Carson Bacha didn’t even see his one-in-a-million shot go in the hole, but he knew something good had happened based on the reaction of a handful of spectators at the seventh green.
Bacha knew it was a good shot from the moment he pured a 6-iron from 187 yards on the 511-yard par 5. He just didn’t know how good. The ball bounced a few feet in front of the hole location and skipped one more time before going into the hole for a double-eagle. That rarity was enough the give the Auburn junior enough breathing room to coast to the victory at the 55th Dogwood Invitational at Druid Hills Golf Club on Saturday.
Bacha started the day with a two-shot lead over Georgia Tech’s Bartley Forrester. He played a steady, bogey-free round with three birdies and one huge albatross. When he wrote down the “2″ on his scorecard, his lead went to six shots, and the tournament was his to lose.
Bacha finished with a 66, giving him a 22-under 266 and a five-shot win over Scotty Kennon of Wake Forest, who shot 66 and finished 17 under. Forrester shot 70 and placed third at 16 under. Reigning Georgia Amateur champion and recent Westminster School graduate Harris Barth, a Furman signee, was fourth at 14 under.
“I had a lot of confidence coming into this week,” Bacha said. “I played here last year and really like the course. It’s a course that you just need to wedge and drive really well. Driving is one the strongest parts of my game, and I hit wedges very good this week. I gave myself so many birdie opportunities.”
The long odds for making an albatross don’t seem to apply to Bacha. That was the fourth of his career, including a couple of them at Auburn this spring. He did a nice job staying calm in the aftermath, pausing to repair a couple of ball marks on the green before bending over to retrieve his trophy from the cup. There was double fist-bump with his dad, Kevin, who was his caddie for the week, but little other emotion.
“It actually probably settled me down a little bit because then I wasn’t so worried,” Bacha said. “That kind of opened up a little bit of a gap.”
He never staggered and put it away with birdies at No. 15 and No. 18. Through the four rounds, Bacha had only two bogeys and one double-bogey.
“I really just stayed in the moment all day, no matter how big of a lead I had,” he said. “I was just focusing on the next shot and didn’t really let it soak in until making the last putt on 18 there. I got to look over at my dad and just got smiles. It was really cool.”
Bacha had a stretch of good play during the college season, culminating at the NCAA Championships, where he tied for 20th to lead the Tigers to a 10th-place finish. He played in eight events and tied for 10th at the Nexus Championship, tied for 12th at the Tiger Invitational and tied for 17th at the NCAA Norman Regional.
Bach is the second Auburn player to win the tournament in the past three events. Brandon Mancheno took the title in 2019.
“At the beginning of the week my coach at Auburn (Nick Clinard) told me to go and win that thing,” Bacha said. “I told him I would, so it feels really good to hold my word and get it done.”
About the Author
