High Drama During MVC Golf Tournament

Illinois State Wins in a Playoff

(Waterloo, IL) – Illinois State claimed a sudden-death victory at the MVC Golf Tournament. The Redbirds led by eleven strokes coming into Tuesday’s final round and Murray State stormed into a tie with a spectacular, twelve under 272 to force a five-hole playoff with the Redbirds.

If that wasn’t high drama enough, the ‘sudden-death’ playoff took two rounds before Illinois State’s T.J. Barger buried a twelve-foot put to claim the Redbirds’ second consecutive Missouri Valley Conference tournament championship.

Defending individual champion Trey Wall led the Racers’ charge with a blazing 66. Racer teammates Rocco Zakutney and Sam Guest were each two-under-par and Lennon Albans’ eagle-inspired, twelfth hole finished one under.

The overtime couldn’t begin for over an hour after the conclusion of regular play due to lightning in the Waterloo, Illinois area. After waiting out the storm in the Annbriar Golf Course club house, the teams sent one player out to the course’s final five holes.

Each Redbird and Racer played one hole, and after the first round the score was tied at 22. Then more high drama ensued as the teams endured another weather-related delay. After the second delay, Bager, the league’s lowest, handicapped player performed his heroics, sending the Redbirds to the NCAA Tournament.

High Drama For the Individual Title

Illinois State’s Francis Bautista seemingly had the medalist title locked up before Southern Illinois’ Anthony De Schutter produced some high-light reel golf. Four of his five birdies came on Annbriar’s demanding back nine to get within one stroke of Bautista.

The second-round leader entered the day with a five-stroke lead over De Schutter and Evansville’s Omar Khalil. He improved to twelve-under par and stayed there with huge par saving putt on the fourteenth green. De Schutter birdied the fourteenth to move within three shots of the lead.

While De Schutter parred  the fifteenth hole and Bautista’s downhill par attempt stopped just short of the hole and suddenly the two combatants were two strokes apart. Each player bogeyed Annbriar’s toughest hole, the 445-yard par four, sixteenth.

When De Schutter birdied seventeen with a forty-foot bomb, the two were separated by just one stroke, with one hole to play. Meanwhile, Bautista was also in the battle for his Redbirds to shut the door on Murray State’s Albans for the team title. The teams were tied as the final three-some teed off on 18.

High drama to say the least. Albans nearly chipped in on seventeen, made a brilliant approach at 18 and just missed his birdie putt. All three in the final group would par the hole, giving the title to Bautista over De Schutter, who earlier in the day was named the Valley’s outstanding golfer of the year.

Tidbits

Bautista, Khalil and De Schutter each recorded one round of 65 during the tournament. Those rounds are tied for the second lowest rounds in the tournament’s history.

Illinois State and Murray State each totaled 838 strokes. That is the third-best team score ever and Murray’s 272 Tuesday total is best 18-hole score all time.

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