The 48-year-old golfer won his first Invitational title in six years, 29 years after he won his first, downing Scott Wilke 4-up on Monday. <\/p>\n
THUNDER BAY \u2013 It was a record-tying day for Robert Cumming at the Strathcona Invitational.<\/p>\n
The 48-year-old, buoyed by chip-ins on the fourth and eighth holes, outlasted former winner Scott Wilke, winning Monday\u2019s championship final 4-up to capture his seventh title at the 95-year-old event, tying Barry Caland for the most in tournament history.<\/p>\n
It never gets old, said Cumming, whose last title came in 2019.<\/p>\n
However, when the competition started, he didn\u2019t think he had much of a chance.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt feels great. This one kind of came out of left field. I haven\u2019t been playing very well. I wasn\u2019t really expecting a whole lot this week, but it came together well today,\u201d Cumming said.<\/p>\n
Catching Caland, who won his titles between 1992 and 2010, is special, he added.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt feels good, I\u2019ve got to say. That\u2019s a big number. When I started playing< I never thought I\u2019d get to that number and I\u2019m happy to be alongside him here.\u201d<\/p>\n
No. 7 came 29 years after his first, when he beat Peter Lovis in the 1996 final.<\/p>\n
Nearly three decades later, he still hasn\u2019t lost the love for the game, or the tournament.<\/p>\n
He might not play all the local majors, but this one \u2013 which his father Bob worked tirelessly to organize for decades \u2013 will always hold a special place in his heart.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s my favourite tournament. I look forward to it every year. I\u2019ve pared down my schedule a lot the last few years, but this is one I\u2019ll never miss.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cumming said it was definitely his touch around the green that brought him to the top of the podium once again.<\/p>\n
The chip-in on four was no gimme, his second shot finding the elevated turf between the green and the fifth tee box.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was one-in-million from high left on four,\u201d he said. \u201cI chipped that in and I chipped in for eagle on eight. And my putter was outstanding too. It was probably the best chipping and putting round I\u2019ve ever had.\u201d
<\/p>\n
The shot on eighth was for eagle.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Up three after nine in the match-play format, he used the flat stick to snag another hole on the tricky 10th green at Strathcona Golf Course.<\/p>\n
Wilke, who had just over 100 yards in, left his ball high on the downward sloping green. Cumming, who was 96 yards out, left himself about a dozen or so feet up the hill for his birdie.<\/p>\n
Wilke slide wide left, Cumming dropped in the cup and the lead was four-up.<\/p>\n
Wilke then three-putted the par 3 11th green, giving away a chance to get one back on Cumming, who missed the green to the left and had to punch on, leading to a two-putt birdie.<\/p>\n
Cumming went five-up on the 1th, draining another birdie from below the hole, and when Wilke\u2019s birdie putt on 13 missed, the match was at dormie.<\/p>\n
Cumming lipped out for a match-winning birdie on No. 14, but closed it out one hole later when Wilke\u2019s birdie putt wouldn\u2019t fall.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought I played pretty well. I hit the ball good today. I just didn\u2019t put as good as I\u2019d like to. All in all, it was a good weekend,\u201d said Wilke, the 2022 champion.<\/p>\n
Caland captured the senior title, beating John Shaw 5&4. Mark Willianen was the super senior champion, beating Bruce Dafoe 1 up and Geoff Pattyson won the masters title, winning 4-up over Brian Mallon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The 48-year-old golfer won his first Invitational title in six years, 29 years after he won his first,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":45936,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[443],"tags":[49,48,622,32141,82],"class_list":["post-45935","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-golf","tag-golfstrathcona-invitational","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45935","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45935"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45935\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45936"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45935"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45935"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45935"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}