Kelly Arnold wins 2nd Match Play title, 6th major victory
Kelly Arnold won the 2012 Match Play Championship on Sunday winning 4 matches in 2 days after Mother Nature pushed Friday’s opening round into Saturday morning. Arnold also won the Match Play title in 2009, at the Links at Whitmore Lake, and now has 6 major victories on his resume – tying him with David Martin for 3rd most in Tour history and trailing only Greg Kline (9) and Rick Persichetti (7) in grand slam wins.
Arnold beat Steve Villerot 4&3 on Saturday morning and followed that with a close win against Erik Meland 2-up. In the Sunday morning semi-finals, Arnold beat Charlie Roy in another close match 2&1 before needing extra holes against Tom W Litzler to secure the title. It was the first time in Match Play history that the championship match needed extra holes to define a winner. Arnold’s par 4 on the Woodands’ first hole was the winning score when Litzler made a bogey.
Charlie Roy won the 3rd place match over Jon Heikkinen. But Heikkinen earned the consolation prize of a 2-year Tour exemption when he aced the 198-yard 15th hole. Hiekkinen was fighting his way back from a 6-hole deficit but finally yielded on the 17th hole 2&1 to Roy.
