Citizen Staff Writer
The Bounce
BRYAN LEE
brylee@tucsoncitizen.com
Three foes had to be subdued by golfer Glen Griffith on Wednesday: himself, Andrew Cochran and the unforgiving desert of The Stone Canyon Club.
He did just that in his 3-and-1 PGA club pro match play title victory.
“I had to stop and tell myself to relax,” said Griffith, the Tucson Golf Schools founder and director, referring to the crucial 15th hole. “I wasn’t doing what I always do. It was scary.
“I think playing in (PGA) Q School (in 2007) prepares me now. I can stay calm.”
Griffith was in the midst of seeing a 4-stroke lead fade during the Southwest Section Southern Chapter final.
“It’s like losing a 15-point lead in basketball in the last three minutes,” tournament director Rick Price said.
Griffith’s 15th-hole shot from the rocks found the fairway, and Cochran, a Stone Canyon assistant, three-putted.
A pair of bogeys all but sealed Cochran’s fate. It ended with Cochran misfiring off the tee on No. 17.
Cochran struggled and bulldogged his way to almost-ville, first going 20 holes Tuesday in the quarterfinals, then almost blowing a five-shot lead in Wednesday’s semifinals against Rich Elias.
Cochran won the semifinal on the 18th hole.
“Too many short putts,” Cochran summed up his foibles. “I missed a few.”
Three alone in the championship match that might well have made things different on a day when each golfer did not exactly light things up.
But that’s match play.
“You have to play smart,” said Griffith, who finished as the runner-up in the same tournament twice. “There’s no explanation for what happens. You don’t necessarily play conservatively because it’s the desert. You have to judge each situation.”
Griffith had to wait out semifinal foe Chris Dompier’s four straight birdies in the early going, 18 in two days. Dompier fell victim to the desert on the second nine of play.
When it’s mano a mano, Griffith is in his glory. He couldn’t care less if it’s not pretty, so long as he stays at least one ahead of the foe. “I love match play,” he said. “I was having fun.”
UA men’s golf finishes 9th
Citizen Staff Report
The Wildcats finished ninth at the Pac-10 Championships in Seattle on Wednesday.
UA shot a 43-over 1,483 total for four rounds. Washington (-16) won. Oregon (+2) was second.
UA’s Tarquin MacManus finished sixth among individuals with a 3-under 285. Washington’s Darren Wallace was first at -11.