ATHOL — As a 20-year-old, 10-handicap golfer, Nelson Leadbetter didn’t think 2018 would be “his year” as he described it. When he entered the 2018 Ellinwood Country Club Championship, he hadn’t set any expectation for himself. Coming off of the 18th hole, it took Leadbetter a moment to realize he had taken over as Club Champion.
“Having all those people up at the green, congratulating me after it happened, just going into the back nine, I didn’t even realize how many strokes I was up,” said Leadbetter. “I never really had the exact number in my mind, I was just trying to focus on myself, just try to stay consistent enough, not make any big mistakes and I was able to keep the lead for the rest of the day.”
It was the first Club Championship win for Leadbetter, who had previously won team events, but nothing as big as the Club Championship.
“It was my most significant win since I started my golfing career, so it was very exciting,” said Leadbetter. “When I saw my parents up on the green, it made me very emotional. It was a great moment.”
Leadbetter began golfing at 10-years-old.
He shot a three-day total of 231, beating out second-place finisher John Gale (240) by nine strokes. Leadbetter played consistent golf, shooting 75-75-81 on each day. He posted the low score for round two. He also led by four strokes over Gale and the rest of the field after two rounds, shooting a combined 150 to Gale’s 154.
Knowing he had the lead going into the final round, Leadbetter decided he wanted to play conservative, which allowed Gale to take early lead from him during round three. Leadbetter went against his conservative approach and regained the lead with 10 holes to go. He finished his round with seven straight pars to finish in first.
“When (Gale) took a lead, I knew I had to play my game and not conservative because, obviously, it wasn’t working,” said Leadbetter. “I knew I had a lead on him going into the third round and I ended up losing it early, so I was like, ‘I’ve just got to play my own game, stop trying to protect the lead’ because I didn’t have it.”
Leadbetter felt he handled the pressure well down the stretch. As other finished their final rounds, they began following Leadbetter and Gale. He received subtle complements as he went about the course. Leadbetter knew many of the other competitors, so he felt he had a lot of support from them entering the tournament and entering the final round.
“I’ve never had people follow me around, watching me golf before,” said Leadbetter. “They all knew I was young, so they all told me to keep my nerves in check and I felt like I just lived up to the pressure really well in those final seven holes.”
“I had a lot of support from (competitors) going into the weekend, wishing me good luck,” added Leadbetter. “I had Dave King (who finished tied for 11th) for example, he was very supportive of me the whole weekend. I woke up to a text Sunday morning before I even went out to start the day, wishing me good luck. … A lot of guys were supportive of me and wanted me to do well.”
Gale shot 74-80-86 for a combined 240. Steve Garrity took third place with a combined 242 (76-80-86). Zach Rand (86-76-81) finished tied for fourth with Tom Sylwestrzak (81-80-82) as both shot a combined 243. Matt Bardsley (82-79-83) and Tom Carrier (82-78-84) tied for sixth place, both shooting a combined 244.
Ron Quesnel won the Ellinwood second flight Net Championship, shooting a net 137 to defeat Brett Kreiger (139) by two strokes.
Participants in the Net Championship factor their handicap into their final net by subtracting their handicap from their total score. For example, if a player shot an 80 and is a 10-handicap, their net for the round is 70.
Quesnel shot a 69 after round one one and 68 after round two after factoring in the golfer’s handicap. Kreiger shot 69 after round one and 70 after round two.
Doug Kaczmarczyk (74-66) took third with a net of 140. He tied with Mark Gauthier Sr., who shot 65-75 for a net of 140. Jon Bramhall (73-77) took fifth with a net of 150.