With his first-ever Central Alberta Men’s Amateur golf championship title well within his sights Monday, Joey Sereda wasn’t willing to play it safe on the ultra-long, par-4 finishing hole at the Red Deer Golf and Country Club.
So, the Red Deer native and resident of Edmonton for the past seven years grabbed his 5-iron and — from 190 yards out — fired to within 10 feet of the pin on the 18th, then two-putted for a par and pulled out a one-stroke win over defending champion Jordan Krulicki of Red Deer.
“To see it land on the green was a relief, because I knew Jordan was at least going to give it a scare. I had to do something to make him think about it,” said Sereda. “I gave it everything I had on that shot. And overall, I scraped it around pretty good today.”
Indeed, Sereda carded a 3-under 69 to finish with a 54-hole total of 2-under 214 that included earlier rounds of 73-72. Krulicki, tied with Sereda and Dan Soley of Red Deer for the 36-hole lead, carded a final-round 70 and finished at 215 over the three days.
The champ’s finest shot came on the par-3 15th, when he nailed a 3-iron to within four feet and made birdie.
“That put me one up and kind of sealed it,” said Sereda, a former RDG&CC junior player who also competed with the University of Alberta golf team.
The victory was sweet for Sereda, who finished fifth in 2010 and second to Krulicki last year.
“I’ve been gradually getting there,” he said. “This is home for me, so it feels really good to win this. Mom and dad are here so it means a lot.”
On the whole, Sereda was more than satisfied with his three-day performance.
“I scraped it around the first two days. I was a little wayward half the time, but I was able to save it and get into the last round. And I had to put the pedal to the metal on the last nine,” he said.
Krulicki was right there while defending his championship, coming up just a single stroke short.
“I was quite pleased with the way I played this weekend,” he said. “My swing felt better than my scores reflected, but that’s the game of golf.”
Merv Dusyk of Red Deer (74-73-72) and Sean Foley of Calgary (74-72-73) tied for third at 219, while Kyle Morrison of Red Deer came in fourth at 222 (72-74-76). Soley followed with a 223 total that included rounds of 69-76-78, while Jason Thiels of Olds was next with a 226 total that included scores of 75-77-74. Rounding out the top 10 and ties were Red Deer golfers David Misener (72-79-78—229) and Andrew Clark-Marlow (74-81-74—229).
Other Red Deer golfers tied in the top ten were Eric Brodie (78-79-72—229) and Tom Skinner (76-77-76—229).
The top three in each of the first to 10th flights:
First: Blair Neal (77-81-75—233); Doug Quinn, Red Deer (74-77-83—234); Richard Seymour (80-77-78—235).
Second: Chad Miciak (76-71-80—227); Bob Laycock, Calgary (75-75-79—229); Brad Romans, Red Deer (73-81-78—232).
Third: Banx Scott (73-73-77—223); Mike Kooman, Red Deer (73-77-84—234); Blaise Wilson, Red Deer (80-85-79—244).
Fourth: Ken Truhn, Grand Prairie (80-85-80—245); Russ Hall (84-80-83—247); Del Billings, Red Deer (79-83-85—247).
Fifth: Sonny Sedun, Red Deer (79-82-80—241); Chris Schille, Red Deer (89-77-79—245); Darrin Steinke, Red Deer (87-82-78—247).
Sixth: Phil Pattison, Red Deer (85-84-77—246); Rod McWilliam, Red Deer (78-83-85—246); Daryl Tangerman (80-91-81—252).
Seventh: Harry Hobbs, Calgary (79-88-83—250); Greg Gellert, Red Deer (83-88-83—254); Phil Brown (77-93-93—263).
Eighth: Kent Devlin (81-82-85—248); Abe Tuazon (82-87-84—253); Bill Tyler (88-87-80—255).
Ninth: Terry Frere (88-84-91—263); Kevin Sproule, Red Deer (90-87-87—264); Don Kelloway, Red Deer (94-85-89—268).
Tenth: Blaine Cust, Red Deer (84-89-88—261); Brian Inglis, Red Deer (87-98-88—273); Darcy Ludwig, Red Deer (89-96-91—286).