2009 Oklahoma Stroke Play champion
NORMAN, OK (August 5, 2009)--Colby Shrum picked a bad day to play bad golf. Then again, he picked a great day to deliver under pressure.
Carrying a five -stroke lead over his nearest pursuer, Geoff Shaw, with five holes to play, the lead was only a stroke with a hole to play.
Yet after a 2-iron off the tee and a 189-yard 7-iron to the front of the green, Shrum rolled in a 20-foot birdie putt to close the door on the Oklahoma Golf Association’s Stroke Play Championship Wednesday at The Trails.
“Me and my caddie said we were going to make par (on No. 18),” said Shrum, a two-time All-American at Central Oklahoma, originally from Perry. “But I decided to make birdie.”
Shrum closed in 73 after opening rounds of 62 and 67 to finish at 6-under par 202, two strokes in front of Tulsa’s Rob Laird and three in front of Brett Leavell and Shaw.
Shaw, though, was the only real challenger.
A Texas A&M Aggie by way of Edmond North, Shaw’s tap-in birdie, combined with a messy bogey from Shrum on No. 17 made for the narrowest of margins.
Shaw put more pressure on at the last, taking a driver off the tee. As Shrum approached from well back, Shaw was 160 yards from the pin. Yet his approach was fat and his chip short before Shrum rolled in the putt that made the tourney his.
“It was a roller coaster today,” Shaw said. “It was back and forth and back and forth. We would have had a pretty good fourball score.”
Shrum’s the one who made it so crazy.
He hit just three greens on the front nine, yet carded a 36 to maintain a five stroke cushion. His back nine inlcuded only one par, a 15-foot save at No. 16 right after a short weather delay. There were five bogeys on the side, but also three birdies.
“It was a struggle today,” Shrum said. “I couldn’t hit a green to save my life.”
There was a measure-of-revenge angle to the day’s events. After beating Laird in the round of 16 at the match play State Amateur back in July, Shaw beat Shrum in a quarterfinal match.
“I got him back,” Shrum said.
Zac Poole, from Poteau, and Quinten Austin, from Sand Springs, tied for fifth at 202. Purcell’s Nathan Chambers was next at 208.
View results for Oklahoma Stroke Play
ABOUT THE Oklahoma Stroke Play
Open to amateurs who are residents of Oklahoma,
or
full time students of an Oklahoma College or
University. Participants must be a member of the
OGA.
Format is 54 Holes of stroke play. There
will be a cut to the low 30 and ties after 36 Holes of
stroke play.
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