It wasn’t dim it was dark, when James Scott pitched his second shot into the hole from just off the 9th green to win a playoff over Robbie Biershenk and the championship of the Budweiser Classic at Boscobel.

The event has the well earned reputation as being the biggest two day, one course amateur tournament, maybe in the state.

This year over 240 golfers split into two shot gun starts, one at 8 am, the other after the first groups finished.

The leader board, after the first round, was one of the deepest in recent memory with almost everyone of the 10 golfers in the flight having a chance at the win on Sunday.

First round leader Robbie Biershenk posted a 7-under par 65 on Saturday to hold the lead by two shots over four golfers going into the final round.

Two more were at 68 and the worst score in the first flight in the first round was only four shots off the lead.

As the second round worked its way to the back nine at The Bel just about every golfer in the first flight had or shared the lead for a time, but everyone had trouble holding on to it.

As the leaders got deeper into the round the margin between the lead and those chasing the leader kept shrinking.

James Scott, a former Presbyterian College golfer, was one of the few who was able to stay just a little ahead of everyone else in the flight.

Scott posted a first round 68 and was on a pace to do better in the second round. He carded a 4-under par front nine and felt comfortable he was in good position for the final nine holes.

A winner of an event at Boscobel has to find a way to get by the always critical 16th hole. This year the make or break hole didn’t make anyone, and took its toll, even on Scott, who saw his lead shrink after a bogey on the hole.

With the final three holes to play Austin Langdale, Zach Bishop, Chad Blackmon and Jake Miller all got within a shot of the lead at 6-under par.

First round leader Biershenk at times appeared to be out of contention , but by the final hole the long hitting “Shank” used his length to muscle his way back into a tie with two other golfers at 6-under par.

Scott got to play the birdiable 18th hole first and rolled in a difficult 7 footer to take the lead at 7under.

“I wasn’t watching the scoreboard, but I knew it was tight,” he said. “Knowing the kind of golfers in that group there was no way there would be four pars, someone was going to birdie so I needed to birdie,” Scott said.

Without seeing a scoreboard Scott was right. Not all four came to the final hole with a chance to win or tie.

Langdale and Bishop lost a shot along the way and fell back,

Blackmon ran in a pair of birdies on 14 and 15 to get to six under with one to play.

Biershenk hit the shot he needed on 17. His approach ended up 3 feet from the cup and his birdie got him back to 6-under par .

Scott posted his 7-under score and then came back to 18 to watch the last group finish.

“We are going to have to play another hole,” he said.

Between Biershenk and Blackmon, Biershenk had the first best chance to steal the win,

His second shot to the par 5 18th hole came up a few feet short of the green. His chip for an eagle and the win drifted past the hole.

Blackmon wasn’t able to convert his birdie so Biershenk had to make a short putt to force the playoff.

Keep in mind the clock was well passed 8 pm when the two golfers went back to number 9 to play one hole almost completely in the dark.

It only took Scott two swings to win the playoff hole. His drive ended up just off the green and his chip found the hole from about 20 feet.

“It was pretty dark, I almost didn’t find my drive, but it feels great to win and actually see the shot go in the hole, I don’t think many people did,” he joked.

Biershenk finished second with Blackmon taking third place. Jake Miller improved by a shot in his second round to move up to fourth place and Langdale’s 2-under par 70 earned him a fifth place finish.

By virtue of his first place finish in the second flight Ric Cobb won the senior championship with a second round 4-under par 68.

Flight winners at the Budweiser Classic included Third Flight – Weston Brock, Fourth Flight – Don Jenkins, Fifth Flight – Ben Thamma, Sixth Flight – Mike Pridmore, Seventh Flight – James Farnacci and the Grinder Flight winner was Heath Bartley..

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