Marshall - Final Round

Winner in Marshall. Fun words to write.

3-under 68 in final round, won by two shots.

I'll comment more later.

** UPDATE ** Finally a major win on the Dakotas Tour. Every event that is 3 or 4 rounds on the Dakotas is considered a major. It feels great to finally break through and win one. I've been in contention nearly a dozen times - 10 top tens in the last three years - and it's awesome to get that first win behind me.

It wasn't easy, but it certainly was satisfying. I had a hot putter and that was the difference in a win and yet another top 10. Here's a list of all the putts I made today:

20' on 3 for birdie
9' on 6 for par
10' on 7 for par
18' on 8 for birdie
20' on 12 for birdie
15' on 16 for par

Those were the lengthy putts made. I made at least 4 other tricky 4 footers to save par. Marshall's greens have a lot of slope so it isn't uncommon to have a 4 foot putt break 6 inches.

Looking back, it's easy to say that the 15' par putt on 16 was the putt of the day, but at the time it only maintained my 1 shot lead with two to go. I still needed to play 17 and 18.

I had a one shot lead on 18 tee, which was a downwind par 5. I hit my drive slightly into the rough. Josh Persons was further into the rough and had to hit his 2nd shot first. He hit a 5-iron from 225 that never left the flag. He was very unlucky that the ball rolled 30 feet above the hole on the green.

I hit a 6-iron from 204 yards that bounced just onto the front edge of the green. That left me a 10' uphill eagle putt with a one shot lead. Persons tried to make his eagle, but just ran by and after he missed his birdie putt I was able to lag my eagle putt up to 6" and tap in for the win.

Tim Ailes also finished two shots back, but he was in the group in front of me and I had no idea where he stood so I don't know if he had an eagle putt to reach 8 under.

What a wonderful week.

I've got Thursday off and then I play a one day event on Friday in Mitchell, SD.

Feel free to ask any questions about the victory in the comments. I'll answer them.

Neil