Kilbride wins first Snohomish County Am

Published 11:33 pm Monday, May 31, 2010

EVERETT — On an afternoon of bad breaks and funny bounces for several contenders, Lance Kilbride hoped to hang around long enough to stay in contention during Monday’s final round of the Snohomish County Amateur golf tournament.

As it turned out, the 48-year-old Kilbride hung around long enough — and well enough — to win the 80th-annual County Am by a single stroke in a dramatic finish at Everett Golf and Country Club.

Playing in the day’s final foursome, Kilbride took advantage of an opportune birdie on the 16th hole to move into a tie for first place with Matt Epstein, who was playing one foursome in front. Moments later, after Epstein took a costly double-bogey on the 17th hole, Kilbride was sitting atop a two-shot lead.

Epstein carved the deficit in half with a birdie on No. 18, but Kilbride was able to protect his margin with short par putts on the last two holes for his first County Am victory in his seventh try. He finished his day with a 1-over-par 73 for a three-day total of 2-under 212.

“This is my biggest (tournament win), no doubt about it,” said Kilbride, whose last victory was the Kitsap Amateur in 2008. “My mom was here, riding in a cart, and she was almost tearing up at the end. This was really great.”

On a day that began under menacing gray skies and ended up with broken clouds and occasional sunbreaks, Kilbride started in third place, two strokes behind leader John Pechan. Then, to Kilbride’s dismay, he dropped three strokes to par on the first five holes to trail new leader John Barhanovich by five strokes.

“I was getting down in the dumps,” admitted Kilbride, the assistant superintendent at Mukilteo’s Harbour Pointe Golf Club. But his caddy Keith Coleman, the head superintendent — hence, Kilbride’s boss — and the 1998 County Am champ, “kept telling me, ‘Just keep it focused, keep it focused.’ … I wasn’t hitting it very good, but I putted really well. And I just kept making pars.”

In the meantime, other top contenders began to fade.

Pechan, who led after each of the first two rounds, struggled badly and ended up shooting 12-over 84. Barhanovich led after the first hole until the 12th, when he fell into a tie with Kilbride — and, briefly, Bob Burton — but Barhanovich had trouble on the back nine and finished with a 6-over 78.

Epstein, who began the day five shots off the lead at even-par 142, became the final round’s third outright leader when he rolled in a 20-foot birdie putt on No. 15 to drop to 2-under. Kilbride was a stroke behind, as was four-time County Am champ Alex Stamey, who was in Epstein’s foursome, one group in front of Kilbride.

And then came the most pivotal five minutes of the tournament.

Kilbride reached the 16th green in two shots and rolled in a 15-foot putt for birdie — “It was my most aggressive putt of the day by far, and the most important putt I made, too,” he said — prompting a big roar from that gallery just as Epstein, Stamey and their playing partners were reaching the 17th green.

And No. 17 would be costly to both Epstein and Stamey.

Epstein, an Everett G&CC member who recently finished his second season as a member of the Bellevue Community College golf team, hit his tee shot in the trees left of the fairway, got hung up in the rough with his second shot, hit his third shot over the green, and then chipped on and two-putted for a double-bogey 6.

Stamey, meanwhile, put his approach right of the green and chipped on, but then two-putted from 31/2 feet for a bogey 5. And just like that, Kilbride went from a one-stroke deficit to a two-stroke lead — even though he had no idea.

He wasn’t sure of his place, in fact, until he tapped in a 2-footer on No. 18, and then turned to Coleman and asked, “Did I win?”

He got his answer in a big hug from Coleman, followed by more congratulations from other family and friends who’d gathered around the final green.

Moments before, Epstein had closed his tournament with a birdie on No. 18, meaning he still had hope. If Kilbride had bogeyed the last hole, the two men would have headed to a playoff.

“Obviously, you never want to see another player do badly,” said the 21-year-old Epstein, a 2007 graduate of Monroe High School. “But obviously I would’ve liked to win.

“But (Kilbride) earned it,” he added. “He played well all three days. … And for the most part I felt good about my round. I kept myself in (contention). I just couldn’t quite get the W.”

The second division, for golfers with handicaps from 5.1 to 11.2, played its final round at Everett’s Legion Memorial. Jerry Rizzuto from Snohomish Golf Course, was the low-net winner with a 7-under 207 after a final-round 66, one shot better than Allen Keophilavanh from Legion Memorial, who closed with a 64, and Doug Baker of Marysville’s Battle Creek, who had a 71.

The third division, for golfers with handicaps from 11.3 to 20.8, also played its final round at Legion Memorial. Carl Tingelstad was the low-net winner with a 13-under 201 after a final-round 71. He was five shots better than Tim Romo from Battle Creek, who had a final-round 72.