Gudgel survives wild final hole to win OGA Super Senior title
By Murray Evans
STILLWATER – Playing on his home course with a three-shot lead entering the final hole of the Oklahoma Golf Association Senior Stroke Play Championship, Eric Gudgel started to relax a bit on Tuesday afternoon.
Then came the most stressful hole of golf he’ll likely ever play in his life, one during which his emotions ranged from devastation to ecstasy. Ultimately, he survived a major self-inflicted error – that of hitting the wrong ball – to post a two-shot win over Kirk Maynord of Norman in a wild finish at Stillwater Country Club.
Gudgel rolled in a downhill 40-foot putt from off the green to save bogey on No. 18 and close out a 2-over-par 72. Combined with his first-round 64, he finished at 4-under 136 for the tournament. Maynord posted a final-round 68 – one of only three under-par rounds over the two-day tournament – and ended up at 138.
OGA legend Michael Hughett of Owasso, who had the third under-par round, took third at 141, and he had a succinct summation of the ending: “I’ve never seen a finish like that.”
Gudgel, 58, did most of the hard work to win the tournament on Monday with his 64, in which he recorded seven birdies against only one bogey. That gave him a five-shot lead over Hughett and six over Maynord entering Tuesday.
But the reigning Stillwater Country Club club champion had trouble getting dialed in, recording three bogeys (and a birdie) over his first seven holes. Maynord, meanwhile, played steady golf, starting his round with seven straight pars before a birdie on the par-3 No. 9.
By then, Gudgel had steadied himself and started a stretch of what would be nine straight pars, although he was upset he missed a short birdie putt at No. 10. Maynord put more pressure on with a birdie at No. 13, slicing Gudgel’s lead to two shots. Gudgel didn’t flinch and drained a 15-foot birdie putt on the par-4 No. 17, setting the stage for the dramatic finish.
Gudgel’s drive on No. 18 clipped one tree and went right into some other trees, but he inexplicably went up to another ball located in the trees on the left side of the hole and hit it.
“I just walked up and our ball was right there, in the perfect spot that, typically, is where it would go,” he said. “We just went right to it. We went through our process and picked it. No big deal, we’ve got shots to play with. And I walk up to it and I see a flag on the ball (and realized) that wasn’t my ball.
“I just sank. Hey, you know what? It’s an outdoor sport and your RPMs are going 90 miles an hour.”
He hadn’t hit either of his playing partners’ balls, but the damage was done. Gudgel took his two-shot penalty and then went to find his actual ball, all the while doing math in his head, figuring if he could get up and down, he could still win.
From there, his second actual shot on the hole, using a 7-iron, landed behind the green, well above the hole. Maynord, meanwhile, had about a 25-foot birdie putt, and Gudgel did the math – if Maynord made a par, he could still win by a shot with a bogey. Even though he was well off the green, Gudgel chose to putt.
“I chose putter and I don’t know why,” he said. “It felt right. It was a little bender and downhill. My thought was, ‘Hey – don’t leave it short. Let’s hit it firm and see what happens and take what we get.'”
He struck the ball solidly and had it not crashed into the pin and fallen into the hole, it likely would have rolled by and given Gudgel a tricky putt for a double bogey. When the ball dropped, an audible gasp could be heard from those watching.
“It was dead center,” Maynord said. “That was amazing.”
Gudgel, who recorded his second OGA title – he won the Senior State Amateur in 2021 – considered himself fortunate that his putt proved true.
“The ball goes where it goes,” he said.
In the Super Senior division, for golfers 65 and over, Terry Hughes of Bartlesville posted rounds of 69 and 67 to finish at 4-under 136, good for a four-shot win over first-round leader Lewis Stephenson of Edmond.
It was the third straight year Hughes, the retired Bartlesville High School golf coach, won the OGA Super Senior Stroke Play Championship.
“Yesterday I had too many bogeys, so my goal today was to knock out my bogeys,” Hughes said.
Stephenson posted six birdies en route to a first-round 66, but managed only one on Tuesday, that on No. 18, while posting a 74, putting him at even-par 140. Robert Moore of Stillwater took third at 142.
It’s been quite a year for Hughes in OGA events. In addition to the stroke-play title, he won the Super Senior Amateur title earlier this month at Twin Hills Golf and Country Club in Oklahoma City, and took second – with partner Shawn Barker of Bartlesville – in the Super Senior Four-Ball Championship at Cherokee Hills Golf Club in Catoosa in April.
“I’ve been fortunate,” Hughes said. “The courses we’ve played have set up well for me.”
