PEPPER PIKE: Are we headed for a fantastic finish or nothing to write home about?
Given the talent in the field, the venue, the circumstance and the fact that predicting the outcome of a golf tournament is not unlike predicting how a pair of dice will roll, the odds are long that anyone can determine how the 25th Mitchell-Haskell Tour Championship will finish.
You can only take your chances, watch closely and enjoy the show.
After Monday’s opening round, played under near-perfect conditions at The Country Club, there is no clear-cut favorite, no leader of the pack, no one sitting in the catbird seat. In either division.
Can you say wide open?
In many ways, that’s the way it ought to be. Who wants to watch a one-man band stroll to the finish line in a major tournament, leaving his challengers doomed to a spectator’s role?
The top of the Regular Division leaderboard is loaded with names familiar with the many tops of Northern Ohio PGA leaderboards.
Michael Balcar, Jim Troy, Mark Sierak, Blake Sattler, Jaysen Hansen and even newcomer Kyle Buzaki, who seems determined to make a name for himself. They’re all in contention.
Not too far behind are additional recognizable names like Sean McGuire and Ken Keller, and still not out of the picture are even more familiar names such as Mark Bixler, Adam Lewicki, Randy Dietz and even relative newcomer Jared Toom.
Things are the same in the Senior Division, where no fewer than four NOPGA Hall-of-Famers are within five shots of the lead set by Barrington’s Mark Evans, who opened with a 3-under 69, with two-time winner Gary Rusnak (36-35=71) two shots behind.
Tuesday’s final round begins at 8 a.m., with the leaders and those with a legitimate chance – a total of 18 in both divisions — set to tee off starting at 11.
Gentlemen, start your drivers.
Contributing to the unknown outcome is The Country Club and its fast greens and rolling 6,644 yards. Monday wasn’t easy. Only eight players in the field of 59 were able to break par.
“The course played fair,” said Evans, who had three birdies on his closing nine, starting with the 385-yard 10th when he uncharacteristically missed the fairway but recovered when his 7-iron from a tight lie stopped 10 feet from the hole and he made the putt. “I’ve seen it play tougher, depending on the conditions. But today was fair. I hit it okay, kept it in the fairway and was able to hit a lot of greens.”
Balcar, arguably the best player in the Section and the winner of this year’s Professional Championship, shot the best round of the day at 4-under 68 (33-35). He leads by one shot over three-time champion Jim Troy (35-34=69) and by three shots over 2023 champion Mark Sierak (37-34=71) and 26-year-old Kyle Buzaki (34-37=71).
And you can’t count out 2024 champion Blake Sattler and 2006 winner Jaysen Hansen, both at even-par 72.
Balcar, 33, went bogey-free for 14 holes with some strong iron play. He made a four-foot birdie putt on the fourth, two-putted from 20 feet for birdie on the 570-yard eighth and a 6-iron on the 189-yard ninth left him six feet, pin-high left, which he called his best iron shot of the day.
His fourth birdie came on the 587-yard 12th when he got up-and-down from a greenside bunker and made a 10-footer. His lone bogey came three holes later when he 3-putted from 25 feet, but he quickly got that back when he two-putted from 26 feet for birdie on the 541-yard 16th.
“I feel good with the 68, absolutely,” he said. “I feel like I left a few shots out there so that gives me some good motivation for tomorrow to clean up today’s round and keep doing what I’m doing because I know I can go lower. I’m saying that I’m going to have to go lower because this tournament is you know what. This is a tough two-day tournament on a tough course. And there are a lot of good players here, a lot of guys who have won here. I’ll have to have my A game.”
Balcar has gone lower. He shot 67 in the final round last year to finish second by three shots to Sean McGuire, who shot 69-68.
Young Buzaki might be one to keep an eye on. Despite a fourth-place finish in the Assistants Championship – where he battled Sattler, McGuire and Balcar – and six top-five finishes this season — Buzaki, an assistant at Glenmoor, feels his year has not met his standards, and Monday was no exception.
“Actually, I didn’t feel that I played that well at all,” he said. “Every part of my game was a little off. My irons were off and I missed a few putts that I felt I should have made. All in all, I feel I could have gone a lot lower.”
Like everyone else, Buzaki will get another shot today.
It’s up to them to swing the odds their way.