Butler Country Club proved to be a difficult test for the 132 golfers competing in the Pittsburgh Open on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
One golfer called a few of the pin placements on the greens \u201ccriminal.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the end, a sudden-death playoff was needed to decide the winner.<\/p>\n
Lucas Cromeenes, head golf professional at The Pete Dye Golf Course in Bridgeport, W.Va., edged amateur Austin Lemieux on the first playoff hole. He won with a par over Lemieux, the 30-year-old son of Penguins legend Mario Lemieux.<\/p>\n
The Pittsburgh Open is sponsored by Frank B. Fuhrer Wholesale and Pittsburgh Brewing Company.<\/p>\n
Cromeenes, Lemieux, Talon Kreibel and Fox Chapel amateur David Fuhrer II, the grandson of the late Frank B. Fuhrer who started this tournament, were tied for the lead when the day started.<\/p>\n
Mt. Lebanon pro Kevin Shields, who began the day a shot back after shooting an even-par 70, zoomed into the lead with consecutive birdies on Nos. 2, 3 and 4.<\/p>\n
\u201cI knew I needed to get to 4-under, but I bogeyed No. 5,\u201d Shields said. \u201cI got back to 3-under after a birdie on No. 11, but I did not finish well.\u201d<\/p>\n
He concluded his round with three consecutive bogeys.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just did not get it done,\u201d Shields said. \u201cI should have been in the playoffs. I like Butler. I was driving the ball well. This is a long golf course, and I did not know how I would compete.\u201d<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Cromeenes and Lemieux played steady golf.<\/p>\n
After beginning his round with a bogey on No. 1, Cromeenes had par or better over the next 16 holes. His birdies came on Nos. 8 and 16.<\/p>\n
\u201cI struggled with the driver,\u201d Cromeenes said. \u201cI grinded it out, got good lies in the rough and made some putts when I needed it.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was the first time he played at Butler.<\/p>\n
Lemieux stayed even-keeled, birding No. 2, bogeying No. 5 and closing with 13 consecutive pars.<\/p>\n
He tied Cromeenes with a par on No. 18 after as the West Virginia pro got into trouble off the tee when he clipped a tree branch to the right of the fairway and finished with a bogey.<\/p>\n
Lemieux said he was disappointed with his chip on No. 18. It went long and left him with a 15-foot birdie putt downhill.<\/p>\n
On the next hole, Cromeenes was in a fairway bunker, and Lemieux was further ahead in the fairway.<\/p>\n
Cromeenes punched a shot out of the bunker and landed it short, and it rolled onto the green below the cup.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was trying to bounce it up there,\u201d Cromeenes said. \u201cIt was a little further left than I wanted it. There were not many options. I just wanted to bump it up close to the hole.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere were some tough pin placements. You must drive it well here.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lemieux\u2019s chip hit short of the green and rolled back. He putted from the apron, but the putt was not high enough and rolled to the right fringe.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy chip came up shorter than I wanted,\u201d Lemieux said. \u201cI did not execute the putt from the apron. I was pleased with the way I played.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cromeenes two-putted for the win as Lemieux\u2019s par attempt came up short.<\/p>\n
It was Cromeenes\u2019 third consecutive Tri-State Section PGA victory. He previously won the Tri-State Open on June 2 and the Stableford Championship on June 22.<\/p>\n
Fuhrer II, Shields and Kreibel tied for third at 1-over, Rick Stimmer was sixth at 2-over, Mike Van Sickle was seventh at 3-over, Kevin Fajt was eighth at 4-over and Matt Blazewich was ninth at 5-over.<\/p>\n
Easton Renwick and Nick Turowski tied for 10th, and Nixen Erdely, Devin Gee, Justin Moose and Ryan Meyer tied for 12th.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Butler Country Club proved to be a difficult test for the 132 golfers competing in the Pittsburgh Open…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":232380,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[73,75,74],"class_list":["post-232379","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-headlines","tag-pittsburgh-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232379","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=232379"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232379\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/232380"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=232379"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=232379"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=232379"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}