Season saver
- Updated: August 29, 2021
Gary Wigington wins eighth County Championship title, extends season winning streak; Cole wins County Tour Player of the Year
By Al Muskewitz
East Alabama Sports Today
By his own exacting standards, the 2021 golf season has been a “very frustrating year” for Gary Wigington. That’s what makes Sunday’s win the Calhoun County Championship so satisfying.
Wigington added an eighth County title to his resume and extended his string of winning at least one event on the Calhoun County Tour to 12 years when he shot a final-round 64 at Anniston Municipal to finish at 14-under-par 126. The eight wins in the County – the most ever – match his number of wins in the Sunny King Charity Classic, also the all-time most.
“I waited long enough this year to get one,” said Wigington, who did have two runner-up finishes earlier this year (Cider Ridge and ACC, both on the final hole of the event). “It’s been a very frustrating year. I’ve played bad all year long – hit it bad, putting, chipping, just all the way around. I had a good year last year, but this year I never could get it going.
“It feels really good (to break through). I worked hard at it this year, done a lot of practicing, and to finally see some fruits of your labors at the very last is better than nothing. It’s always great to win the County Tournament.”
During the 12-year winning streak, he had won only one tournament five times. Three of those times that one was either the County or Match Play Championship, traditionally the final two events on the Tour calendar.
“That was kind of the reason I was really wanting to win one of the last ones, to keep that streak going,” the 22-time Tour winner admitted. “As age creeps up that’s going to end at some point. I just didn’t want it to end right now.”
Wigington’s 126 was five shots better than Max Basler, who roared up the leaderboard with the best round of the day (63) to finish second.
Basler was 5-under through his first nine holes of the round and closed it out with birdies on both of his two finishing par-5s.
“I was hitting it good and gave myself chances,” the former JSU player said. “I made one mistake really and the rest was either the ball dropped in the hole or it (just) didn’t. I was 5-under after nine holes and from then on it was hitting greens and trying to make some birdies. I was just trying to make birdies and see if somebody else makes a mistake.
“I knew you can go low here, so I just tried to keep the ball in play because yesterday I was just behind trees and chipping sideways so today I told myself as long as you hit some greens and you keep it in play you can make a lot of birdies here. And that’s exactly what happened.”
By finishing second, Basler denied Brennan Clay from overtaking Ty Cole for Tour Player of the Year. Clay would have needed to win or finish solo second to overtake Cole, who was playing (and winning) a four-ball tournament in Decatur. He finished T-4 at The Hill and wound up third in the player points standings.
Cole now becomes the No. 1 seed in the Calhoun County Match Play Championship.
“It wasn’t meant to be,” Clay said. “Thirty-one putts both days isn’t going to do it.”
Wigington started the round tied for the lead with Chris Cox of Gadsden. He quickly separated himself from the field by starting birdie, par, eagle, and was never up by less than three shots the rest of the day. He closed it out with birdies on 17 and 18.
“One thing that’s been killing me all year is getting off to a slow, terrible start, being a couple over after the first few holes all year because I wasn’t hitting it good,” he said. “Getting off to a good start made a big difference.”
NOTES: Dalton Chandler birdied each of his last three holes (and four of his last five) to finish solo third. Tanner Wells eagled 18 to tie Clay for fourth and earn a spot in the Match Play bracket … Chip Howell (2/11), Johnny Barnes (4) and Chandler (7/16) won PM closest-to-the-pin prizes. Cal Lambert (2/11), Landon Winfrey (4) and Austin Jones (7/16) won the AM prizes. Hunter Carr (AM) and Wesley Jenkins (PM) were long drive winners … Cole and partner Thomas Looney of Scottsboro won the Two-Man Invitational at Burningtree. Cole birdied 18 to tie the lead and Looney sank the winner in the putt-off because it had gotten too dark to play off.
85th CALHOUN COUNTY CHAMPIONSHIP
| CHAMPIONSHIP A | |||
| Gary Wigington | 62 | 64 | 126 |
| Max Basler | 68 | 63 | 131 |
| Dalton Chandler | 64 | 69 | 133 |
| Tanner Wells | 66 | 68 | 134 |
| Brennan Clay | 67 | 67 | 134 |
| Chris Cox | 62 | 75 | 137 |
| Jonathan Pate | 65 | 73 | 138 |
| Josh Poole | 68 | 70 | 138 |
| Jeremy McGatha | 68 | 75 | 143 |
| CHAMPIONSHIP B | |||
| Andrew Brooks | 70 | 68 | 138 |
| Landon Straub | 69 | 69 | 138 |
| Matt Rogers | 69 | 69 | 138 |
| Chad Calvert | 69 | 73 | 142 |
| Chip Howell | 69 | 73 | 142 |
| Sawyer Edwards | 70 | 73 | 143 |
| Wesley Jenkins | 69 | 75 | 144 |
| Clay Calkins | 69 | 76 | 145 |
| Caleb Bowen | 69 | 76 | 145 |
| Johnny Barnes | 70 | 85 | 155 |
| FIRST FLIGHT | |||
| Layton Bussey | 72 | 70 | 142 |
| Tony Hicks | 72 | 72 | 144 |
| Randy Lipscomb | 72 | 72 | 144 |
| Billy Thompson | 72 | 72 | 144 |
| Ted Heim | 71 | 74 | 145 |
| Tyler Dopson | 71 | 75 | 146 |
| Timmy Woodard | 71 | 77 | 148 |
| David Sanders | 72 | 76 | 148 |
| Robbie Hurst | 72 | 76 | 148 |
| Cameron McCareeth | 72 | 82 | 154 |
| SECOND FLIGHT | |||
| Chase Hollingsworth | 76 | 68 | 144 |
| Robin Wood | 74 | 73 | 147 |
| Steve Minton | 74 | 73 | 147 |
| Chris Randall | 73 | 76 | 149 |
| Mark McCaig | 75 | 75 | 150 |
| Kenneth Patterson | 75 | 78 | 153 |
| Brad Elliott | 75 | 79 | 154 |
| Byron Preston | 75 | 79 | 154 |
| John McKenzie | 75 | 83 | 158 |
| Vince Floyd | 75 | 84 | 159 |
| Chris Reaves | 75 | 85 | 160 |
| Matt Miller | 73 | NC | NC |
| THIRD FLIGHT | |||
| Danny Whittaker | 77 | 72 | 149 |
| Daniel Black | 76 | 73 | 149 |
| Tim Dennison | 77 | 73 | 150 |
| George Salmon | 77 | 76 | 153 |
| Hunter Carr | 82 | 76 | 158 |
| Tony Strickland | 77 | 83 | 160 |
| Tyler Romine | 77 | 83 | 160 |
| Landon Holley | 76 | 86 | 162 |
| Mark Cotton | 76 | 88 | 164 |
| FOURTH FLIGHT | |||
| Mark Durden | 79 | 76 | 155 |
| Mike Lett | 78 | 79 | 157 |
| Lamar Carter | 78 | 79 | 157 |
| Don Hill | 78 | 80 | 158 |
| Tyler Teneyck | 78 | 80 | 158 |
| Ladon Rogers | 78 | 84 | 162 |
| Marc Gaines | 78 | 84 | 162 |
| Austin Jones | 78 | 86 | 164 |
| Rick Dickson | 78 | 88 | 166 |
| FIFTH FLIGHT | |||
| Landon Winfrey | 80 | 73 | 153 |
| Andy Jenkins | 80 | 75 | 155 |
| Mike Hughston | 80 | 76 | 156 |
| Steve Davis | 80 | 77 | 157 |
| Nick Pollard | 80 | 78 | 158 |
| Brad Young | 81 | 79 | 160 |
| Dereck Webb | 81 | 79 | 160 |
| Randy Watson | 80 | 85 | 165 |
| Cam Hurst | 81 | 88 | 169 |
| SIXTH FLIGHT | |||
| Riley Boyd | 84 | 76 | 160 |
| Cal Lambert | 83 | 78 | 161 |
| Roger Smith | 87 | 78 | 165 |
| Ron Fleming | 85 | 81 | 166 |
| Kevin Wells | 85 | 81 | 166 |
| Blake Jones | 84 | 83 | 167 |
| Ryder Hudgins | 85 | 86 | 171 |
| Kelly Rogers | 84 | 88 | 172 |
| Gene Hicks | 89 | 89 | 178 |
CALHOUN COUNTY MATCH PLAY CHAMPIONSHIP
(Projected first-round matches)
(Buddy Moore Bracket)
No. 1 Ty Cole (1375) vs No. 16 Justin Graveman (668.5)
No. 8 Jeremy McGatha (863.75) vs. No. 9 Clay Calkins (842.5)
No. 5 Chad Calvert (937.5) vs. No. 12 Landon Straub (746.8)
No. 4 Andrew Brooks (937.5) vs. No. 13 Scott Martin (710)
(Chris Banister Bracket)
No. 3 Brennan Clay (1309.5) vs. No. 14 Chip Howell (682.5)
No. 6 Tanner Wells (897.5) vs. No. 11 Josh Poole 815)
No. 7 Dalton Chandler (886.8) vs. No. 10 Corey Ray (825)
No. 2 Gary Wigington (1350) vs. No. 15 Jonathan Pate (665)
(Alternates)
Caleb McKinney (617.5), Tee Brown (617.5), Chase Hollingsworth (597.5), Randy Lipscomb (592.5), Chris Cox (585).
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