Eric Birkle had one of the great bounce-back rounds in Tour history to take the Chelsea Classic title. After a disappointing 27th finish the day before, he made a final hole birdie to become the season’s first double winner as well as the first double winner in the 21 year history of the Chelsea Classic. Birkle’s birdie was a dramatic flip within his group as playing partner Don Ward bogeyed to finish T-2 at 1 over par 72. At the moment it may not have seemed so climactic as Birkle still trailed or was tied with 5 players on the course. But the final 3 holes at Hudson Mills proved to be a vicious finish, raining bogeys and double bogeys on the contenders including Brian Lardin who also finished T-2. One bright spot was the birdie-par-eagle finish of T.R. Litzler, who’s charge fell one shot short and joined the T-2 group.
On course prizes went to Birkle and Pin Lardin. Â Notables: Chuck Withey finished in the money in his 350th Tour start, 4th most on Tour behind Jeff Klipa, Greg Kline and Rich Dunmore. Ward hit 11 greens to Ryan Kiekbusch’s 10. Helen Puffenberger led with 10 fairways to Birkle’s 9. Willi Hesse led with 6 birdies to 5 for Lardin, Mike Fox, Puffenberger, Tyler Floyd and Mike Geisser. All probably felt it wasn’t enough. Corey McCue, Noah Kline and Kevin Gregoire all had chip-ins. Birkle waited 10 years for his 2nd Chelsea triumph, getting the first in 2015 at Pierce Lake.Â
Birkle gets his 8th Tour win in his 212th start and becomes the all-time money winner for the Chelsea Classic.