Depending on the last shot struck, golf can be both an exhilarating and miserable pursuit, a yin and yang that’s best exemplified during the finals of a match- play tournament.
Throughout Friday’s Colorado Golf Association event at Bear Creek Golf Club, Tom Gempel and Steve Ziegler found themselves roiling in the throes of a two-man, 36-hole war of attrition, a battle in which the self-inflicted pressure seemed to increase tenfold with the knowledge that, at any given time, one stroke, spectacular or putrid, could mean the difference between winning or losing.
“You definitely have to hate this game sometimes,” Ziegler said. “You gotta love, but you gotta hate it too, because you can hit a perfect shot and it still may not work out. Better shots increase your probability of having a better outcome, but it’s only a probability.”
Perhaps that’s why, even twice holding a 2-up advantage over the final 18 holes — the second time with just three holes remaining — Gempel couldn’t take victory for granted. Perhaps, after 34 holes of the championship match, which came after a Herculean 44-hole effort Thursday in order just to reach the first tee Friday, it would be hard to assume much of anything, let alone a 2-foot putt.
So it was that, after losing half of his advantage when an approach shot flew the green and found water, Gempel missed a virtual gimme on the 35th hole, allowing Ziegler to square the match. Then, after Ziegler opened the door for extra holes by missing a 5-footer on the 36th green, Gempel missed another tap-in, allowing his opponent to come away with the championship.
“I’m pretty disappointed,” Gempel, a former University of Colorado golfer, said. “I was definitely feeling pretty nervous; I held it off for most of the day, but it kind of got me in the end.”
The triumph continued a most excellent summer adventure for Ziegler. A junior at Stanford, last month Ziegler was a member of the U.S. squad at the Palmer Cup at Cherry Hills Country Club, gaining a point against a squad of European-born collegiate players.
But the Broomfield High graduate admitted his new Zen-like approach to match play was hard to maintain in the face of the barrage of shots Gempel was throwing at him. Ziegler won the 21st hole to go 1-up, but didn’t win another until the 27th, going 2-down in the process. He squared the match by holing out a 60-degree wedge from 78 yards out on the 29th hole, but lost that momentum two holes later when, after a bad tee shot and wedge back to the fairway, Gempel hit a 5-iron some 220 yards to within a foot of the cup for a birdie, which kept the match square.
Gempel made another birdie on the next hole and yet another on the 33rd hole. At that point, Ziegler admitted his chances came down to “make birdie, make birdie, make birdie and hope it works out.”
It did, when Gempel was unable to seal the deal.
“I missed a bunch of short ones all week,” he said. “I guess it just caught up with me today.”
Anthony Cotton: 303-954-1292 or acotton@denverpost.com
