Coleman Glick may be a boring golfer, but he’s OK with that.
In Sunday’s final round of the City Golf Tournament at Otter Creek, Glick made 16 consecutive pars. The 2011 Columbus North graduate bookended those pars with birdies on No. 1 and No. 18 to close with a 2-under-par 70 and capture his fourth city title in a tournament that brought in a charity component this year.
“They kept telling me I was boring, so in golf, that’s a good thing,” Glick said. “I thought I’d need to shoot something in the 60s, but 70 was close enough.”
Glick had opened with a 1-over 73 Saturday at Greenbelt and finished at 1-under 143 for the tournament. He called Sunday’s round “dramatically better” than Saturday.
“I hit the ball really well,” Glick said. “I chipped well. I putted good enough. I left a lot of putts short. I could have made four or five more, but that’s golf. You’re always going to have shots left out.”
With first-round leader Drew Day struggling to a 43 on the front nine Sunday, Glick and Eric Grider stepped to the forefront. Grider took lead with a birdie on No. 8, but bogeyed No. 9, and he and Glick were tied going to back nine.
Grider, a 2007 Columbus East graduate, bogeyed No. 10, and Glick led the rest of the way. Grider, who followed his 72 on Saturday with a 75 Sunday, finished second at 147, four shots behind Glick.
“I had my chances,” Grider said. “I made some putts out there, but Coleman was rock-solid all day long. He didn’t have any bogeys at all. He didn’t leave the door open very often for me. He just played so rock solid.”
Former Indiana University golfer and former Timbergate pro Eric Wieneke (73-77) finished third at 150. Day, a 2011 East graduate, was the only player to go under par on Saturday, but shot 80 on Sunday and took fourth at 151.
Glick wasn’t the only player to become a four-time champion on Sunday. Jim Turner, who won two men’s city titles, captured the men’s senior division for the second consecutive year with rounds of 78 and 75 for a 153.
“I didn’t putt very well at Greenbelt, and then we had some kind of bad weather,” Turner said. “But it’s OK. I survived, and I played a lot better today.”
Ed Settle finished second in the men’s senior division with rounds of 92 and 85 for a 177.
Meanwhile, Veronica Burton became a first-time city women’s champion in only her second year playing in the tournament. Burton shot rounds of 81 and 79 for a 160.
Burton, who moved to the United States from Argentina in 1999, has been playing golf for about 10 years.
“I have a friend that told me, ‘You should play this game,’ and I listened to her,” Burton said. “I had a chance to play (in the city tournament) last year, and I came back this year and I played very well today.”
Carolyn Dailey won the senior women’s division.
John Ferguson (77-76—153) won the men’s first flight, while Tanner Bennett (77-79—156) took second. Steve Todd (86-81—167) won the men’s second flight, while Ed Hopkins (85-85—170) and Mark Mayhew (83-87—170) tied for second.
Otter Creek pro Tim Davis plans to take all of those men’s, women’s and senior division champions and runners-up and the flight winners and runners-up to Indiana University’s new Pfau Course for a shootout.
Davis put this year’s tournament together with the idea to raise money for charity. Following Sunday’s final round, Davis and Otter Creek general manager Wiley Umphress presented a $3,000 check to the Columbus’ D.A.R.E. program.
“The PGA Tour leaves money behind every week to a local community,” Davis said. “So I just think if we’re going to go play golf in a competitive manner as we did, we thought, ‘Let’s put some charity into it, let’s put some work into it and let’s help out some kids in the city of Columbus. So we chose D.A.R.E. for this component because the men and women played at the same time, and it was a non-gender charity that everybody could embrace. We all helped kids in Columbus.”
