When it was time for Wyatt Provence to live up to the hype this weekend, he answered the call.
Provence, a Randall graduate now playing at the University of New Mexico, entered this weekend’s Michelob Ultra Men’s City Championship at Ross Rogers Golf Complex as the defending champion. Sunday afternoon at the Mustang Course, he showed why.
After two close down to the last hole or next to last hole finishes over the weekend, Provence had a relatively comfortable championship match against Kent Neal, winning 4 and 3 to successfully defend his title.
The road to the title featured a 2 and 1 quarterfinal win over his older brother Stetson on Saturday. In Sunday’s semifinal, Wyatt needed to go to the final hole to defeat Andrew Brewer 1-up to reach the final.
“Honestly I just signed up to have some fun for a weekend and not take a golf tournament so seriously,” Provence said. “I had a great time and enjoyed it. I definitely had to play some good golf this weekend. I did a few things where I got away with not playing my best, but I ended up getting it done.”
Provence never trailed against Neal, who beat Michael Case 1 up on the 20th hole in Sunday’s other semifinal. Neal didn’t help his cause when he hit an errant drive into the weeds on the second hole and couldn’t find the ball, which led to him conceding the hole to Provence in the match play format, the first win of the match for Provence.
A hot start helped Provence, who birdied four of the first six holes, and birdies on Nos. 4 and 6 gave him a 3-up advantage. Neal closed the front nine with a birdie to cut the margin to 2-up and appeared to have a bit of momentum heading into the back nine.
However, Neal hit his second drive of the day out of bounds to open the back nine and ended up conceding his second hole of the day to Provence to give back the hole he won. After Provence won No. 11 with a birdie and No. 13, which Neal three-putted, Provence had a significant advantage with only five holes left.
“I put two bad swings on a driver, and it cost me two holes,” Neal said. “A three-putt on 13 cost me. I also knew coming into it against Wyatt that I’d have to play lights out. He plays every day and he’s a college golfer.”
Neal kept things mathematically interesting by birdieing No. 14 to stay alive, but when he and Provence halved No. 15, that gave Provence the win.
Provence took some momentum into the final by beating Brewer in the final hole of regulation, getting up and down for a par on No. 18 to win the hole. It gave him the confidence that he could defend his title.
“I think it helped a lot because Andrew’s a great player, especially at Ross,” Provence said. “He knows these greens better than anyone. He was pushing me, and I was pushing him, we had a real back and forth match.”
It was very similar to Wyatt’s victory over Stetson a day earlier, which left him with mixed emotions.
“It was fun,” Wyatt said. “I hate beating him but I just have to.”
Michelob Ultra City Men’s Championship flight winners
Presidents Flight: Cody Whipple def. Thaddeus Willeford, 3 and 2
First Flight: Daniel Higgins def. Billy Blankenship, 2 and 1
Second Flight: Wes Berger def. Blake Hurst, 2-up
Third Flight: Les Jones def. Steve Williams, 1-up
Fourth Flight: Jeff Loerwald def. Rodney Hill, 1-up
Fifth Flight: David Vasquez def. Tyler Scott, 2 and 1
Sixth Flight: Michael McKinney def. Ed Delgado, 6 and 5
Seventh Flight: Brady Hochstein def. Tim Williams, 4 and 3
Check out the results
For a look at the full results from the Michelob Ultra City Championship, please visit: https://www.golfgenius.com/pages/11717981037148548543
Photo gallery by Roy Wheeler:
