Wigington spectacular

‘Twig’ wins sixth County crown, third top player award in runaway fashion

SCORES, PHOTOS, PLAYER POINTS, MATCH PLAY BRACKET. LEARN MORE ABOUT THE WINNER IN ‘NEXT ON THE TEE’ FEATURE

By Al Muskewitz
East Alabama Sports Today

Gary Wigington couldn’t have picked a more spectacular way to close out a spectacular week of golf.

After playing the entire back nine on cruise control because he was that far ahead, Wigington made a 30-foot eagle putt on the final hole Sunday to cap a 6-under-par 66 that gave him a record-tying sixth Calhoun County Championship and an unprecedented third straight County Player of the Year.

He made a putt of similar length for birdie on his first hole to set the tone for the day. And he really wasn’t looking to make a flashy finish, that’s just the way his week went.

“A birdie would have been (just as) good,” he said. “I was just trying to get it up there close.

“All day long I just felt like when I got over a putt and looked at it, the line looked good. I made several long putts today, and that makes a big difference.”

All day long? Try all week.

Wigington posted three rounds in the 60s – the first player to do that in the County Championship since the event moved to Cane Creek in 2005 — for a Cane Creek-era tournament record total 15-under-par 201. He won by a whopping 11 shots over Jeremy McGatha, smashing the previous County Championship stroke-play margin record of eight by David Whitley in 1968. Cypress Hathorn finished third at 213.

The day belonged to Wigington; everyone else was playing for second – especially on the back nine.

In addition to his closing eagle, Wigington had five birdies – all on the front side – including four in a five-hole stretch after making bogey at the par-3 third (and even there he made a lengthy putt to avoid a double). It was similar to the run he had Saturday, when he made six birdies in an eight-hole stretch after an annoying a double-bogey.

The Sunday birdie barrage gave him a seven-shot lead at the turn. The spread swelled to nine by the time the final group came out of The Hollow that opens the back nine, and after that, he said, “it was up to me just not to make any bad mistakes.”

Wigington shot rounds of 66-69-66, extending his streak of consecutive Calhoun County Tour rounds in the 60s to five. Six of his last eight rounds have been in the 60s and seven have been under par. He won the last two events on the Tour by a total of 31-under-par, making 35 birdies. He has had 43 birdies in his last seven rounds.

It wasn’t long into Sunday that McGatha realized he wasn’t going to catch this runaway train.

“Once I saw him 4-under through 8 I was shooting for second; I really was and I almost blew that,” he said. “Like I said, 15-under, that’s pretty danged good.

“If I’d have been on my best golf it would’ve been hard to beat 15-under. He had everything clicking — chipping in, making bombs, driving it straight down the middle. He was just playing outstanding.”

But because McGatha was able to nose out series points leader Ty Cole for second place among Calhoun County Tour players Wigington was able to secure enough points to win the top player award.

He went into the weekend fourth in the standings, and if any of the three players ahead of him – Cole, McGatha or Grant Hockman – had won the tournament, they would’ve taken the season-long award. But Wigington wound up winning the points race by 27.5 points and now is the No. 1 seed in the upcoming Calhoun County Match Play Championship.

With Wigington running away from the field, the day’s drama turned to the Player of the Year race.

The way it was unfolding, Cole needed an outright second to win the honor and had a long road to get there. He started the day five shots behind McGatha, but drew even with four holes to play, but a share wouldn’t help him and it wasn’t long thereafter he was back playing catch-up again.

McGatha made a long birdie putt on 15 to move ahead in their mini-dogfight, putting Cole in position to need eagle on 18. And he went for it, but his 8-iron from 185 yards found the hazard behind the green. He wound up making a bogey and finished fourth.

“It was nice to have a chance at the end … but it wasn’t the last hole that cost me,” Cole said. “You show up down here with your B-game, you’re gonna get killed and the way I played this weekend it was at best a B-game.

“(Making) three eagles was great, but I made four bogeys the first day, four the second and three today; that’s 11 shots over par. You can’t win tournaments making 11 bogeys for three days. And it’s not like I’m making a bunch of birdies to offset that. I’m lucky to finish the tournament under par with as many bogeys as I made.”

With six County crowns, Wigington joins Chris Banister and Eric Hamilton with the most in tournament history. With his runner-up finish, McGatha, a two-time county champion, finished second in this event for the fifth time since 2000.

“I’m tired of finishing second,” McGatha said. “But it would be harder to swallow if I had never won the County. At least I’ve got two.”

Al Muskewitz is Content Editor/Senior Writer of East Alabama Sports Today. He can be reached at musky@wrightmediacorp.com and followed on Twitter @easportstoday1.

78th Calhoun County Championship
At Cane Creek Golf Course

Championship flight A
Gary Wigington 66-69-66—201
Jeremy McGatha 66-72-74—212
Cypress Hathorn 70-70-73—213
Ty Cole 71-72-71—214
Jaylon Ellison 68-74-78—220
Lance Evans 74-73-74—221
Matt Rogers 70-78-78—226
Scott Eaton 73-76-77—226
Andrew Brooks 73-73-81—227
Jason Johnson 72-76-79—227
Nick Pollard 71-76-81—228
Ott Chandler 77-75-76—228
Jeff Borrelli 74-76-80—230
Scott Smith 74-75-83—232
Kenny Wright 77-74-83—234
Grant Hockman 73-70-WD

Championship flight B
Daniel Black 74-81-72—227
Adrian Geeting 74-79-74—227
Caleb McKinney 75-79-74—228
Clay Calkins 75-81-72—228
Billy Thompson 74-79-78—231
Landon Straub 75-79-78—232
Josh Poole 74-81-78—233
Allen Mangham 77-77-82—236
Jameson Deering 75-79-83—237
Keith Raisanen 71-84-83—238
Tim Steward 75-82-81—238
Frank Toland 74-83-82—239
Benji Turley 78-78-85—241
Robin Wood 76-81-84—241
Layton Bussey 76-84-81—241
Dan McClellan 78-86-82—246
Mike Lett 75-87-87—249

First flight
Chip Howell 76-76—152
Dalton Chandler 72-80—152
Janson Wilborn 72-80—152
David Martin 79-74—153
Dakota Yawn 75-78—153
Jacob Lecroy 77-79—156
George Salmon 74-88—162
David Sanders 79-84—163
T.J. McGatha 80-85—165

Second flight
Steve Davis 84-75—159
Ted Heim 83-78—161
Justin Bates 84-80—164
Heath Waldrop 89-77—166
Rick Dickson 85-83—168
Rocco D’Gomez 86-84—170
Austin Minter 84-87—171
Bo Savage 83-89—172
Mark Cotton 83-91—174
Jackson Johnson 90-84—174
Tim Davis 85-90—175
Jimbo Phillips 88-87—175
Kelly Rogers 88-90—178
David Gilley 93-88—181
Johnny Barnes 86-97—183
Mike Scales 94-96—190

CALHOUN COUNTY GOLF TOUR
Final player points standings

PLAYER PTS.
Gary Wigington 1397.5
Ty Cole 1370
Jeremy McGatha 1345
Grant Hockman 1202.5
Jaylon Ellison 1187.5
Ott Chandler 1122.5
Adrian Geeting 975
Matt Rogers 952.5
Scott Martin 932.5
Andrew Brooks 930
Daniel Black 922.5
Lance Evans 910
Billy Thompson 880
Nick Pollard 830
Clay Calkins 797.5
Jeff Borrelli 797.5
Allen Mangham 767.5
Landon Straub 757.5
Josh Poole 710
Chandler Wilborn 620
Janson Wilborn 598.75
Benji Turley 598.75
Dan McClellan 597.5
Kenny Wright 595
Dalton Chandler 556.25
Dan Griffin 515
David Martin 502.5
Chris Hubbard 440
Jonathan Pate 437.5
Timmy Woodard 420
Dustin Travis 410
Layton Bussey 401.25
Austin Minter 397.5
Tony Hicks 380
Kelly Rogers 337.5
Jerry Kemp 335
T.J. McGatha 335
Jimbo Phillips 320
Brandon Roberts 297.5
Tim Steward 292.5
George Salmon 275
Jake Goggans 245
Chase Thomas 225
Al Muskewitz 187.5
Stuart Rice 150
Rob Riddle 115
Dustin Wilkins 50

Calhoun County Match Play Championship
(Dates to be determined)

Buddy Moore Bracket
No. 1 Gary Wigington vs. x-No. 16 Jeff Borrelli
No. 8 Matt Rogers vs. No. 9 Scott Martin
No. 4 Grant Hockman vs. No. 13 Billy Thompson
No. 5 Jaylon Ellison vs. No. 12 Lance Evans

Chris Banister Bracket
No. 2 Ty Cole vs. x-No. 15 Clay Calkins
No. 7 Adrian Geeting vs. No. 10 Andrew Brooks
No. 3 Jeremy McGatha vs. No. 14 Nick Pollard
No. 6 Ott Chandler vs. No. 11 Daniel Black

x-No. 15/16 Seeding tiebreaker determined by best tournament finish during the season (Calkins T-10 County, Borrelli T-11 Cider Ridge, Silver Lakes)

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