Former Southern Hills interns team up to nearly win Central Florida Open

Those guys who take care of your golf course can often play a little bit as well.

Ryan Savage and Jason Herman, who met while both were interns on the grounds crew at Southern Hills Country Club in 2009 working for superintendent Russ Myers, teamed up again last weekend in the popular Central Florida Open, a two-day, two-man event held on the resort courses designed by Jack Nicklaus and Tom Watson at the Reunion Resort in Kissimmee.

Although both have USGA handicap indexes just under 7, they combined to shoot 6-under on the first round on the Nicklaus Course and found themselves placed at the head of the A Flight in a tournament with 65 teams.

Savage, who plays regularly at public courses in Oklahoma City and Blanchard, and Herman, who now lives in Florida, showed their nerves a bit as tournament leaders on the first tee the second day on the Watson Course, which has more than 200 bunkers. Herman topped his drive about 20 yards and Savage promptly knocked his tee shot out of bounds. The duo they were playing with had to be wondering how these two shot 6-under on the difficult Nicklaus course. But they managed to salvage bogey and went on to shoot 2-under, giving themselves a birdie putt on the final hole to tie for the lead.

Alas, they missed, but still placed second among all the teams in the tournament and split the $900 prize for second.

“We went in with zero expectations and figured we’d probably get flighted right in the middle of the pack,” Savage said. “To be leading after the first round, we were getting some looks and definitely felt like we had a target on our backs. But it was a great time.”