Made in the shade

Ty Cole wins Silver Lakes Championship for third year in a row, third title in as many weeks

By Al Muskewitz
East Alabama Sports Today

SILVER LAKES — The Ty Cole train keeps rolling on.

Cole won his fourth straight tournament and third in as many weeks when he sealed his third straight Silver Lakes Championship Sunday.

He shot 2-under-par 70 in the final round and finished at 7-under 137 for the tournament. He won by three over P.J. Shields and Dalton Chandler.

The run Cole has been on has been impressive. In addition to the win this weekend, he’s won the Gadsden Country Club Invitational and the Fort McClellan Credit Union Pro-Invitational at Cane Creek. Two weeks earlier he won the Cherokee County Country Club Two-Man with new Sunny King Charity Classic partner Gary Wigington.

Over those 10 rounds he has led or shared the lead after nine of them. In the last three individual events, he has been a collective 19-under-par with a stroke average of 69.25.

When Sunday’s round was over he admitted the run at taken its toll.

“I’m getting tired; I’m worn out,” he said. “I just know I don’t have to play golf next weekend.

“When you concentrate that hard three weeks in a row, four out of five weeks, it drains you. Plus, it being a thousand degrees … Mentally I’m shot golf-wise. I need some time to just (relax).”

The win was Cole’s eighth on the Calhoun County Golf Tour, tying him with Jeremy McGatha for third place on the Tour’s all-time wins list. He joined Gary Wigington as the only player in the County Tour era to win the same event three years in a row. Wigington tripled Pine Hill (2013-15) and the County Championship (2010-12).

Jaylon Ellison is the only player to have won three County Tour events in a row, taking titles at Indian Oaks, Pine Hill and Cane Creek in 2010. The next event on the County Tour schedule is Pine Hill July 30-31.

“I don’t really think about it like that,” Cole said. “I pay my money just like everybody else and show up and play golf and try to play as good as I can.

“I like the fact I’ve won this (Silver Lakes Championship) three times because it’s a good golf course, a good test, but as far as thinking about streaks and all that kind of stuff, I don’t really think about it because I’m just out there trying to play golf.

“We’re competing and we’re trying, but we’re hee-hawing and trying to have a good time, too, because nobody’s doing this for a living. It’s just fun to come out and compete and if I win, I win, if I don’t, there will be another tournament in a month.”

The final round was a tight one throughout the hot day and at one point Cole lost the lead to another Cole in the field — 20-year-old Chase Cole, the national JUCO runner-up from Trenton, Ga.

Chase Cole birdied five of his first eight holes and when he chipped in for birdie from behind the bunker on Mindbreaker 8 he had the lead. He then bogeyed 9 to drop back into a tie with Ty, but he regained the lead when Ty bogeyed his ninth hole to drop into a tie for second with Chandler.

“That was a fun round, especially to start out like that and get in contention being three back,” he said. “And then I just didn’t have any putts fall on the back; I didn’t hit any bad shots, I just couldn’t get the speed down.”

Ty Cole then birdied Heartbreaker 1 and 2 to take the lead for good. He spent the rest of the round trying to stay in front of Shields and Chandler then sealed it by making eagle on the part-5 16th (Heartbreaker 7) for the second day in a row.

He luckily stayed out of the fairway bunker off the tee, then hit a cut 3-wood has hard as he could from 258 yards to seven feet and curled in the putt.

“(Chandler) was sitting there in prime position with a short to mid-iron into the green and I told Kevin (Daugherty) I’m not going to lay it up,” Cole said. “I told him I’ll lose, but I’m not laying it up.”

Chandler had a little longer eagle putt to apply pressure that dipped inside the hole and spun out. He made the birdie, but was now three back with two holes to play.

He was doing all he could to stay in it early. He made only one par on the front nine – that came on 8 – to go with five birdies and three bogeys.

“When it was good it was really good and when it was bad I just made bogeys,” he said. “I had the birdies going, I couldn’t stop making bogeys.”

Shields was within one on the 15th tee, but hit his tee shot into the left trees. He punched back into the fairway, then tried to get too cute into a tight pin and came up short. He bogeyed there and the par-5 16th after dunking his drive in the farthest pond off the tee. He birdied the par-3 17th but it was too late.

“Those were really the only two bad holes I played all tournament,’ Shields said. “We battled all day and Ty is a good player. He would’ve had to do something real crazy (after the eagle) for anybody to have a chance that late in the round.”

DIVOTS: Playing with a putter he borrowed from Ty Cole, Chad Calvert shot a final-round 69 and won the first flight. Austin Minter birdied the final hole to win the second flight by a shot; it was the only birdie on the hole in the final round. Dustin Underwood won the third flight by two … Jeremy McGatha had the best round in the Championship Flight, a 69 with six birdies … There were only two eagles Sunday (Cole’s and Clay Calkins on Mindbreaker 5) compared to nine on Saturday … The easiest hole of the tournament turned out to be No. 10 (Heartbreaker 1). It yielded four eagles and a tournament-high 25 birdies while playing to a 4.99 stroke average. The hardest hole was 18 (Heartbreaker 9). It had five birdies and 18 doubles or others while playing to a stroke average of 4.75.

SILVER LAKES CHAMPIONSHIP
Final scores

Championship flight
Ty Cole 67-70—137
P.J. Shields 68-72—140
Dalton Chandler 69-71—140
Kevin Daugherty 68-73—141
Chase Cole 70-71—141
Jeremy McGatha 73-69—142
Gary Wigington 73-71—144
Cypress Hathorn 72-75—147
Brennan Clay 71-76—147
Lance Evans 73-75—148
Caleb Bowen 73-77—150
Matt Rogers 71-79—150
Jeff Borrelli 73-80—153
Ryan Huff 71-86—157

First flight
Chad Calvert 75-69—144
Corey Ray 75-72—147
Billy Thompson 74-73—147
Scott Martin 74-75—149
Janson Wilborn 79-73—152
Adrian Geeting 74-79—153
Clay Calkins 79-74—153
Brandon Roberts 77-77—154
Jake Goggans 77-77—154
Dustin Travis 78-78—156
Chris Maye 77-81—158
Doug East 75-WD
Chad Reavis 77-WD

Second flight
Austin Minter 80-74—154
Luke Armstrong 82-73—155
Brian Woodfin 82-77—159
Benji Turley 80-79—159
Andrew Brooks 82-77—159
Jeff Bain 84-77—161
Timmy Woodard 82-79—161
Alan Darnall 81-80—161
Allan Mangham 84-81—165
Chase Thomas 85-80—165
Cain Hollingsworth 81-84—165
Jono Waugh 83-88—171
Clayton Chandler 81-WD
Daniel Black 83-WD

Third flight
Dustin Underwood 86-78—164
Dan McClellan 87-79—166
Tim Steward 86-80—166
Jarrod Smith 87-86—173
Rob Riddle 92-83—175
Johnny Tucker 89-87—176
Adams Carns 88-89—277
Kelly Rogers 94-86—180
Casey Harmon 91-89—180
Marty Branson 86-96—182
Andrew Picton 87-97—184
Curtis Barker 95-91—186

LEADERS SCORECARDS
(Mindbreaker-Heartbreaker)
Player 534 354 444 36 544 434 534 36 72
T. Cole 534 254 445 36 434 444 335 34 70 (137)
Shields 535 354 434 36 444 435 624 36 72 (140)
Chandler 643 443 343 34 544 444 444 37 71 (140)
Daugherty 534 346 345 37 534 634 434 36 73 (141)
C. Cole 434 253 335 32 544 534 635 39 71 (141)

CALHOUN COUNTY TOUR POINTS STANDINGS
(Through Silver Lakes Championship)

Ty Cole 1202.5
Gary Wigington 1185
Dalton Chandler 1070
Jeremy McGatha 1027.5
Chad Calvert 955
Kevin Daugherty 870
Scott Martin 735
Caleb McKinney 727.5
Matt Rogers 710
Billy Thompson 707.5
Janson Wilborn 705
Andrew Brooks 605
Clay Calkins 577.5
Adrian Geeting 572.5
Lewis Lecroy 550
Caleb Bowen 537.5
Ott Chandler 525
Cypress Hathorn 520
Lance Evans 487.5
Jeff Borrelli 427.5
Dan Griffin 425
Dustin Travis 425
Chad Reavis 405
Casey Harmon 405
Jacob Lecroy 400
David Lawrence 385
Brandon Roberts 385
Brennan Clay 382.5
Kyle Daugherty 380
Austin Minter 377.5
Jonathan Pate 310
Daily Thomas 302.5
Chip Howell 295
Luke Armstrong 245
Kenny Wright 230
Jono Waugh 230
Landon Straub 222.5
Kelly Rogers 202.5
Nick Pollard 200
Jimbo Phillips 195
Brad Crowe 180
Jeremy Willis 145
Layton Bussey 140
Brad Hardin 75

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