior at Alabama ended his par streak with consecutive birdies at 15 and 16.
The two birdies got Love to 10-under for the tournament, two ahead of Elliott and Healy and three in front of Sigg, Rule and Chandler. Like Chandler, Rule tied for second at Idle Hour last year, but appeared to shoot himself out of contention at Seaside when he made double bogey on the 10th to fall six shots behind Love.
Rule responded with a sensational five-hole stretch of golf highlighted by a hole-in-one on the long, par-3 12th. The ace and birdies at holes 11, 14 and 15 got him to 7-under for the tournament, but three straight pars left him with a 66 and a tie for fourth.
The 17th turned out to be a pivotal hole for most of the contender. Love’s double bogey cost him the outright lead, but Chandler and Healy both bogeyed the hole. Healy shot 68 and Chandler 69 the final day, with Love settling for a 70 with no bogeys on his scorecard.
The one player to take full advantage of Love’s late slip was Sigg, who birdied the 17th to erase a three-shot deficit on one hole. It was his fifth birdie of the day and gave him a share of the lead and a 67 after a par at the 18th.
Two local players finished seventh and eighth. Travis Williamson of Brunswick, who played his college golf at Armstrong Atlantic and has been a frequent contender in the Georgia Amateur in recent years, was seventh at 276 with a final round 67. Scott Wolfes of St. Simons, who recently concluded an outstanding career at Georgia Southern, tied for eighth at 277 after losing with a 66.
Wolfes, among the pre-tournament favorites, was 8-under for his last 33 holes, but could not get anything going the first two days and got off to a rocky start in the third round.
Also tying for eighth was Tim Arnoult of Decatur. Tying for 10th at 278 was Savannah’s Doug Hanzel, the state’s top senior amateur, and junior Benjamin Shipp of Duluth. Tying for 12th at 279 were UGA golfer Parker Derby of Columbus, Roswell’s Shea Sylvester, recent Georgia PGA Junior champion Luke Schniederjans of Powder Springs, and Duluth’s Gus Wagoner, who recently completed his college career at Georgia State after playing previously at Armstrong Atlantic.
Recent GSGA Junior champion S.M. Lee of Buford was next at 280, with two-time Georgia Amateur champion David Noll of Dalton tying for 17th at 281. Noll closed with a 64 that included birdies on seven of his final 11 holes, including the last four in succession. David Kleckner of Johns Creek, a 2014 U.S. Amateur qualifier at Atlanta Athletic Club, also tied for 17th.
Georgia State golfer Nathan Mallonee of Lexington tied for 19th at 282, beginning the tournament two days after placing second in a Georgia PGA event at Berkeley Hills. Mallonee shot 66 in the second round after an opening 76. Also tying for 19th was Gainesville’s Spencer Ralston, one of the state’s top junior golfers, and Jake Fendt of Suwanee.
Defending champion Robert Mize of Columbus was next at 283 along with Billy Johns of Johns Creek.
Love took the opening round lead at 66 by shooting 31 on the back nine with an eagle on the par-5 15th helping offset a double bogey on the seventh following an errant tee shot. Derby was 4-under after six holes and shot 67, with Williamson and Kleckner next at 68. Sigg, Mize and Schniederjans were among those at 69, with Schniederjans leading after the morning wave.
After beginning his second round with 10 straight pars, Love birdied four of his last eight for a 66 to take the second round lead at 7-under 133. Healy was next at 135 after a 64, shooting 30 on the front nine with an eagle at the seventh. A bogey at the 18th cost him a possible 63.
Shipp was third at 136 after a 66, with Rule matching Healy’s 64 for a 137 total along with Sylvester and Lee, who both shot 67. Chandler carded a 64 and was tied for seventh at 138 with a group that included Sigg, Kleckner and Schniederjans, the lone player in the top 10 after 36 holes who did not play in the late Thursday/early Friday half of the field.
Love went out in 2-over in the third round to fall into a tie for the lead with Sigg, but regained control of the tournament after three birdies in a four-hole stretch on the back nine. His 69 gave him a three-stroke lead over Sigg and Chandler, who both shot 67, and Healy, who matched par of 70. Wagoner was next at 206 after a 66, with Rule, Arnoult, Sylvester and Schneiderjans , who shot a third straight 69, next at 207.
Elliott moved into contention with a 65 and went on to shoot 129 the final two rounds after opening scores of 74 and 69.