Nealy nabs fifth SOGC women's title

Sep. 6—Seizing her opportunities at seemingly every turn, Johnna Nealy capped a dominant display this week in the 93rd Southern Oregon Golf Championships with her fifth women's title to move into rare company at Rogue Valley Country Club.

It wasn't until her third round of the match play tournament that the reigning champion needed to even tee it up on any of the final few holes at RVCC, and she again made quick work of things Monday to gradually pull away from Kiana Oshiro for a 5-and-4 triumph.

Nealy, a Grants Pass native, previously won 6 and 5 in the first round, 7 and 6 in the second round and then 1 up in Sunday's semifinal versus Trina Jones.

Also securing championships on Monday were Tommy Smith (junior-senior), Kevin Klabunde (senior men), Glen Clark (super senior) and Dick Brekke (legends).

"Going into it this was definitely my end goal," said Nealy. "I knew Kiana was going to be a real challenge, I knew Trina was going to be a real challenge. It was honestly anyone's tournament. Obviously five is very special but, at this point, I want more."

Oshiro, making her SOGC debut, was coming off her own dominant effort in the Rogue Valley Stroke Play Championships, where she flirted with the course record at Centennial Golf Club (64) before settling for a two-day, 12-under-par total of 132 and a five-shot victory.

Nealy, 39, finished 12 strokes back of the 23-year-old Central Point resident in that event, but match play brought about a whole new ballgame for the veteran.

"Match play is a lot different from stroke play," said Oshiro, who qualified as medalist with a 4-under 69. "You always know where you're at in stroke play. The way I compare it is stroke play is a marathon, match play can be a very short sprint depending on how you do. You always know what's going on and in stroke play you can have one bad day but as long as you don't put yourself out of position you can still come back. Match play is just a great sword fight."

During Monday's round, Nealy was able to get an early 1 up lead on Oshiro through four holes and pushed that to 3 up after the front nine.

"I never thought I would be up 2 or 3 on the front side, so that was surprising to me," said Nealy, who figured she would need to go 2- or 3-under-par in her round to keep pace with Oshiro. "When she stuck it close, I did the same thing and I was able to capitalize on a couple putts and I think that was the difference in the match, for sure."

Another key factor in her favor, Nealy said, was in her overall experience at RVCC and in match play itself.

"I think experience does come into play, especially on the inside course," said Nealy. "I don't know how much experience Kiana does have on the inside course, but I know the pin placements and I know to play for bogeys on certain holes, which is what I did, and it paid off somehow."

After winning the first two holes of the back nine, Nealy found herself comfortably in the driver's seat and was dormie through the 13th hole before halving the 14th to claim the match.

"Johnna's a player, she's for sure a player," said Oshiro. "Today I just had an off day. It was a little bit of a struggle for the second shots. I left myself very short-sided a lot and I just had a lot of mental mistakes, but she also just played really well and it was a great match."

With Monday's clinching effort, Nealy has moved into a tie with Sybil O'Bryne, who won all five of her titles in a row from 1987-91, and now stands one SOGC title shy of the all-time women's record of six championships shared by Helen Davies and Ann Swanson.

Nealy previously won women's championships in 2001, 2006, 2019 and 2021.

"I'm going to be chasing those legends, hopefully," said Nealy of Davies and Swanson. "Obviously I'm going to keep playing, it's such a great event. I'll be back next year for sure. We had 48 women and a strong field this year, and most of them, I'm sure, are going to come back next year."

A repeat final, however, may not necessarily be in the cards.

Oshiro was fresh off her senior season at Oral Roberts University, where she transferred after a steady run at Louisiana State, and the former Crater High state champion has aspirations of competing professionally come this winter or spring.

"I hope she turns pro soon and she'll be great," said Nealy. "She has an all-around game, she'll be fabulous."

Despite coming up short in the finale, Oshiro said she thoroughly enjoyed her first SOGC experience.

"I wish I played better and I wish I put up a better fight," she said, "but Johnna is an amazing player and it was a great match today. I very much enjoyed it."

"I didn't have a lot of expectations going into it for this tournament," added Oshiro, "but it was very exciting and I had a lot of fun. All of the people that I played against, they really tested me and it was just so much fun. I didn't expect this event to be so fun. The way it was run and the course conditions, everything was just great, and I'm really happy the smoke blew out for the last few days."

Junior-Senior

Tommy Smith has run the gamut in his experiences at the SOGC, and Monday's round sort of came to him a little bit as neither he nor opponent Scott Wise were on their "A" game.

Buoyed by stellar putting, Smith was able to do just enough to build an early lead and carry that through and cut short the potential 36-hole final to win 6 and 4 and secure his first junior-senior title after previously winning the men's regular in 1989, 1999 and 2000.

"It always feels good to win because it's tough to win," said Smith, who lives in Palm Beach, Florida, these days but makes the trek back to see family and friends in Medford. "It's match play and you've got to go through enough guys and you never know what could happen, so it's always fun and always a great time."

Smith built a comfortable lead in the first 18 holes and was 6 up through 24 holes over Wise. There wasn't much deviation after that, with Wise winning the 31st hole to keep the match going before Smith was able to close it out with a win on the 32nd hole (No. 14).

"It makes a big difference when you can get out to a lead like that," said Smith, who fell behind in last year's final and couldn't make up the difference in finishing runner-up to Michael Stieler. "Obviously you've still got to be playing because it can change in a hurry, but if you can get up early it gives you all the advantage."

Smith qualified with a 72 and was in a groove early on in the tournament, but Sunday and Monday's rounds tested his mettle.

"I just kind of ground it out," he said. "I played really well in qualifying and the first three rounds, I had good control of my ball and I knew where it was going. In yesterday's round I got a little off and my rhythm got a little off. Today, again, wasn't necessarily the best but I really putted well. I made a lot of putts, and that was the difference."

Wise won the first flight a year ago in the junior-senior.

Senior Men

A third straight championship in the senior men's division did not come easy for Kevin Klabunde, who suffered a nasty fall the day before match play started and battled a painful ankle injury — as well as some tough competition — to net his ninth title in the division.

Klabunde and Mitch Weisberger played neck-and-neck through 17 holes, but Klabunde was able to birdie the final hole to score his 13th SOGC title in dramatic fashion.

Weisberger, who won the senior men's title in 2019, was 1 down through 13 holes but brought the match to all square in taking it down to the wire. Neither player led by more than one hole in the match.

Klabunde, who was coming off a six-stroke win in the City Championships, is now two shy of equaling George Mack's record of 15 total titles at the SOGC.

Super Senior

Glen Clark never trailed during his finals match with Gregory Miller, securing a second straight super senior men's title with a 6-and-5 runaway victory.

The win was Clark's fifth at the SOGC after previously also winning the junior-senior title in 2008 and men's senior championships in 2014 and 2017.

Clark won the first hole against Miller and was at 3 up through nine holes before closing his opponent out midway through the back nine.

Legends

Dick Brekke broke through for his first SOGC title, edging defending champion Dan Dixon 1 up.

Brekke was the 2021 runner-up in the first flight but the No. 3 seed was able to carry over momentum from a semifinals win earned on the 19th hole to slip by Dixon, who previously also was the 2014 super senior men's champion.

SOUTHERN OREGON GOLF CHAMPIONSHIPS

Monday

MEN'S CHAMPIONSHIP

Ethan DeVore def. Jimmy White 1 up

MEN'S 1ST FLIGHT

Patrick Corey def. Edward Smith 20th

MEN'S 2ND FLIGHT

Logan Artner def. Jordan Holcomb 2 up

MEN'S 3RD FLIGHT

Jacob Gooding def. Ben Mertens 7&6

MEN'S 4TH FLIGHT

Kristopher Kaufman def. Chase Schumacher 1 up

MEN'S 5TH FLIGHT

Ben Running def. Craig Contreras 1 up

MEN'S 6TH FLIGHT

Trey Neff def. Levi Daily 2&1

MEN'S 7TH FLIGHT

Dustin Wallace def. Jason Hanlin 1 up

MEN'S 8TH FLIGHT

Ian Norgan def. Samuel Barr 1 up

MEN'S 9TH FLIGHT

Immanuel Byrne def. Todd Nakano 2&1

MEN'S 10TH FLIGHT

Kelley Beck def. Gordon Casey 3&2

MEN'S 11TH FLIGHT

Shawn Webber def. Michael Henry 1 up

JUNIOR-SENIOR CHAMPIONSHIP

Tommy Smith def. Scott Wise 6&4

JUNIOR-SENIOR 1ST FLIGHT

George McMichael def. Trevor Telford 1 up

JUNIOR-SENIOR 2ND FLIGHT

Steve Tollefson def. William Riddle 2&1

JUNIOR-SENIOR 3RD FLIGHT

Brian Berg def. Matthew Miller 3 up

JUNIOR-SENIOR 4TH FLIGHT

Jeremiah Paladino def. Eric Engelbach 3&2

JUNIOR-SENIOR 5TH FLIGHT

Scott Entinger def. Josh Godfrey 2&1

JUNIOR-SENIOR 6TH FLIGHT

Ian Powers def. Rick Miller 6&5

JUNIOR-SENIOR 7TH FLIGHT

Robert King def. Jason Rowan 1 up

JUNIOR-SENIOR 8TH FLIGHT

Dean Kinney def. Joe Hunter 2&1

JUNIOR-SENIOR 9TH FLIGHT

John Couch def. James Figueroa 4&2

SENIOR CHAMPIONSHIP

Kevin Klabunde def. Mitch Weisberger 1 up

SENIOR 1ST FLIGHT

Kevin Dixon def. Mike Finnell 1 up

SENIOR 2ND FLIGHT

Patrick O'Bannon def. Alex Merkner 5&4

SENIOR 3RD FLIGHT

Jeff Bright def. Brent Barr 2 up

SENIOR 4TH FLIGHT

Erick Doolen def. Brian Adolf 1 up

SENIOR 5TH FLIGHT

Don Schamanek def. Dennis Richards 1 up

SENIOR 6TH FLIGHT

Kevin Tucker def. Dave Mettler 2&1

SENIOR 7TH FLIGHT

Dwight Shriver def. John Rowan 2&1

SUPER SENIOR CHAMPIONSHIP

Glen Clark def. Gregory Miller 6&5

SUPER SENIOR 1ST FLIGHT

Evan McArthur def. Doug Ward 1 up

SUPER SENIOR 2ND FLIGHT

Charles Layton def. Jim Overmyer 3&2

SUPER SENIOR 3RD FLIGHT

David Bundy def. Brian Odell 2&1

SUPER SENIOR 4TH FLIGHT

Tony Nieto def. Gary Sterton 1 up

SUPER SENIOR 5TH FLIGHT

Carl Wolfe def. Mel Friend 2&1

SUPER SENIOR 6TH FLIGHT

Gary Bates def. Dave Perotti 5&4

SUPER SENIOR 7TH FLIGHT

Ross Cooley def. Charles Furman 2&1

LEGENDS CHAMPIONSHIP

Dick Brekke def. Dan Dixon 1 up

LEGENDS 1ST FLIGHT

Karl Olson def. Larry Garvin 3&2

LEGENDS 2ND FLIGHT

Brooks Hodapp def. Michael Goldman 4&3

LEGENDS 3RD FLIGHT

John Leuthold def. Tom Michaels 1 up

LEGENDS 4TH FLIGHT

Dean Steeves def. Gary Smith 2&1

LEGENDS 5TH FLIGHT

Bruce Wood def. Steve Welch 2&1

LEGENDS 6TH FLIGHT

Patrick O'Brien def. David Mansfield 1 up

LEGENDS 7TH FLIGHT

Dick Entinger def. Rodger Campuzano 2&1

WOMEN'S CHAMPIONSHIP

Johnna Nealy def. Kiana Oshiro 5&4

WOMEN'S 1ST FLIGHT

Natalie Kinney def. Kelly Loeb 1 up

WOMEN'S 2ND FLIGHT

Lindsey Crosier def. Melinda Heiner 1 up

WOMEN'S 3RD FLIGHT

Julia Tissen def. Jan Hughes 1 up

WOMEN'S 4TH FLIGHT

Dana Powers-Clark def. Laurel Kiichli 3&2

WOMEN'S 5TH FLIGHT

Dana Cody def. Fawn Miller 1 up

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