The customary protocol for tournament golf calls for everyone else in the final group to finish the final hole before letting a player with a sizeable lead have the spotlight to himself while putting out after all of the group reaches the No. 18 green.
Henry Kiel rendered that scenario undoable Sunday evening when he knocked in a putt from the fringe on No. 18 at Otter Creek. That gave the Columbus North graduate and University of Evansville junior-to-be a birdie-4 and cemented his first men’s city championship.
“I’m happy with it,” Kiel said. “I played decent on the front. I didn’t really make any putts. Then on the back, I got it to 1-under, and then I got unlucky on 16 and made a double, so I kind of struggled coming in. But I hit a lot of good shots and made some putts, which is nice.”
Kiel set the pace for the tournament with a 6-under-par 66 — his best round ever — in Saturday’s opening round at Greenbelt. He followed with a 1-over 73 at Otter Creek to finish at 139 and win by five shots over former North teammate and classmate Drew Smith.
“I hit it pretty well (Saturday), so I was pretty confident about how I would play today,” Kiel said. “I didn’t know if anybody else would shoot a low number like Drew. He played pretty well today. Eric (Grider) played well on the front, so I was a little nervous, but I got it back on the back.”
Grider was in second place, two shots back, following a 68 on Saturday. He trimmed Kiel’s lead to one early in Sunday’s round.
Kiel stretched the lead to three at the turn, then began the back nine with a birdie.
“When Henry birdied 10, that was kind of the turning point,” Grider said.
Smith, who opened with a 70 on Saturday and played in the next-to-last foursome, was 3-over through five holes on Sunday. But he was 1-under over the final 13 holes to finish with a 74 and ended the tournament at 144.
“I had a really bad start today, but I had a good stretch in the middle and kind of fought my way back and turned out with a decent score,” Smith said. “I figured if I shot around par today, I’d likely be in the top three.”
Smith, who will be a junior at Hillsdale (Michigan), had finished second in the city tournament in 2019, just after graduating from North. Kiel, who also graduated that year, finished second in 2020.
“I wanted to win,” Kiel said. “I’m happy. I’ll try to defend it next year.”
Grider (68-78) and Thomas Ruch (74-72) tied for third at 146. Ike Brinson (72-75) finished fifth at 147, followed by defending champion Austin Proffitt (72-76) at 148.
Drew Day (71-78) and Jackson Kerber (70-79) tied for seventh at 149. Ross Pushor (69-82) was ninth at 151, and Bryce Turner (75-77) and Luke VanDeventer (72-80) tied for 10th at 152.
Meanwhile, Bryce Kirchner, a Jennings County graduate who will be a junior at Vincennes University, fired the round of the day. His 2-under 70, which followed a 78 on Saturday, was enough to catapult him to victory in the First Flight with a 148.
Brian Jones (81-80) won the Second Flight with a 161.
In the Senior Division, Jim Turner made the most of his first venture into the 60-and-over field. The winner of Open Division titles in 1998 and 2001, he shot rounds of 73 at Greenbelt and 79 at Otter Creek to take the Senior Division with a 152, five shots ahead of Jim Wright.
“I played good at Greenbelt for me,” Jim Turner said. “I didn’t play particularly well today. But I had kind of a big lead, and I hung on. I did make a couple big numbers on the front, but I shot even on the back, so I got it back together a little bit.”
The champion of the open and senior divisions and each flight won a year membership to Otter Creek.
