Recent Arkansas Golf Hall of Fame inductee Wes McNulty of White Hall and Chris Jenkins of Little Rock have seen plenty of heartbreak in recent editions of the Arkansas State Golf Association's first sponsored event of the year. This time they were the beneficiaries of another team's misfortune.
After knocking down a par putt for 5 on No. 18, the Arlington Course's easiest rated hole, McNulty and Jenkins watched as Stuttgart's Alex Maynard missed his par putt, Maynard and former Stuttgart friend Matt Watts of Rogers falling a stroke short of a playoff during the final round of the ASGA Men's Four-Ball Sunday at Hot Springs Country Club. McNulty and Jenkins won their third title together but first in a decade, repeating in 2004 and '05 the final year it was at Rebsamen Park Golf Course in Little Rock and the first year at HSCC.
"Chris hit a lot of big shots coming in," McNulty said. "We just didn't hit very many putts."
McNulty and Jenkins opened the ASGA's centennial season with rounds of 62 on the Park Course and 69 for a 13-under 131. Maynard and Watts entered the day second and disappointingly finished that way, carding 64 and Sunday's low round of 68 for 12-under 132, but it could've easily been 67 and 131 if it hadn't fallen apart on 18.
After all four drilled their tee shots, the hole got interesting with where each's second shots ended up. Watts, second in the player of the year standings heading into the weekend, had his offering skip off the cart path, and the ball couldn't be found afterward, believed to have gone over Country Club Drive.
Relying on Maynard's ball the rest of the way, the duo didn't have much of a second option even after relief from the cart path. Maynard's third shot from a poor lie came up short of the green, his chip landed about eight feet short of the hole and his par putt went begging.
Both McNulty and Jenkins missed the green with their second shots but gave themselves birdie opportunities, but each missed. They thought they had blown a chance to win in regulation with the misses, but it turned out their foursome was five shots beyond the rest of the field.
"We were just lucky nobody went in there and shot a really good round," said Jenkins, capturing his fourth Four-Ball after winning with Little Rock's Steve Bradley at Mountain Ranch Golf Club in Fairfield Bay.
McNulty added, "Besides trying to beat who we were playing with today, I really thought somebody would've shot a 65 or 66 today. We thought we had to birdie that hole to win, but the guys we were playing with made a bogey."
Their two-stroke lead at the start of the day evaporated with two bogeys in their first five holes, double their bogey amount from the first day. They woke up with birdies on Nos. 6 and 7 just to match Watts and Maynard, keeping pace with more back-to-back birdies on the par-5 9th and 10th.
Jenkins squared it up with a birdie putt on the par-4 15th, playing a "flawless" shot each time, McNulty pointed out.
"Whatever hole it was, it was important to tie it up," Jenkins said. "We didn't want to go into 18 one down obviously. It didn't matter what hole it was, but it just so happened that was the one we tied them on. We could've just easily tied them up by making a putt on 14."
McNulty and Jenkins take home the Creekmore and Allison Trophy after finishing tied for second last year and losing in a four-team playoff in 2012. They received their first-place gift certificates to pro shop from HSCC general manager/director of golf Barry Howard, one of McNulty's 2014 Hall of Fame classmates.
"It felt really good because if we didn't win, (Jenkins) was going to cut me loose," McNulty joked.
Sports on 03/30/2015