Chris Vahsholtz had mixed feelings on the hole that gave him the tournament lead and led to his City Golf Championship.
Vahsholtz had to beat his good friend Chad Buchholz to win his first city title. Vahsholtz and Buchholz shared the same cart on Sunday. They have been playing golf together since Vahsholtz played on the high school team and Buchholz worked at Emporia Country Club.
So when Buchholz turned the lead over to Vahsholtz on Sunday, it was bittersweet.
“If I wasn’t going to win, I’d rather have him win,” Vahsholtz said. “We hang out a lot and play golf a lot, and we’re just pretty good friends.”
Buchholz seemed to be in control going into the final three holes of the two-day tournament.
On a windy and hot two days, Buchholz had played the most steady golf and led by two shots after 33 holes.
Then on the par-5 16th, Buchholz’s one lapse in two days cost him the tournament. He hooked his second shot out of bounds left of the fairway.
“Worst shot I hit of the tournament,” he said.
Buchholz recovered with a nice approach on his fifth shot, setting himself up for a seven-foot bogey putt.
Vahsholtz played the hole perfectly and made a seven-foot putt for birdie, so a Buchholz bogey would have had the two buddies tied at the top of the leaderboard. Buchholz lined up his putt and thought it would go dead straight.
“And it broke left,” he said.
Vahsholtz finished with back-to-back pars to win the championship with a 148, and Buchholz finished one stroke behind at 149.
“We were all within a stroke of each other the whole back nine,” Vahsholtz said. “I got kind of lucky. Chad hit a bad shot on 16, I birdied and there it was.”
Fletcher Harder, who led after a first-day round of 71, finished in third with a 150. Brian Lawson and Bren Fisher both shot 151 to tie for fourth. Todd Preisner shot a 154 to take sixth place. Mike Guion, also in the final group with the top three finishers, shot a 156 for seventh place, and last year’s champion, Dave Watts, shot a 157 and finished in eighth.
Vahsholtz shot a 73 on Sunday, which was the best round of the day. He shot a 75 on Saturday at Emporia Country Club and trailed Harder by four strokes and Buchholz by two going into the final round.
Once Vahsholtz took the lead at 16, his strategy was to play safe and force Buchholz to make a birdie.
“Just hit middle of the greens,” he said. “Don’t get aggressive.”
Buchholz nearly got the birdie he needed on 17. On a 20-foot putt coming back to the hole, Buchholz’s ball grazed the corner of the cup, but was too far right to fall in.
On Saturday, he made those putts, but on Sunday, they quit falling. So it was only appropriate that on 18, Buchholz had another 20-footer for birdie. He hit what he thought was the perfect putt, but it stopped about an inch left of the hole.
“Last two holes, I knew I needed to make birdie,” Buchholz said. “On both 17 and 18 I got it to about 20 feet, and both burned the edge, but I knew I needed to make one to tie Chris, to get into a playoff with Chris.”
Vahsholtz pushed his drive on 18 to the right of the fairway, but he ended up in an open area and had a relatively easy approach shot to the green. He hit it long, but it stayed on the back of the green.
Vahsholtz then calmly rolled a 40-foot putt to within a foot, setting himself up for the toughest one-foot putt of his life.
“I was thinking, ‘Oh man, don’t miss. Don’t miss,’” he said.
Vahsholtz rolled it in for his first city championship. Buchholz won in 2001 and had not played in the tournament since 2002, because he moved to Colorado.
Vahsholtz had not played the last three years, but the buddies were both back in the tournament this year, rooting for each other all the way. Even on 18, when Buchholz needed Vahsholtz to slip up, Buchholz was yelling for Vahsholtz’s approach shot to sit on the green and not roll past.
“We play a lot of golf against each other, but we play as teammates, too,” Buchholz said. “I’m glad he won. If it can’t be my name on the trophy again, I’m glad it’s his.”
Emporia City Golf Championship
Sunday at Municipal Golf Course
CHAMPIONSHIP FLIGHT
Chris Vahsholtz 75–73 148
Chad Buchholz 73–76 149
Fletcher Harder 71–79 150
Brian Lawson 77–74 151
Bren Fisher 77–74 151
Todd Preisner 76–78 154
Mike Guion 75–81 156
Dave Watts 79–78 157
Matt McAnarney 84–77 161
Russ Gallinger 83–80 163
Marcus Erkel 86–79 165
TurdFerguson (anonymous) says...
Very well done, Chris. Congratulations!
August 11, 2009 at 11:10 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )