Utah Championship

Six Lucky Golfers Qualify in Near-Dark Playoff

Wednesday, September 4, 2002

BY KURT KRAGTHORPE
THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE

The "Monday" qualifying event for the Utah Classic started on Tuesday and nearly spilled over to Wednesday.

Luckily -- or not -- exactly the right thing happened on the first playoff hole Tuesday at Wingpointe Golf Course, as the last six of 14 players advanced after a little nighttime golf.

They will join the field for the Utah Classic, beginning Thursday at Willow Creek Country Club in Sandy.

From a starting field of nearly 150, eight players qualified by shooting 2-under-par 70 or better. Twelve others had to play off in sixsomes. Six made pars and six made bogeys on the par-4 No. 10. With any other result, at least some of them would have had to return to Wingpointe this morning.
"It wouldn't have been a great sleep," said Logan's Brett Wayment, one of the six who advanced from the playoff -- more than 13 hours after he teed off. "But I've been through enough of these."

A former UTAH CLASSIC TOUR member, Wayment also Monday-qualified for the tour's most recent event in Texas and made the 36-hole cut. This week's event was played on Tuesday, because of Labor Day.

Among the other playoff survivors were Draper's Ryan Ellis, making his pro debut on the course where he shot a 64 to win the Salt Lake City Open in July, and Brad Sutterfield, a former PGA Tour player who lives in St. George. Sutterfield was last year's qualifying medalist with a 66.

With darkness approaching fast, four players in the second group of six (determined by their starting times) bogeyed the playoff hole.

"I feel bad for those guys," Sutterfield said. "Deep down, all of us would probably say it's better to come back tomorrow, but nobody wanted to come back tomorrow."

Among those eliminated in the playoff were Scott Miller, whose brother Andy will play in the Utah Classic via a sponsor exemption, and Robert Hamilton, who defeated Utahns Danny Summerhays and Manuel Merizalde on his way to the U.S. Amateur finals in 2001.

The medalist was Marcus Wheelhouse of New Zealand, who posted a 67 in the second-to-last group of the day. Former Brigham Young golfer Jesse Hibler shot a 69.

Todd Tanner, a South Mountain Golf Club assistant pro who missed a playoff last year because he returned to the course five minutes too late, shot a 72 and missed this year's playoff by one stroke.

Qualifiers
67 -- Marcus Wheelhouse. 68 -- Kelly Grunewald. 69 -- Gundy Jones, Craig Spence, Jesse Hibler. 70 -- Matt Sharkey, Alex Aragon, Jimmy Walker. 71 -- Brett Wayment, Ryan Ellis, Brad Sutterfield, Lucas Glover, Steve Gotsche, John Restino.
Failed to Qualify
71 -- Robert Hamilton, Scott Miller, Chris Greenwood, Jonathan Baker, Rocky Walcher, Craig Lile. 72 -- Ernie Gonzalez, Jeremy Taylor, Johnson Wagner, Lance Combrink, Todd Pence, Todd Tanner, Bobby Kalinowski, Randy Leen. UTAH CLASSIC AT WILLOW CREEK COUNTRY CLUB

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