AURORA — Gunner Wiebe, the 21-year-old son of two-time PGA Tour winner Mark Wiebe, rallied Friday to win his first Colorado Golf Association tournament in the 110th Match Play Championship.
Given that Mark was Gunner’s caddie, and his family and girlfriend walked with him during the scheduled 36-hole final round against Klinton Krieger, it was certainly a memorable tournament.
“I’m way, way too happy to win. I’m just dead tired,” Wiebe said after he and Krieger played eight rounds in five days at CommonGround Golf Course. “I wish I had a little more emotion in me, but I’m beat. It was so cool.”
Wiebe’s comeback was a beauty. He was 3-down early and took his first lead on the 32nd hole. He birdied the 33rd and 35th holes to finish 2-up and eliminate the need to play the 36th hole. It went down as a 2-and-1 victory against Krieger, a University of Denver golfer from Cheyenne.
“It means a lot to me, more so than people realize, because I’ve always played in the Colorado stuff, the stroke play and match play as much as I can, and this is the first time I’ve won,” Wiebe said. “I think this might be one of my last ones, depending on how long I stay amateur after school ends next year. So it was kind of crunch time, maybe my last opportunity to win one.”
Wiebe, a senior-to-be at the University of San Diego, was 1-down against Krieger after the first 18 holes. They were tied going into No. 15, a treacherous, 505-yard par 4 that Wiebe managed to win in the morning round with a triple bogey (because Krieger made a quadruple bogey).
This time, No. 15 was good to Wiebe. Both 21-year-olds hit giant tee shots, but Wiebe put his 139-yard approach shot 3 feet from the pin.
“I hit a wedge that landed about 3 inches (from the cup) and it spun back to about 3 feet,” Wiebe said. “It was a nice place to take a lead.”
On No. 17, a 243-yard par 3, Wiebe put his tee shot within 8 feet of the pin. Krieger missed the green and conceded the hole and the tournament after missing his par putt.
Krieger, whose father, Ken, won the 1977 CGA match-play title, was pleased with his performance.
“It was good to get here and obviously awesome to play Gunner. We had a great time,” Krieger said. “He’s a great player, but with someone like that, you have to hit good shots coming down the stretch.
“But I was struggling a lot at the end of the college golf season, and I’ve really come a long way since then. So it’s nice to be back playing good.”
Mike Chambers: 303-954-1357 or mchambers@denverpost.com
