Despite their status as elite amateurs, Cole Tidwell had never met Stephen Behr. That changed when Behr and his father, Steve, were invited to dinner at the house that Tidwell and his buddies had rented while they competed in the PGA National Club Championship in Pinehurst, N.C.
A few days after getting to know each other over a meal, Tidwell and Behr both found themselves holding a national championship trophy. Behr won the men’s title, and Tidwell emerged as the senior men’s champion, giving Georgia a sweep of the men’s divisions in a field made up entirely of club champions from across the country.
Behr, 27, was an All-ACC and All-American player at Clemson who led the team in scoring average for three years and won the Byron Nelson Award as a senior. Now a sales support associate for SAP, he qualified by being the club champion at The Golf Club of Georgia in Alpharetta, which has developed a reputation for being a player’s track.
Behr shot rounds of 66-79-69 for a 2-under 214, which was good enough to beat Jack Roberts, the 13-year-old club champion from The Club at Osprey Cove in St. Mary’s, by four shots.
What made it better for Behr was the presence of his father as his caddie. The elder Behr has had a long and distinguished career as a PGA professional, the past 25 years at Florence (S.C.) Country Club.
“Winning a national championship was great,” Behr said. “Being able to do it with my father, spending some quality time with him all week, made it even better.”
Credit: Contributed
Credit: Contributed
Tidwell is the club champion at Idle Hour in Macon, an old-school course with small greens that demands precision. When officials called to confirm Tidwell’s intention to play, he learned that, at age 51, he was eligible to play in the senior division. Senior competition in USGA events begins at age 55, but this was conducted by the PGA of America, where senior eligibility begins at 50. He wisely aged up.
Tidwell shot rounds of 70-75-74 for a 3-over 219 and gave him a two-shot win over Bob Brooks of Arizona. Tidwell’s first round was his best, and it came on the famous Pinehurst No. 2 course.
“It’s kind of funny that I won my first senior event that I played in,” Tidwell said. “Because I won the first high school tournament I played in and my first college tournament.”
Tidwell, the president of Tidwell and Hillburn Insurance, played college golf at Augusta State.
All four Georgians in the senior division – who each shared the same home for the week -- finished in the top 15: Trey Freeman of Brunswick Country Club was third, Craig Entwistle of Idle Hour tied for seventh, and Bob Young of Sea Island Golf Club tied for 16th.
In the men’s division, Ty Hampel of Pinetree Country Club in Kennesaw was 32nd and Samuel Wells II of Browns Mill Golf Course in Atlanta tied for 80th. Megan Heberle of Savannah Golf Club, Georgia’s only female qualifier, tied for 38th.
Credit: KRISTIN M. BRADSHAW
Credit: KRISTIN M. BRADSHAW
UGA hosts 49th Liz Murphey Classic
One of the top women’s golf fields has been assembled for the 49th annual Liz Murphey Collegiate Classic at the University of Georgia Golf Course this weekend.
The 54-hole tournament, which begins Friday and concludes Sunday, includes 28 golfers who have been invited to the Augusta National Women’s Amateur, nine teams ranked among the top 25 and four in the top 10 – No. 1 South Carolina, No. 6 Ole Miss, No. 7 Southern Cal and No. 9 LSU. Georgia is ranked 13th by Golfstat and 15th by Golfweek.
The tournament, named in honor of the school’s former golf coach and administrator, was postponed last spring, but was conducted as a fall event, with Auburn winning.
Around the campus
Davis Thompson was co-medalist at the Tiger Invitational at the RTJ Grand National’s Lake Course in Opelika, Ala. It was the third win of his career and solidified his hold as No. 1 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking. The senior shot 10-under 206 and helped the Bulldogs finish sixth. …
Georgia Tech was second at the Linger Longer Invitational at Reynolds Lake Oconee’s Great Waters course. The Yellow Jackets finished 14 under, but that was 11 shots behind a red-hot Charlotte team. Georgia Tech’s Noah Norton tied for third, his third consecutive top-three finish, with a 4-under 208, and Christo Lamprecht tied for fifth at 6 under. Kennesaw State was 11th, Mercer was 12th, Augusta was 15th and Georgia State was 16th. …
Georgia State’s Petra Duran shot a first-round 67 in the Spring Break Invitational, the third-lowest round in program history. …
Piedmont came up one shot short at the Tiger Invite in Pinehurst, N.C., which drew some of the top Division III schools. The Lions were led by Mario Perezcassar, who finished seventh. Emory’s Max Schwarz was medalist at 7-under 137 and helped the Eagles finish fifth.
Miscellaneous
UGA grad and Savannah native Brian Harman earned a spot in next week’s WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play Championship when he tied for third at the Players Championship. That was Harman’s best finish since he was third at The Greenbrier in 2019. … The team of Tyler Holmes, Ryan Haugh, Mike Block and Michael Dudzinski shot a 16-under 56 and prevailed in a three-team playoff to win the Georgia State Park Cup qualifier at The Lakes Golf Course at Laura Walker Park in Waycross. The team earned a spot in the championship weekend at Arrowhead Pointe on May 7-8.
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