GoG: Another one in the books...

June 24, 2012|By GRANT MEECH | KWCH 12 Eyewitness Sports

WICHITA, Kan. — Couldn't Mother Nature have picked the hottest day of the Wichita Open for Thursday or one of the practice rounds? Is that too much to ask?

Sunday's final round was scorchingly (sp?) hot and looking at the sweatlines on some of the pro's hats - they were feeling it. There was a just a little breeze out there which kept them as cool as possible when it's over 100 degrees but alas. It was hot.

Jim Herman looked like he was going to run away with this thing after the first three holes but he crumbled on the back nine giving way for Casey Wittenberg to pounce and he did. Wittenberg went bogey free on the back nine and won the 2012 Wichita Open at 18-under par.

Wittenberg was the least surprising winner of the Open I can remember in the last five years. He just finished a top-10 finish at the US Open in San Francisco playing with Tiger Woods, he was in the Top 10 on the Nationwide Tour's money list and was playing some of his best golf of the season to this point. And he had four of the best rounds of the tournament. 8-under Thursday, 1-under Friday, 4-under on Moving Day and then he closed with a 5-under performance for the win. Impressive stuff from a guy who doesn't cut much of a shadow physically but he manhandled Crestview Country Club.

An Oklahoma State product, he has been a touring pro since 2004 and is still grinding. Unless he just completely falls apart for the rest of the season, Wittenberg is almost asured his PGA Tour card for 2013, by finishing in the Top 25 on the Money List. That's huge. This win this week and now jumping to second on the money list gives him so much security for the rest of the season. Time to take some vacation and if he has a bad tournament, he has security. It's huge. Also, he is just one win away from a battlefield promotion to the PGA Tour. (If a Nationwide Tour pro wins three times in a season, he is automatically moved up the PGA Tour for the rest of that season.)

He played with Herman on Sunday and you have to feel for a guy like Herman, who played so well all week and then made two mistakes on the back nine and his win was snatched up. He was outside the Top 25 coming into this week and will most assuredly jump into it after his T-2 finish but his first professional win on American soil would have been sweet. He wasn't even bummed following his round. He was ok with it because he knew he played well except for that two hole stretch. You forget that he birdied 17 and 18 to close out.

You also feel for a guy like Jason Gore, the Nationwide Tour's winningest player with seven victories. He said on Saturday that he has a shot to win Sunday. Only three back of the leader, he really did but it looked like he hurt his hand on the 11th tee and then couldn't get anything to drop for the final stretch and shot 2-over Sunday. He is such a nice guy and those are the one's you pull for. Gore was the 54 hole leader at the 2005 US Open in North Carolina but fell fast with an 84 in the final. Ask him about it and it's bittersweet but he reflects on it well because so many people remember him for that, and how he handled it with grace. His caddie, Eric, is a Crestview member and friends with Gore. When Gore's caddie dropped out two weeks ago, he called Eric and went on. That's what is so great about the Wichita Open - stories like that of a player needing a caddie and calling on a friend he met a long time ago.

Players love coming to Wichita. Ask them all, they love this tournament. That praise should go to Tournament Director Roy Turner. He is simply great at making this tournament run without a hitch and everyone loves coming to it. Big hat's off to Roy and the rest of the tournament staff. They are awesome.

Alas, it's over. Until next year when we crown a new champion. NOW - go grab your sticks and go play!

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