Drew Salyers Shoots Final Round 68 to Win 103rd Ohio Open Championship at Westfield

Updated on 7/5/2024…

Westfield: Never let it be said by anyone, anywhere, that the Ohio Open lacks drama.

Never let it be said that the Ohio Open isn’t a test of both golfing skill and gut-checking character. Never let it be said that the Ohio Open rarely fails to produce a worthy champion.

It just doesn’t happen that way.

It hasn’t happened in years, and it didn’t happen on Wednesday during the final round of the 103rd Ohio Open on the South Course at Westfield Country Club.
 

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For the fifth consecutive year – – and the seventh time in the last 10 years — the Open was decided by one stroke. Think about it. One, low-down, dirty rotten, send-you-to-the-wishing well, stinking stroke.

Just one missed green. One pulled 3-iron. One flared wedge. One chili-dipped chip. One violent lip-out from two feet. One dead yank. One misjudged distance. One ill-timed gust of wind. Any could have spelled the difference between winning and losing, between glee and angst.

It comes as no surprise.

Since 2008 no one has won the Open by more than two strokes and if that’s not golfing drama then clubs don’t have grooves and most balls don’t have dimples.
The winner was Drew Salyers, a former All-American and all-Big 10 player at Indiana University. The 23-year-old from Apple Valley, near Mount Vernon, shot a final-round two-under 68 that gave him a 54-hole total of 10-under 200 (67-65-68) and a one-shot victory over Strongsville’s Jake Scott (66-68-67), Minerva’s Paul Wackerly (71-64-66) and Shaker Heights amateur Andrew Bailey (71-62-68).

“This feels great,” he said, shortly after posing for pictures with the Open trophy with his parents and his girlfriend. “I battled it out all day and didn’t really get anything going until later in the round. I made a couple of birdies and that was it. I’ll take the W.”

Pickerington amateur Carson Bellish (69-66-67) and second-round leader, Cincinnati’s Daniel Wetterich (68-63-71) finished tied for fifth at 202.
Bailey, the reigning Ohio Amateur champion, followed his marvelous second-round, bogey-free, record-tying 8-under 62 on Tuesday with a solid 68 on Wednesday and nearly pulled into a tie with Salyers by making a classic, dramatic 12-foot putt on the final hole to get to 9-under and hope that Salyers would goof up.

It wasn’t enough.

Wackerly also had a shot at a share of the lead when he birdied the par-3 eighth to get to 9-under but a chip out of the left rough on the final hole came up short and his birdie attempt failed to fall.

First-round tri-leaders Maxwell Moldovan, Westerville’s Ali Khan and defending champion Michael Balcar also were unable to cut into their deficit after the second round.
Moldovan, who turned professional three weeks ago after a marvelous career at Ohio State, began the day two strokes off the lead. After a careless bogey on the third hole he put together consecutive birdies on the par-3 fifth and par-5 sixth to get to 8-under and one shot out of the lead. But he followed with four straight bogeys to fall into a tie for 10th at 6-under 204.
Balcar, seeking to become the first man to win back-to-back Opens since Stephen Gangluff in 2018-19, was in contention until a double-bogey on the par-3 seventh submarined him. He finished in a tie for seventh at 203.

Khan, a junior at Ball State from Westerville, birdied the opening hole to get a share of the lead at 9-under but bogeyed the second, seventh and ninth and tumbled into a tie for 33rd.
Scott, the former Elyria Country Club assistant now competing on the PGA Americas Tour, manufactured a marvelous charge to grab sole possession of the lead at 11-under.
He birdied four holes on the front and the 363-yard 11th to get to 11-under but a bogey on the 472-yard 15th and a poor approach from the right rough eventually led to another bogey on the closing hole.

The final day maintained the Open’s tradition of hectic, tight, finger-nail-chewing, drama-laden finishes.

About 12 players were in contention throughout the final round and the lead changed hands several times in rapid fire between Salyers, Scott, Bailey Wackerly, Bellish and Jake Fox until Salyers took control with a birdie on the par-3 11th hole and a decisive birdie on the 391-yard 16th when he made an 8-foot putt from behind the hole.

Salyers, 23, began the day one shot behind second-round leader Wetterich but quickly pulled into a tie when he made a 12-foot birdie putt after recovering from the trees on the right.
He nearly eagled the 526-yard sixth but settled for birdie but gave it back when he bogeyed the par-3 seventh. He made the turn in 36 and was one of five players trailing Scott by two shots.
Salyers, Wetterich and Fox were in the final grouping of the day and were three groups behind Scott, Wackerly and Kevin Hall. That was an advantage in knowing where he stood, especially when he birdied the 391-yard 16th by making an 8-foot putt that broke left-to-right. It became a bigger advantage when the roving scoreboard showed that Scott had faltered on 18.

I am a scoreboard-watcher,” Salyers said. “I always make sure I am looking at scores. I need to know where I am all day. So, I was looking all day. Before I made the birdie on 16 I knew I was tied and a birdie would take the lead.”

Knowing what needed to be done on the final two holes certainly helped and he made routine pars to earn the first-place check of $10,000.

“The mental part is always the most difficult,” he said. “When you are coming down the stretch you have to stay in it and take it one shot at a time. And I did that well.”
So, another Ohio Open is in the books. Make that another drama-filled, heart-breaking, joyful, successful, can’t-wait-til-next-year Ohio Open. No matter the outcome the Ohio Open delivers all the above.
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