McDugle cruises to fourth crown
Cooper finishes as runner-up after 71
There are a couple of givens about the Memphis Publinks tournament. Ed McDugle is always in the hunt in the final round, and sooner or later it’ll be his day. Like Saturday, when he claimed his fourth Publinks title by four shots over Matt Cooper at The Links at Fox Meadows.
McDugle, the 55-year-old White Station High School golf coach, took hold of the tournament with a spectacular eagle on the par-4 ninth hole, then birdied four of the next five to pull away to a 4-under-par 67 despite bogeys on the final two holes.
He finished the 54-hole tournament at 203, 8 under par. Cooper birdied the 18th to finish at 71-207.
“It’s the first time I ever got to the 18th hole and said, ‘I can just have fun,’ ” said McDugle, who won this event in 2004, 2008 and 2010 by one shot — the last one holding off Cooper. McDugle has now finished in the top five of this event 22 times, and he was runner-up five times before that 2004 victory.
He led Cooper by a shot going into the ninth hole when he put his drive onto a hardpan surface 135 yards from the pin on the 386-yard ninth hole.
“Then I hit an absolutely perfect pitching wedge. Two hops, into the hole and I’m thinking this is my day,” he said.
His birdie run increased the lead to five strokes, then Cooper fell seven back with bogeys on 15 and 16, and it was trophy time.
“I basically ran out of gas at that point … but Ed was smoking me,” said Cooper, a former University of Memphis golfer who is on a successful run in this event as well. Since 2010, he has finished no lower than second, winning the title in 2012-14.
“Great run, but right now it doesn’t feel so good,” said Cooper, who just turned 37.
McDugle has had a solid summer, qualifying for next month’s U.S. Senior Amateur and just missing a berth in the U.S. Senior Open.
“Felt good about my game coming into the tournament,” he said after a day when cloud cover and a breeze gave a little mercy to the field after it was parboiled during Friday’s round at Audubon.
“Today I got to the middle of the round and got hot,” McDugle said. “Yesterday in the middle of the round, I was just hot. Really feeling my age and trying to hold on.”
That is, until he eagled a par-5 hole late in the round from the deep rough that left him with a secondround 69, tied with Cooper. “That really jazzed me up and got me excited for today.”
John Foley, a 26-year-old from Memphis, finished third at 71-210, one shot ahead of Trey Howell, Adam Hartman, Easton Lavelle and Barry Stafford. Rick Robbins’ finalround 68 left him at 212, one shot ahead of defending champion Jason Dallas, who finished 72-213, tied with Garrett Tidwell, who shot 70.
Flight winners were Dan Roberts (first), Tony Fisher (second), Jimmy Watson (third) and Brad Hudson (fourth).