The annual Wayne Country Club championships were held over the weekend with a slight twist to the format. WCC golf professional Kyle Schellpeper turned the annual event into a two-day, 36-hole tournament for all players.
Despite the variation of previous years’ one-day tournament approach, the results of the men’s and women’s competition yielded a familiar result. Joey and Kari Baldwin captured their 11th and 10th championship, respectively.
Joey began the tournament with five straight birdies and fired a 6-under 30 on the front nine before settling for a 4-under par 68 at the halfway point. “I had a pretty solid first round with the exception of a penalty for going in the water on hole 11 and a bogey on 17,” Baldwin said. “My mindset heading into the second day was to play my game and shoot around par because I knew to lose someone would have to play pretty well.”
Rob Sweetland and Andi Diediker came out clicking on all cylinders on Sunday with Andi carding birdies on three of the first five holes while Baldwin bogeyed hole two and was one over on the first five holes, leaving Diediker with a one stroke lead. In fact, Andi carded a 3-under 33 on the front nine while Joey shot a 1-over par 37.
However, Baldwin birdied hole 10 and Diediker bogeyed the hole which allowed Joey to regain the lead. Sweetland, meanwhile was lurking and seeking his shot after carding a 1-under 35 on the front nine, leaving him just two shots behind Baldwin at the turn. That deficit was cut to one after Sweetland birdied the par three 12th hole while Joey posted bogey. Both players birdied hole 13 and both parred 14 but Baldwin birdied 15 to regain the two-shot advantage.
Rob birdied hole 16 to cut that gap to one shot after Joey parred the hole. Both players bogeyed hole 17 and both parred 18 to give Baldwin the one shot win. Diediker’s push to the title ended on hole 17 as he suffered a double bogey before finishing off hole 18 with a birdie. He placed third with a gross 2-day total of 142 (2-under par). Sweetland finished the day with an impressive 3-under par 69 and a two-day total of 141 (3-under). Baldwin closed the deal with an even par 72 and a two-day total of 140 (4-under).
“I didn’t pay any attention to the scoring app or what anyone but myself was doing,” Baldwin said. “I can only control what I was trying to do.”
On the women’s side Kari started the day with an opening tee shot on hole one that went into a tree and never came down. That kind of proved prophetic after the opening double bogey because she went on to birdie four of the next five holes after the first shot landed in the so-called bird zone.
She carded an opening nine score of even-par 36 before settling for a 77 and a two-day total of 157 with rounds of 80-77. Jessi Jensen finished runner-up. “After the opening nine-hole score of 36 I just wanted to play smart on the back nine and not make a bunch of unforced errors,” Kari said. “It was a fun format and a good weekend of golf. I always enjoy playing with Jessi because she is a good golfer and very competitive.”
In flight play it was Chad Metzler that came from behind to win the first flight with a closing round 74 after opening with a 78. All flights were two-day net totals with Metzler winning by seven shots. Nick Curnyn placed runner-up in his first club tournament with a two-day net of 145 while Brad Hansen was third at 146 and Kelly Hansen, fourth at 147.
In flight two it was Dave Diediker that pulled the wire-to-wire trick as he led by two strokes after round one and won by five strokes overall with a two-day net of 138. He was the only player in the flight to post a sub-80 scratch score with an opening 79. Jerry Dorcey finished runner-up with a two-day net of 143 while a three-way tie for third was shared by Scott Watters, Rusty Parker and Kevin Peterson at 148.
The final flight was won by Brad Jones with a two-day net score of 143. He edged Darin Jensen by two shots. Randy Simonsen was third at 147 and Dave Long finished fourth with a two-day net of 148.
