After a hotly-contested day of golf, the finals of the Georgia PGA Match Play Championship came to an abrupt halt when one of the participants was a victim Atlanta’s steamy August weather.
After scoring a tough 1-up victory in the semifinals earlier in the morning at East Lake Golf Club, two-time Match Play champion Craig Stevens was 1-down after nine holes in the title match against Donn Perno when he retired with heat exhaustion.
Stevens, who lost in the finals of the event last year, was visibly drained by the heat and humidity after walking 27 holes. Typically, all Georgia PGA events allow the competitors to ride carts. But East Lake, which hosted the semifinals and finals for the first time, is a walking course.
“I hate to win it this way,” said Perno, the head professional at Peachtree GC. “We had a good match going. Craig is a great player with a great record. But I’ll take it anyway I can get it.”
Stevens, an instructor at Brookstone CC, said he began feeling the effects of the heat midway through the scheduled 36-hole finale at East Lake.
“I had a sandwich and some water after the morning round, and didn’t feel as good as I thought I should,” Stevens said after retiring from the match. “I had questions in my mind whether I could make it for all 18 holes. It just caught up to me.”
Stevens, who was “very disappointed” that he was unable to complete the championship match, said the heat-related symptoms “hit me on number seven.”
After an excellent approach shot into the par-4 eighth, Stevens had about five feet for birdie, but said, “When I got up to putt, I was kind of dizzy and seeing yellow spots.
“On the ninth tee I was really dizzy. I hit it OK but I never recovered.”
After a slight miss-hit with his second shot on the par 5, Stevens gave himself another excellent birdie opportunity after a well-played pitch shot, but again was unable to convert the birdie putt.
“I could not see the line very good,” Stevens said, and made his decision to withdraw before he and Perno reached the 10th tee.
“Donn was playing pretty solid, and I figured for me to beat him, I would have to shoot even par, and there was no way I was going to do that,” a weary Stevens observed.
“I was right on the edge. I was OK up to there, but if I pushed it, I knew I’d be in trouble by hole 12. I know the importance of my health vs. a trophy.”
Eight of the nine holes played in the championship match were halved, seven with pars. The only birdie was scored by Perno, who hit his tee shot within 15 feet on the island green par-3 sixth and holed the putt to take a 1-up lead.
Both players bogeyed the par-3 second hole after missing the green, with the other seven holes laved with pars. Both had birdie chances at the eighth, with Stevens missing another short birdie putt at the ninth.
Stevens, the top seed in the championship, got past No. 4 seed Bill Murchison 1-up in one semifinal. Perno had to go 21 holes to defeat Sung Back in the other semifinal match.
Perno led his match going to the par-3 18th, but missed the green and took bogey, enabling Back to extend the match. The playoff began at the 18th, with Perno halving the hole with a 4-footer for par. Perno missed a chance for birdie at the first hole, but won it on No. 2 when Back bogeyed after hitting his tee shot in the greenside bunker. Perno hit the green and easily two-putted for the win.
The match went back and forth even though neither player led by more than one hole. Perno went ahead when he holed his third shot on the ninth on the fly for eagle and followed with a birdie at the 11th.
Back, an instructor at Peachtree Golf Center in Duluth, regained the lead with birdies at 12 and 13, and both players birdied the 15th before the closing holes were won with pars.
Perno, who was seeded 22nd in the 64-player draw, won four of his first five matches on the 17th hole or later, rallying from 2-down after 13 holes to escape 1-up over Dunwoody CC assistant Kyle Owen in a quarterfinal match played at Piedmont Driving Club.
Three birdies on the final five holes enabled Perno to pull out the victory. He also won 2&1 in the second round against Peachtree assistant Brian Corn.
“He let me win,” Perno laughed. “It was a matter of job security.”
The win was the first for Perno in a Section points event, although he teamed with Corn to win the 2010 Pro-Assistant Championship.
“I’ve been playing in the Section a long time,” Perno said of his first individual victory. “I thought it would be sooner than this.”
Stevens has won the Match Play Championship twice, the first in 1985. He won again 15 years later at Sea Island GC, defeating Tim Weinhart in the finals. Weinhart reversed that result last year, winning decisively at the UGA course in the title match, his second straight Match Play Championship and third overall.
Weinhart was unable to defend his 2012 title, as the field filled up before Weinhart filed his entry prior to the deadline.
The loss in the championship match was the third for Stevens since his last win in the event 13 years ago. Prior to his victory, Perno had never advanced past the quarterfinals, defeating Stevens in the third round at Ansley Golf Club’s Settindown Creek in 2004.
Murchison, an assistant at Towne Lake Hills who had limited status on the Web.com Tour this year, had reached the quarterfinals twice the previous four years, defeating Stevens along the way in 2009 at Callaway Gardens. His best win this year was a 5&4 victory in the third round over three-time tournament champion Clark Spratlin.
Back, who was seeded 26th, is a newcomer to Section events. He has played well previously in 2013, but has struggled in the final rounds of tournaments of more than 18 holes. He won three of his first four matches by at least four holes, including a 4&2 victory in the quarterfinals over Winston Trively, who lost in the finals and semifinals to Weinhart the past two years.
After playing at one site each of the past seven years, the first four rounds of this year’s tournament were played at sites determined by the participants.