The Springs Open Golf Event Results

Thank you to the staff at Excelsior Springs for getting the course into such great shape even with all the storms and rain we’ve had recently.  It made for a great day of golf for the Amateur Players Tour of Kansas City!  Excelsior is notorious for its incredibly small and severely sloping greens that will test your putting and your short game.

In Division 1, Larry Langley and Garrett Routh were battling it out with both players making the turn at +1, with Justin Ballantyne and JR Munson only a few strokes behind.  On the back side, Larry would up the ante with a few birdies and turn a +1 into a -1, while Garrett struggled on a par 3 finding the deep grass and struggling to just make a 6.  This gave Larry a comfortable lead, and a nice up and down for par on the 18^th and Larry gets the win with a 1 under par 71.

Division 2 had a couple familiar faces battling it out for top honors, with Garrett Wilson and Antonio Carrillo playing in the same group.  Garrett had the lead at the turn, despite a 3 putt on 9, he was sitting at 2 over while Antonio, Alex Fortuna and McKinley Leonard made the turn shooting 40.  Antonio had the better of the group on the back 9, carding two birdies including a clutch birdie putt on 18 to take the win by one stroke over Garrett Wilson who shot a 78 to Antonio’s 77.

There were some fireworks in Division 3, with two players separating themselves from the field.  Cliff Austin and Chris Corbit were playing their own tournament.  Cliff was in the clubhouse with the early lead at 8 over par, but Chris was sitting at 6 over par coming into the par 5 18^th.  Chris just couldn’t hold it together, having difficulty dealing with the severe slopes on 18 fairway, and eventually carding a triple bogey giving Cliff Austin his first win of the season in Kansas City by one stroke.

In Division 4, there was a log jam at the top, with 10 players within a couple strokes of one another.  Chris Hubbard got in the clubhouse early, shooting a fantastic 12 over 84, but there was one player tied with him and 2 within 1 stroke coming up 18.  Todd Pfeifer made a par on 18, matching Hubbard’s 84, while Jesse Juarez and Allen Strasbaugh needed birdies to get into the playoff but had to settle for bogeys.  Pfeifer bested Hubbard on the first playoff hole when Hubbard went long with his 3^rd shot, and struggled to get up and down given the slope of the 1^st green, giving Pfeifer his first win of the season.

Division 5 saw another close battle between St. Louis’s Curt Meyer and our Alex Larson.  Both players had a tail of two nines, with both players at 11 over at the turn.  They both improved dramatically on the back 9, and Curt came into 18 two strokes behind Alex, who finished with a 5 over back 9 to shoot 16 over.  Curt needed an eagle, but on a tough par 5, it didn’t look likely.  He made a fantastic birdie to shoot 17 over and secure 2^nd place by an ample margin over Ron Rosenbaum.  Congrats to Alex on his first win!

Closest to the pins went to Bret Bullock on hole 4, and Scott Wroubel on 14, both worth $115.

Larry Langley’s birdie on hole 11 stood up as the solo super skin, winning him $480!