It took an extra hole this time, but Patrick Flavin was the golfer last standing for the second straight year, winning the Asher Tour\u2019s $150,000 Bakersfield Open with a short putt for birdie on No. 18, the first playoff hole on Friday at the par-72 Bakersfield Country Club.<\/p>\n
Flavin, who lives in Arizona, and Texas\u2019 John Sand were tied at 13 under par after 54 regulation holes. Sand, who had scores of 68 and 69 in the opening two rounds, fired an 8-under 63 Friday, making eight birdies, to earn his spot in a sudden-death playoff. Flavin, who had back-to-back rounds of 66, shot 68 Friday. He was consistent with five birdies each day, but none better than his last two on 18.<\/p>\n
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He made a 25-foot putt on 18 to tie Sand and force the playoff.<\/p>\n
\u201cI knew I needed to make it,\u201d Flavin said. \u201cIt was straight uphill and I knew I had to give it a good whack. I kind of knew it was going in. When it did, it really got me fired up. You always think about those moments when you make a putt you really need.\u201d<\/p>\n
It also got him going when the playoff started. \u201cIt was an adrenaline rush,\u201d he said. \u201cMy goal was to go after a birdie on the first playoff hole. I truly felt I could do that and win.\u201d<\/p>\n
He lived up to the \u201csudden-death\u201d billing, quickly hitting his second shot about 5 feet from the cup. He had to wait for Sand\u2019s shot to the green, which landed in the middle and underneath the cup and it rolled back. Sand\u2019s long shot for birdie had to fall to put pressure on Flavin to make birdie. Sand\u2019s shot had the length, but it went left. It would have been a close par putt to extend the playoff had Flavin not birdied.<\/p>\n
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Flavin\u2019s playoff win marked the first time the Bakersfield Open had been decided in a playoff since 2016.<\/p>\n
Flavin, who will turn 30 in a couple of days, has now earned a second straight birthday present thanks to the Bakersfield Open. He received a second straight winner\u2019s check for $30,000. Sand, who said he will be getting married in two months, received $14,000 as the runner-up.<\/p>\n
Flavin\u2019s win Friday had a few similar traits to his 2025 triumph. He made his shots and had to contend with a golfer who had a big final day. Last year, he sank a putt on the 18th hole to win the tournament in regulation by one shot. He held off University of Minnesota golfer Ben Warian, who shot a 10-under 61 with 11 birdies. Flavin shot a 68 on the final day, just as he did this year and he also finished at 13 under par last year.<\/p>\n
Kern County Golfers at Bakersfield Open<\/p>\n
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Bhavik Patel was the top finisher among Kern County-based golfers, ending up in a three-way tie for ninth place at 9 under with rounds of 67, 69 and 68.<\/p>\n
Manav Shah and Ridgecrest\u2019s Devon Bling were in the next group, finishing at 8 under and tied for 12th. Shah shot 67, 70 and 68. Bling went 68-69-68. Adam Duncan (68-70-69) and Jared Kinoshita (65-68-74) were in a group tied for 19th at 6 under. Kinoshita played Friday\u2019s final round alongside Flavin.<\/p>\n
Bakersfield golfers who did not make the 2-under-par cut after Thursday\u2019s second round were John Balfanz (even), Neil Bautista (1 over), Petr Janik (8 over), Joseph Choi (9 over), Ghanish Shah (11 over), Carson Sorci, a Garces High graduate playing as an amateur (12 over), Nick Chacon (13 over), Kaidin Conrad (16 over) and Paul Guerra (19 over).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It took an extra hole this time, but Patrick Flavin was the golfer last standing for the second…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":83358,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[151,153,152,84905,84904,55417],"class_list":{"0":"post-178913","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-bakersfield","8":"tag-bakersfield","9":"tag-bakersfield-headlines","10":"tag-bakersfield-news","11":"tag-flavin","12":"tag-playoff-hole","13":"tag-sand"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178913","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=178913"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178913\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/83358"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=178913"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=178913"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=178913"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}