It may not have been spectacular, but it was steady and in the end successful.
Ryan Gronlund won his second Western Pro-Am Golf Tournament championship in the past four years Sunday evening at Moccasin Creek Country Club.
The Pleasanton, Calif., golfer shot a 69, his highest round of the tourney, but stayed out of major trouble to win the event by four strokes with a 13-under-par total.
“Feels good,” Gronlund said. “Anytime you can win anything it feels great.”
Gronlund trailed Zander Winston by two strokes heading into the final round, but quickly grabbed the lead and then stayed in front the remainder of the way.
“I feel like I played pretty good. Zander, obviously, didn’t have his best stuff,” Gronlund said. “He and I have kind of been going back and forth since the beginning of the season.”
Gronlund, who earned $20,000 for the victory, strung together a series of birdies on the front nine to take a two-stroke lead heading into the back nine.
“It felt good to be able to go into the back with a lead,” Gronlund said. “I kind of chopped it around on the back here and there, but was able to take care of it.”
A key hole took place to start the final nine when Winston had a triple bogey on hole 10. That left Gronlund with a five-stroke lead with eight holes left.
“(Hole) 10 killed me. It is what it is,” Winston said. “I played the rest of the round with a smile on my face and that’s all you can do.”
Winston, of Prescott, Ariz., shot a 75 on Sunday, after going 12-under-par during the first two rounds.
“If I would have shot even I would have been in a playoff,” said Winston, a two-time past champion at the event. “I don’t really feel like he won it as much as I lost it, but hats off to him.”
Winston, who had numerous attempts at birdie that came up just short throughout his final round, kept things in perspective following the completion of the tourney.
“Second’s fine,” Winston said. “Look, you live and you learn. It is what it is.”
While Gronlund was a model of consistency, he did produce a memorable shot on hole 15. After his drive put him under a tree, he fired a shot that left him within a few feet of the pin.
“Wedges have been priority 1a, b and c, starting this year,” Gronlund said. “It was good to be able to have a wedge, be able to think about … what’s the point of hitting all these wedges if when you get a wedge and you don’t hit a good one? That was good to see in a spot like that to be able to hit a wedge that close.”
While Winston had built a six-stroke lead Saturday before Gronlund even teed off, the California golfer said he wasn’t even paying attention to that.
“So I had no idea what Zander shot,” Gronlund said, noting he is trying to make a point of not worrying about what others are doing.
“The only things you can control is the things you can control, so I didn’t care what anyone else did,” Gronlund said. “So it was good to put that into practice as well.”
The win was extra special for Gronlund, who was golfing with his late grandmother on his mind.
“Today would have been my grandma’s birthday and this is the first year she’s not here,” he said, “and it was nice just to kind of feel like she was there with me today. … This is for grandma Margie.”
Chris Dohrer won the amateur championship by a single stroke over fellow Aberdeen golfer Cramer Johnson. Dohrer finished at even par, thanks to a memorable final hole where a birdie propelled him to the victory.
Dohrer overcame a bit of a rough start to the tourney to finish strong.
“Just quit thinking about stuff and tried to hit solid shots,” Dohrer said of how he was able to turn things around. “Honestly, I say all the time that I struggle in this tournament because I’m more worried about what my kids are doing than what I’m doing. I just started playing my game, and it kind of came together after the first nine on Friday.”
It culminated in a memorable victory on Sunday afternoon.
“Best tournament of the year and I was super emotional when we got done,” Dohrer said. “My whole family was there, my three kids (Jonah, Micah, and Emma) and my wife (Barb). I’ve never won it, so it was really cool.”
Dohrer had to regain his focus after a lightning delay brought the players in from the course. When play resumed Dohrer needed to find his momentum again.
“It got the nerves back is what happened. I was really comfortable before that and then the nerves came right back out after the delay for sure,” Dohrer said. “I three-putted the first hole and Cramer made a good putt for birdie, and all of a sudden we’re tied and I was like here we go.”
Dohrer regrouped in time to hold off the field for the championship.
“Just found a way to make a putt on 16 for birdie,” Dohrer said. “Hit some good shots. I had the two best shots of my life on 18.”
And as a result, he was able to capture a special title in the process, one that Dohrer called among his greatest accomplishments in golf.
“It’s one of the highest ones, because this is what everybody gears their summer to,” Dohrer said. “It’s the best tournament of the year. Guys come from all over the place and there’s a lot of good players here.”
To see complete tournament results, click on the following link:
