Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Costner, Sera claim 84th Chick-A-Tee title
SPRINGDALE — The 84th Dwight Collins Chick-A-Tee Golf Tournament at Springdale Country Club may have been played in blistering Arkansas summer heat, but a pair of longtime friends made sure to keep their cool en route to taking home the championship flight trophy.
Rob Costner and Dana Sera scored a 19-under 125 over the twoday event to capture the 2022 crown. Despite temperatures rising in the 90s both days of the four-ball style tournament, the two were able to best the 67-team field.
“We both tried our best to stay hydrated,” Costner said. “Boy, let me tell you it was hot, but it sure was a fun time.”
Costner, 67, has played in the Chick-A-Tee since 1992. He was emotional describing what makes the event special to him.
“It’s awesome because I played with my best friend,” he said of Sera. “It’s big for us, and it was fun. Just really special and fun. It was an awesome two days of golf.”
He said the duo spends much time together on the greens, something that helped guide them to victory. Costner and Sera shot a 12-under 60 in the first round Saturday and followed with a 7-under 65 Sunday.
“We play together a lot, so I can always count on him,” Costner said. “It always helps when I’m making putts that I normally don’t make, which I did. We never made a bogey. It was just one of those weekends. A really fun weekend of golf.”
Club Director of Golf Casey Wroot commended club staff for making the event a success in the wake of a March 30 setback, when the Springdale area was hit by a tornado.
“The crew has done a fantastic job keeping up with the course,” Wroot said. “Especially after we got hit by a tornado a few months ago. We ended up getting 214 trees down on the front nine, so we finally reopened it back up in May. They’ve done just an awesome job keeping it looking great even through that and making the greens look how they need to.
It’s really made a whirlwind of difference. We try to keep it as pristine as possible, which I think is another reason these guys always like playing it.”
It was Wroot’s first Chick-A-Tee tournament, as he became the club’s manager in February. Previously he was the PGA head professional at Mystic Creek Golf Club in El Dorado. He said coming into the classic, he knew how special it is to many.
“Upcoming next year it will be our 85th anniversary,” Wroot said. “The tradition kind of speaks for itself. It’s got good payouts, it’s a big event, a fun event most of all, so we try and take good care of the guys out there so they’ll always want to come back. It’s a good enough event they play each year because they keep wanting to come back.”
Coster agreed the competition’s history speaks for itself.
“It’s the tradition,” he said. “Each of us have won the thing a couple of times, two or three times. We’ve all won it a couple of times individually, and then when it went to teams, we started hooking up with our best buddies to try and win.”
Wroot summed up his first year of being at the Chick-A-Tee plainly.
“It was a blast, just completely a blast.”