With a four-shot lead and just four holes to go, Landon Kulych was poised to toss his game into cruise control and coast into the winner’s circle. However, it wasn’t as easy as that.
Dropping a shot off his lead on the 16th, 17th and 18th holes, Kulych looked as if he might allow Phil Mullan back into the game to force a playoff at the weekend’s Mountain View Golf Club Championship. Yet, Kulych played a conservative final hole to keep himself in front for the win with a 153 between the two rounds.
“I started to feel the tension, but I took a couple minutes on the second last tee-box and just said (to myself), You’re going to tie him on this hole,” said Kulych, speaking of the 18th.
“I didn’t even want to think about taking out the driver (on the last hole),” said Kulych. “So I hit a five iron, an eight iron, a wedge and two-putted for the win to make sure he needed a birdie to tie me.”
Kulych shot a 76 in the first round for a one-shot lead over Phil Mullan, but built his lead to four strokes by the 15th.
“We both had a couple bad holes, I just had a couple more good holes,” said Kulych. “I looked at it like it was match play. I didn’t even know what I shot until I looked at my card in the clubhouse … I was like, I’m one ahead of Phil, I’m two ahead of Phil … I never looked at what I was shooting, just what him and I was shooting.”
Mullan made up some lost ground as Kulych hit double-bogies on the back-nine, but Kulych kept the pressure on, sinking a couple of tough birdie putts.
“One of them was just bad playing on my part, another was a time penalty — I spent a little too much time looking for one of my balls,” said Kulych, speaking of his double birdies. “I really wanted to find it.
“I had a couple blemishes on the scorecard but I managed to make them up with a couple decent putts,” said Kulych, referring to his birdies. “I just kind of rode the high and tried to bounce back from those doubles and it just sort of worked out.”
After a weak 102 opening round Saturday, Mary Wintemute, took the women’s division with an 88 Sunday, to finish 12 strokes up from second place Birgitte Hunter.
“Yesterday I totally hacked, just bad golfing,” said Wintemute, who started her second round four shots behind Hunter. “(Today) that was a pretty good round for me in tournament play.”
Wintemute birdied on the first and fourteenth holes en route to her win, which helped to counter a couple triple bogies that dogged her round.
With heavy clouds looming in the sky, spitting down the occasional light shower, an earlier finish helped some golfers.
“The front nine was OK,” said Wintemute. “We probably only had three holes that were really crappy but after that it was OK. I mean, it was wet.”
Kulych’s win qualifies him for the Canadian Club Champion Championships in 2009 at a location yet to be determined.
2008 MVGC Championship Results
Men’s Division
OVERALL LOW GROSS 153 Landon Kulych
OVERALL LOW NET 138 Terry DeForrest
Flight One (3-11Hcps)
1st Low Gross 155 Phil Mullin
2nd Low Gross 159 Blaine Tessier
1st Low Net 146 Derek Johnstone
2nd Low Net 148 Chris Bennett
3rd Low Net 150 Hugh Carruthers
Flight Two (12-16Hcps)
1st Low Gross 178 Daniel King
2nd Low Gross 185 Don Morrison
1st Low Net 147 Pat Molloy
2nd Low Net 154 Colin Bossenberry
3rd Low Net 157 Fred Linville
Flight Three (17-26 Hcps)
1st Low Gross 187 Steve Fraser
2nd Low Gross 194 Jack Bourassa
1st Low Net 146 Ernie Dooley
2nd Low Net 150 Matthew Sills
3rd Low Net 159 Les Chapman
Women’s Division
1st Low Gross 188 Mary Wintemute
2nd Low Gross 200 Brigitte Hunter
1st Low Net 162 Ingrid Fawcus
2nd Low Net 167 Carol DiPasquale
Senior Men’s Division
1st Low Gross 166 Ken Taylor
2nd Low Gross 169 Matt Lafferty
1st Low Net 143 Gord Zealand
2nd Low Net 143 John Taylor
3rd Low Net 144 John Spicer
Junior Division
1st Low Gross 171 Ian Wintemute
2nd Low Gross 181 Riley Tobin
1st Low Net 156 Mike Wintemute
2nd Low Net 158 Ricky Schmok
3rd Low Net 163 Steven Harlow