Kokesh Rallies to Defeat Whittaker, Win Senior Players' Crown

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MORTON -- David Kokesh summed up his victory in the MGA Senior Players' Championship on Wednesday by saying: "I struck the ball solidly from tee to green, but the real key was putting. Once I got to the green, I made a lot of putts."

And he made them when they mattered, mainly late in his matches, but also early in matches when he really needed to get something going.

His 2&1 victory over Steve Whittaker in the title match on Wednesday morning was fairly typical. Whittaker, the 2011 MGA Senior Player of the Year, grabbed the initial advantage with a birdie at the par-5 third hole, and increased it to 2 up with a par at the fifth. But then Kokesh reversed the momentum by making one of his clutch putts for birdie at the seventh hole.

He followed that up by winning the eighth and the ninth with pars and gained the upper hand.

Whittaker, a kind of walking M*A*S*H unit (he's had a knee replacement and major back surgery in the last eight months, and is scheduled to undergo rotator cuff surgery on Friday), knows how to win big tournaments, as he has demonstrated in the past couple of years by claiming titles in the State Senior Open (2010) and State Senior Amateur (2011).

As the Senior Players' final made its way around the back nine, he needed to reassert himself, and his birdie at the par-5 13th might have done the trick -- except that Kokesh also birdied the hole. That may have deflated Whittaker, because Kokesh was able to win the long 14th (a 456-yard par-4) with a bogey, one of only two bogeys that he made in the match (he was 1 under for the 17 holes he played).

Whittaker also birdied the 17th. But Kokesh made one last clutch putt to halve the hole and conclude the match.

Earlier in the tournament, Kokesh had been 1 down with two holes to play against Timothy Connell in the Round of 16, and responded by winning the last two holes, thus eking out a 1-up victory. In the quarterfinals, he played the last four holes in 1 under to defeat two-time State Senior Am champion Leif Carlson 1 up; and after getting an early lead against former three-time Senior Player of the Year Dick Blooston in the semifinals, he went right for the jugular, making three birdies in a span of seven holes as he dismissed Blooston 7&6.  

With the Senior Players' victory, Kokesh earned an exemption into this year's State Amateur at Hastings CC in July.  

13th MGA Senior Players' Championship

At Dacotah Ridge Golf Club

Par 72, 6,217 yards

Morton

First-round results 

Robert Leaf def. Randy Garber 26 holes

Charles Kost def. Brent Chozen 2&1

Richard Blooston def. Jeff Wiltse 1 up

James Price def. Don Howe 3&2

David Kokesh def. David Rehfeldt 6&4

Timothy Connell def. Craig Hanson 2&1

Leif Carlson def. Tom Nortstrom 1 up

Bob Patrick def. Bill Tadewald 2&1

Steve Whittaker def. Hank Wilkinson 6&5

Gret Mattson def. Steve Herzog 4&2

Jon Empanger def. Bill Anderson 1 up

Terry O'Donnell def. Michael Frascone 2&1

Patrick Vincelli def. Rick Ehrmanntraut 2&1

Kevin Treacy def. Peter Rocheford 7&6

Alan Henningsgaard def. Larry Barnacle 1 up

Terry Moores III def. Brian Love 2&1

Round of 16

Kost def. Leaf 2&1

Blooston def. Price 2&1

Kokesh def. Connell 1 up

Carlson def. Patrick 2&1

Whittaker def. Mattson 2&1

Empanger def. O'Donnell 1 up

Treacy def. Vincelli 1 up

Moores def. Henningsgaard 2&1

Quarterfinals

Blooston def. Kost 5&4

Kokesh def. Carlson 1 up

Whittaker def. Empanger 3&1

Treacy def. Moores 1 up

Semifinals

Kokesh def. Blooston 7&6

Whittaker def. Treacy 6&5

Final 

Kokesh def. Whittaker 2&1