After capping off a very productive summer on the golf course with a victory at the University Hospital-Utah Open Sunday afternoon, Neal Lancaster can head back to North Carolina and take care of some business that should have been done long ago, that of marrying his caddy.
Lancaster and Lou Ann Pollard had planned to get married early in the summer and even had the date all set. But with Lancaster playing better than expected on the U.S. Golf Tour, where he won $48,000 including two tournaments, marriage plans were put on hold while Lancaster rode out his hot streak. It ended with his best victory ever as he cruised to a 4-shot win over defending champion Jay Don Blake of St. George at the Willow Creek Country Club.`I'm going home tomorrow, for the first time in two months," said Lancaster in his distinctive southern drawl. "I'm excited about the win."
His fiancee/caddy Lou Ann didn't act too concerned about having to postpone the marriage earlier in the summer. After all, her husband-to-be picked up quite a bit of spending money this summer and the $20,000 check he won this week was the largest of his life.
"It's been OK because we've been winning. We couldn't go home when he was playing so well," said Lou Ann, who has an even thicker drawl than her future husband. "But now we're going to go home and sit down and plan the wedding."
Actually the wedding may have to wait until January now because Lancaster seems primed to give the PGA Tour qualifying school a good try in October. After all, he beat a PGA Tour regular in Blake and a semi-regular in Kent Kluba, who finished third, five shots back.
Lancaster's 68 Sunday gave him a 203 total, which tied the tournament record set by Blake last year. His 4-stroke triumph was the largest margin of victory in the Utah Open in over a decade.
Blake continued his remarkable Utah Open record with his second-place finish. It was his ninth top-6 finish since 1979 and the third time he's finished second.
"I'm a little disappointed . . . I just wasn't making any birdies," he said. "I played well, but Lancaster played really well. You've got to pat him on the back. He deserves to win."
The 26-year-old from Smithfield, N.C., had come to Utah from the California Open where he finished sixth. In his first competitive round at Willow Creek on Monday, Lancaster fired a 68, the low score in the qualifying. He never let up, grabbing a share of the first-day lead with a 68 on Friday and adding a 67 on Saturday.
"I wanted real bad to lead the tournament from start to finish," said the long-hitting Lancaster, who led off the day with what he called "the best drive of my life" - a 350-yarder that left him just a 7-iron to the green on the 545-yard hole.
At the start of the day, he held a 1-stroke lead over Rick Cramer and a 3-shot lead over three golfers including Blake. But early on, the tourney turned into a three-man race between Lancaster, Blake and Heber's Bruce Summerhays, who got off to a flying start after beginning the day five shots off the pace.
Summerhays, the 45-year-old Homestead pro, who is still looking for his first Utah Open victory, birdied five of the first seven holes and vaulted to within one shot of the lead at 9-under-par. But then came the treacherous No. 8 green, which possessed one of those mindless pin placements that makes it nearly impossible to putt from above the hole.
Two groups ahead of Summerhays, Greg Chapman had found out about the green when he - get this - five-putted from three feet (after just missing his first two putts, his third putt had lipped the cup and rolled completely off the green 20 feet away).
Summerhays was 10 feet above the hole and tapped what he said was normally a 3-foot putt, only to see it travel 22 feet and end up 12 feet below the hole after nearly stopping twice. He missed that one and took a bogey that seemed to knock the wind out of him.
"You'd have to say that made a difference, because things fell apart after that," said Summerhays. "I kept back-pedaling after that."
He bogeyed 9, 11 and 12 and eventually ended up tied for fourth at 210 with a 71 on the day.
With Summerhays out of the picture, it was down to Lancaster and Blake, although it was pretty much all Lancaster after he made birdies at 7, 8 and 10. He sank a 12-footer at No. 7 and an 8-footer at No. 8, the hole that did Summerhays in. Lancaster had his say about the pin placement. "It was a terrible pin placement. I was either going to make a birdie or a bogey from where I was, but I picked my line and luckily it went in."
When he tapped in for birdie at No. 10, he was up to 13-under, which put him five up on Blake. At that point the only question seemed to be whether or not Lancaster would break Blake's record of a year ago.
Lancaster was told by Lou Ann at No. 10 about his lead, so he began playing a bit more conservatively, hitting for the middle of the greens. Still he dodged a couple of bullets, making a nice save at 11 from in front of the green and another at 14 from a bunker.
Up ahead in the next group, Blake had no idea how he stood in relation to the rest of the field. "I was just playing my game, trying to make some birdies." Finally as he headed up No. 15, he saw the sign from the group behind, showing Lancaster 13-under, four up on Blake. "I was a little surprised because the conditions were pretty tough," said Blake.
Blake figured he still had a chance with a few more birdies, but he bogeyed one of the easiest birdie holes on the course - the par-5 17th - before making a birdie on the final hole.
Lancaster, wearing his lucky pink hat, just kept making pars with monotonous regularity. At 17 he had his best birdie chance, but missed an 8-footer. He had known about Blake's course record and wanted to break it at 18 in front of the large gallery, but his 25-footer slid by and he settled for his eighth straight par.
Joining Summerhays at 210 were Cramer and Arizona's Craig McClellan. Provo's Bruce Brockbank had a final-round 68 to finish at 211, along with Jeff Maggert and Mike Putnam. Former Weber State golfer Scott Geroux and Bruce Vaughn were at 212, while Orem's Keith Clearwater headed a group of three golfers at 213. Eric Hogg and Jason Thomas tied for low amateur honors at 221.