Dan Woltman is hoping there’s some more good golf left in him come this fall. At least for this week, the 32-year-old Wisconsin grad had plenty of good golf in him.
Woltman (Beaver Dam, WI) shot Saturday’s second-best round, a 5-under par 67, and that was enough to propel him to the title of the 21stannual TrueNorth Greater Cedar Rapids Open, presented by UFG Insurance, at Hunters Ridge Golf Course in Marion.
He finished 12-under par for the tournament and was three shots clear of Seth Fair (Brownsburg, IN), the 2016 champ who earned his second runner-up finish at the GCRO.
Woltman, a veteran of 44 Korn Ferry Tour events with varying degrees of success or lack thereof, adjusted his play for the final round and it worked. He earned the $30,000 first prize and became the second recipient of the Bob Brooks-Sam Farner TrueNorth Greater Cedar Rapids Open Memorial Trophy.
“ I got off to a good start,” said Woltman in the happy aftermath. “I managed to birdie (No.) 3, I hit a good shot in there. I hit a good shot into 5 and birdied 5-6-7. You know, I went to bed last night kind of frustrated about how I’ve played the front nine and today I decided to be a little more aggressive on some shots and it paid off. I was 4-under at the turn. I had a couple loose swings on the back nine but made a nice birdie at 12 and made a good putt for birdie at 17 and ended up with a 67.
“The wind came up today and it was playing tough,” said Woltman. “There was a lot of tough pin positions out there so you really had to control your golf ball well. I got a little out of sorts on a couple holes on the back (nine) but was able to pull it back together and make some pars and shot a good round.”
Woltman, who tied for fourth last year at the GCRO, two shots out of a playoff, heads down the road to Riverside and Blue Top Golf Course this week to defend his Iowa Open title. Then it’s on to a big pro-am event in Kansas and the Wisconsin State Open after that. His schedule leads up to the Korn Ferry Tour qualifying school in September, just like Fair.
“… Hopefully get ready for fall stretch and hopefully there’s some more good golf in me and hopefully get back to the Korn Ferry tour,” said Woltman, whose wife of six years Merissa “puts up with me.”
Fair said he played “a solid round but I just couldn’t get anything close.” He had just two blemishes on his cards this weekend, a double-bogey on Thursday and a bogey on the ninth hole Saturday en route to a 1-under 71.
Second-round leader Sam Cyr (Makawao, HI) shot a 1-over 73 and finished in a four-way tie for third at 8-under-par. Bryce Emory (Aurora, IL), Matt Hutchins (Naples, FL) and Piri Borja (Delray Beach, FL) all joined Cyr.
Borja really had it cooking Saturday. He birdied five holes on the front side and then birdied 10 to go to 13-under-par and into the tourney lead. But after parring the par-5 12th, Borja went f5-over-par on the next four holes and shot himself out of the tournament.
Local favorite and 2009 champ Sean McCarty finished in a four-way tie for seventh a 7 under.
Play was halted for around 70 minutes due to a mid-morning thunderstorm.
In the Senior Division, Bill Hoefle shot his second consecutive 1-under-par 71 and won that division six shots over Bob Jacobson. Hoefle finished 1-under for the tournament.Former GCRO amateur champ Kevin Ault added another title despite trailing Andrew Wood by six strokes entering Saturday’s play. Ault shot a modest 4-over 76 but Wood ballooned to a 12-over 84 and lost by two strokes.
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