AKRON: Someone once said that stroke play is one drawn-out, marathon-like drama that eventually leads to an emotional finish—heartwarming for some and heartbreaking for others—whereas match play is 18 or more mini-dramas leading to a similarly emotional conclusion.
Someone also once said you either love match play or you hate it. There is no in-between. It’s a love-hate thing, golf’s version of a soap opera.
Today at Portage Country Club, we could see 90 scheduled holes of match play—and potentially more—as six members of the Northern Ohio PGA compete in the finals of the 52nd Denny Shute Match Play Championship.
Rob Moss and Tony Adcock are scheduled to play an 18-hole final to determine the Senior Division champion after winning quarterfinal and semifinal matches on Tuesday.
It won’t be so brief for the contestants in the Regular and Associate divisions. Anthony Panepento faces Michael Balcar in the Regular Division, while DJ Holub meets Blake Sattler in the Associate Division. Both finals are scheduled for 36 holes.
Either way, it is going to be a long day. And it could be a great one.
“I’m looking forward to it,” said Balcar, arguably the hottest player in the Section. “I’ve never played 36 holes, I mean not competitively anyhow. It should be fun.”
Four of the six finalists have been here before as former champions in one of the three divisions. If that is an advantage, it goes to Panepento, Moss, Adcock and Holub, champions all. It is doubtful, however, that Balcar and Sattler will be shaking in their shoes.
It is not unreasonable to say that Balcar, Panepento and Sattler have carried the hottest clubs in the Section for most of the season. Recently, Moss has returned to the form we all know he can display, as evidenced by his victory in the Senior Division of the Mitchell-Haskell Tour Championship, a top-10 finish in the Section Championship and a win in a stroke play event at Kirtland.
But let’s see how each of the Super Six has made it to today’s finals.
ROB MOSS: Respecting our elders, we’ll start with Hall of Fame member and three-time champion Rob Moss. He defeated four-time Shute champion Jon Jones, 3-and-2, in the semifinals after earlier wins over Dan Sutton, 2-and-1, and Trevor Thomas, 3-and-1.
The Moss-Jones match swung on consecutive holes on the closing nine. The match was tied at the turn after Jones birdied the ninth hole, but Moss went 1-up with a par on the 11th. He made a 10-foot birdie putt on the 12th to go 2-up, then made a four-footer for another birdie after hitting a 3-hybrid off the tee on the 13th. The match ended when both made par on the 232-yard 16th.
Moss is seeking his fourth Shute title and third in the Senior Division.
TONY ADCOCK: Truthfully, Tony has struggled all season, and he will be the first to admit it. But he caught fire over the last two days, taking down former champions Tom Waitrovich, 1-up, and Gary Rusnak, 3-and-2, after showing additional perseverance to beat Kevin Sullivan in an opening match that went 19 holes.
Playing 53 holes in two days can test a man’s endurance … and his character.
Adcock last won this event in 2003 in the Regular Division, so he can become the 10th player to win the Shute in multiple divisions. His come-from-behind, 1-up win over the tenacious Waitrovich turned on the 13th and 14th holes as he overcame a 2-down deficit at the turn. A pair of double bogeys by Waitrovich turned things in Adcock’s favor.
“It was a pillow fight and we forgot our pillows,” he said. “A lot of holes were made with fives and sixes.”
The Regular Division final pits two players who were among the NOPGA’s brightest spots in the Ohio Cup loss. Panepento and Balcar teamed up to win their four-ball and foursomes matches and closed with victories in singles.
Now, they will be in different carts.
ANTHONY PANEPENTO: The 2023 champion might have had the toughest road to the finals. Seeded fourth, he beat Joe Meglen, 4-and-3, then eliminated two-time champion and three-time Section Player of the Year Jaysen Hansen, 4-and-3. He topped that by beating top-seeded Jim Troy, a two-time champion and five-time Player of the Year, 3-and-2.
Panepento never trailed against Troy after birdieing the first two holes and was 2-up at the turn. The lead dwindled to 1-up, but Panepento stormed ahead with birdies on the 14th and 15th following excellent short-iron play.
On the 14th, he stuck a wedge shot from 70 yards to one foot. On the short 15th, he hit what he called one of the best shots of his life, hammering a ball out of the rough to three feet.
No matter how you look at it, those were three impressive wins.
MICHAEL BALCAR: Seeded second, Balcar opened with an 8-and-7 victory over Josh Greene on Monday but was severely tested by a rejuvenated Cory Kumpf in Tuesday’s quarterfinals.
Balcar, seeking his first Shute title on the heels of a terrific season, was not able to eliminate Kumpf, 2-and-1, until he chipped in for birdie from just off the green on the par-3 eighth hole, the twosome’s 17th of the match.
Kumpf never fell more than one hole down before the deciding chip-in and played better than he has all season, a welcome sight. A Balcar birdie on the sixth put him 1-up, and the chip-in two holes later ended it.
It was easier in the semifinals against Ohio Cup teammate Nick Paez, who had eliminated two-time champion Randy Dietz, 3-and-2, in the morning. Balcar, winner of the Section and Tour championships, was 4-up after six holes before Paez, who played well in the Ohio Cup, cut the deficit to two with birdies on the 10th and 12th.
But Balcar birdied the 14th, and the two matched pars through the 16th to give Balcar a 3-and-2 win.
After his scintillating season, which included a seven-shot victory in the Section Championship, a stunning 11-shot win in the Tour Championship—spurred by a tournament- and course-record 63 at The Country Club—and a third-place finish in the Assistants Championship, he was asked if the Shute was also on his radar.
“Absolutely, I’d love to win this,” he said. “It has had some great champions, there are a lot of great players in this and I’ve never won it. So, I’m going to show up and give it my best.”
DJ HOLUB: The 2022 champion is another player who has come on strong this week after a so-so season. Looking relaxed, he has gotten more impressive from match to match.
Seeded fifth, he opened with a 7-and-6 win over Clayton Greiner, then beat fellow Pepper Pike assistant Ken Keller, 3-and-1. Then came a 3-and-2 victory over defending champion and top-seeded Kyle Buzaki, arguably Holub’s best outing of the year.
He birdied three of his first seven holes to go 4-up and made it 5-up with another birdie on the 10th. A bogey on the 14th and a Buzaki birdie on the 15th cut the lead to three, but both bogeyed the 16th to end the match.
BLAKE SATTLER: After comfortable victories in his first two matches, Sattler was 2-down to Tony Bodziony through 14 holes in the semifinals. He rallied to win, 2-up, making two birdies and winning another hole with a par along the way.
He did not lead until a birdie, coupled with Bodziony’s bogey, put him 1-up.
Sattler is another player enjoying a sparkling season. He won the Assistants Championship by three shots, tied for third in the Tour Championship and won four of the seven stroke play events in his division.
A Recap of the Morning Quarterfinals
REGULAR DIVISION: Two-time champion Jim Troy, 2023 champion Anthony Panepento, Nick Paez and Michael Balcar advanced, with Balcar facing the toughest test.
Troy, who last won this event in 2018, eliminated Ian Haidle, 3-and-2. He won two of the first five holes on the back nine with pars to Haidle’s bogeys, then closed it out with a birdie on the 15th and matching bogeys on the 16th.
Panepento was 3-up on two-time champion Jaysen Hansen at the turn and birdied the 15th to Hansen’s par to close out a 4-and-3 victory.
Balcar needed a birdie chip-in on the par-3 eighth, the 17th hole of his match, to eliminate Cory Kumpf, 2-and-1. Kumpf never fell more than one hole down before the deciding shot. A Balcar birdie on the sixth put him 1-up, and the chip-in two holes later ended it.
Paez, also seeking his first Shute title, went back and forth with two-time champion Randy Dietz before prevailing, 3-and-2. He was 2-up at the turn and won two of the first three holes on the front nine to extend his lead to 4-up. Dietz fought back, but Paez held on to advance.
SENIOR DIVISION: Four former champions—Rob Moss, Tony Adcock, Tom Waitrovich and Jon Jones—advanced.
After needing 19 holes to defeat Kevin Sullivan in the first round, Adcock eliminated defending Senior Division champion Gary Rusnak, 3-and-2. A Rusnak bogey on the par-3 16th, where Adcock made par, ended the match.
In another battle of former champions, Waitrovich eliminated six-time winner Tom Atchison, 3-and-1. It was anyone’s match until it turned on the long par-3 16th. Leading 1-up, Waitrovich hit a 5-iron to 25 feet and two-putted while Atchison could not get up and down from a greenside bunker. It ended on the 17th with another Waitrovich par to Atchison’s bogey.
Moss, a three-time winner, never led by more than two holes en route to beating Dan Sutton, 2-and-1. But he never trailed, either. He was 1-up through 13 holes and extended his lead to 2-up with a birdie on the 306-yard sixth. Both men parred the next two holes to end the match.
Jones, a four-time winner, was 3-up on five-time winner Mitch Camp through 13 holes before stumbling with consecutive bogeys on the fifth and sixth. Camp repaid the favor with a bogey on the seventh, and Jones ended it with a birdie on the par-3 eighth for a 3-and-1 victory.
ASSOCIATE DIVISION: Chagrin Valley Country Club assistant Tony Bodziony eliminated 2024 champion Sean McGuire, 2-and-1, by taking the lead with a birdie on the 15th hole of their match and closing it out when McGuire bogeyed the eighth, their 17th hole.
Blake Sattler, DJ Holub and defending champion Kyle Buzaki joined him in the semifinals. Sattler eliminated Ian Hardesty, 6-and-5; Holub ousted fellow Pepper Pike assistant Ken Keller, 3-and-1; and Buzaki defeated Oberlin assistant Jake Morgan, 5-and-4.