Holt shoots course record — and finishes second
Pity poor Ian Holt. He was in the second-last group Sunday, two shots off the lead, and shot a course-record 63 at the Syncrude Oil Country Championship.
But it was not enough. He finished second, two shots off the lead after Tyler McCumber tied the course record right behind him with a 63 of his own.
“I definitely thought it would be good enough,” said Holt, who finished the tournament at 19 under par (66-71-65-63). “I thought if I shot 6 under today I would have a chance. I made the turn at 3 under and looked at the leaderboard and (McCumber) was 5 under through seven. We were like, ‘We better start making some birdies.’”
He made nine of them and one bogey.
“I did everything I could,” he said. “I didn’t really give anything away out there. You shoot 8 under, you can’t be mad about it. I played my hardest. I played really solid today, I was really happy with the way my game held up. I couldn’t really do anything else.”
Still, shooting 8-under 63 in the second-last group and not gaining ground on the leader is tough to take.
“Eight under, what else am I supposed to do,” he said with a laugh. “Second stinks, nobody likes to come in second, but you have to take your hat off to a guy who plays like that in the final group.”
On the bright side, the 22-yearold is happy with the way his game stood up on a big stage.
“Being in the second-last group and playing as well as I did, it got the juices flowing and it felt great,” he said. “My game held up in the situation and I’m really happy. I made some really good putts and some really good birdies down the stretch.”
FLAIR FOR THE DRAMATIC
It’s not often an ace is only your second-most exciting hole of the day.
But that was the case for Tennessee’s Dawson Armstrong.
His hole-in-one on the 13th at the Petroleum Club was definitely a thriller and it started him on the roll that put him on pace for a course record.
But the real drama came on 18. He almost lost his ball in the fescue after an errant tee shot, found it with seconds to spare, had no shot to his own fairway, chipped out of the junk to an adjacent tee box 40 yards away, hit a 260-yard fairway wood over water to the front of the green and calmly got up and down from 60 feet for par to preserve his 63. Routine.
“A drive got away from me a little bit and I found a way to get a little creative and make par,” the 22-yearold, who began the fireworks five holes earlier with the third ace of his career, said with a grin.
He hit it long, some 20 feet past the hole on the fringe, but pulled the string, caught a ridge and carded a one.
“A shot that was over the green and should have been an easy bogey ends up spinning back and goes in. That changed the momentum really quickly.”
No kidding. A guy who was 3 under through 12 ended up 8 under through 17 before letting his drive get away from him on 18.
He would have been three off the tee if not for the sharp eye of Edmonton Oilers therapist Stephen (Seve) Lines, who was caddying for Armstrong ’s playing partner.
“We had about 30 seconds left to find it,” said Armstrong.
The ball was buried in a way that made it nearly impossible to get back to his own fairway, so he aimed for the tee box on No. 4 instead.
“I wouldn’t have thought it, but my caddy saw it immediately.”
It was a tough shot as it was, hacking out of the fescue to an adjacent tee box 40 yards away. He could have chunked it or left himself a steep sidehill lie on the tee box, which would have prevented him from going for the green.
“You’re hitting out of fescue, so you don’t know how far it’s going to go.”
He skipped it off the cart path and ended up on the tee box with a perfect lie.
Three shots later, he’s down with a 63.