Gotcher puts on ball-striking clinic to win OGA Senior State Amateur

By Ken MacLeod

For 54-year-old Mike Gotcher, winning the Oklahoma Golf Association Senior State Amateur Championship was the culmination of countless hours of hard work – and a renewed love affair with golf.

Gotcher, a former PGA of America club professional, left the golf business in 2009 and now runs a home inspection business.  Not being around the game 60-70 hours a week has allowed him to get back to what he loved about it originally, the ball striking, the strategy, the competition and the joy of the game.

All that was on display Thursday as Gotcher defeated Ron Roden of Oklahoma City 3 and 2 to secure Oklahoma’s premiere senior event for the first time. He had lost to Eric Gudgel in the championship match in 2021 and won the OGA Senior Stroke Play Championship in 2022.

With his son Max serving as caddie and his daughter Aly and wife Kerri following every shot along with friends, Gotcher put on a stripe show in the victory over Roden, hitting all but a couple of fairways and greens in regulation. While not able to convert on the many good birdie looks he gave himself, he kept the pressure on Roden to make birdies knowing Gotcher was making par at worst.

On the key hole of the match, however, Gotcher did miss a green and did make a long putt. He left his tee shot on the par-3 13^th hole in a front right bunker, flew his next shot 25 feet past the cup, and after Roden’s birdie effort stopped on the lip, made the long par putt.

“That was really a key hole,” Roden said. “That’s the beauty of match play. I actually thought I had made my putt and it comes up a ½ inch short. Then he rolls in a 25-foot sidewinder. He made a great putt.

“Mike hit the ball really well today. I had a great week and have nothing to be unhappy about, he just played better than me this morning.”

“That was an unexpected make, but I knew when I made it that was a big gut punch for Ron,” Gotcher said. “That’s the sudden swings of match play.”

Gotcher won the first hole when Roden played the wrong ball from the freshly mown left rough, which exposed a ball in nearly the same spot as he expected his to be. His drive found the water on the par-5 fifth hole, leading to a conceded birdie for Gotcher. A drive that found a fairway bunker led to a bogey on the par-4 seventh hole and a three-up lead for Gotcher.

Roden cut into the deficit with his lone birdie of the round on the ninth hole. But the margin went right back to three with a bogey on the par-4 10^th. Both players made par on every hole thereafter until a bogey by Roden on 16 ended the match.

The field was loaded with past champions and some of Oklahoma’s top seniors, making the victory even sweeter for Gotcher. He knocked off defending champion Peter Vitali 1 up in the semifinals Wednesday, while Roden downed two titans in three-time champion Mike Hughett and former professional Kirk Maynord to reach the finals.

“Winning against Peter, he’s such a stud,” Gotcher said. “He never misses the center of the clubface. I had to make a 10-footer on 17 and a 4-footer on 18 for par. I was holding on for dear life because the more pressure you put on him, the better he plays.”

Gotcher plays and practices at Forest Ridge Golf Club in Broken Arrow and said the past three years he’s been enjoying the game much more.

“When I don’t have to be around it all the time, coming out to hit balls for two hours or putt for two hours is fun,” Gotcher said. “I really have fallen in love with the game again. And this means a lot to me. When I won yesterday against Peter, I got a text from Mike Hughett that said, ‘Congrats, you just took down Goliath.’ For a 24-time OGA champion to say that to me, that was pretty cool.

“Today, I ball-struck Ron to death. It’s great to be able to see the results of my work the least three years.”