Greg Ward Wins 2002 Carolinas' Open by Four Strokes (White Lake, NC

5 May 2002 - White Lake, NC - Add White Lake to the collection of places Greg Ward has received a win in the Carolinas' Open. Along with Charlotte, Forest City, and Asheville, Ward won an impressive and unprecedented fourth Carolinas' Open title by four shots over three other players.

After a day of rain in the community of White Lake, delaying the event on Saturday to make it a prime time start, the North and South Carolina tour programs were blessed with clearing skies, but had to tangle with the wind coming off the lake nearby, creating havoc throughout the entire day on Sunday.

Ward jumped out to the early advantage in the opening of six rounds by firing a 23, in which it included a perfect back nine, the second one he has recorded in a span of eight days. He posted a perfect back last week to close out the event in Fredericksburg, Virginia to lose by one to Robin Ventura. His lead, however, was only one shot. Billy Caudle, Thomas Rawles, Randy Reeves, Tony Jackson, and Kevin Garrett all posted 24's to start out one back of the leader.

By the end of the second round, Ward slipped to a tie for second. A 27 gave him a two-round score of 22-under par 50, but then trailed Caudle by one shot. Caudle took the lead at 49 after firing a 25 for his first ever lead in the Pro Division since joining the Pro ranks in 2001. However, the lead he enjoyed was short-lived as Ward came strong in the third and final round of the morning. Ward posted his second 23 in the tournament to retake the lead by four shots over Caudle and Reeves.

After the morning rounds were completed, Ward was in the clubhouse at 73, which was the lowest shot after three rounds since he posted a 71 in his last Carolinas' Open win in Asheville in 1998 and won by an amazing 16 strokes. It matched Gary Hester's and Bill Kirby's score of 73 in Winston-Salem just two seasons ago. The Carolinas' Open record for 54 holes is still held by Tom Butler in the 1993 Open in Charlotte, when he was in at 68.

Caudle and Reeves were tied for second at 77, while Dan Anders rebounded from a horrible Saturday outing to go into a tie for fourth at the break at 79. Michael Hitt, after a disappointing opening round of 31, was also there at 79, while Rick Rybaczek was sixth at 80.

As the Pros were taking their one-hour break, the amateurs played into their fourth and final round, and once again, there were a few surprises in the making. Keith Waters, who failed to win his third consecutive event in White Lake on Saturday, got back in the win column for the first time this season and ended two personal streaks for Tommy Hutchinson. Hutchinson had won four in a row on the South Carolina circuit and three of them being in North Carolina.

Waters fired rounds of 29 and 26 to take the lead for good after the second round with a 55. He then cruised to a four-shot win over Hutchinson. Waters won his first Carolinas' Open crown in his career with a final score of 112. Hutchinson, who won the event in 1997, was second at 116, while Steve Helton finished six back in third at 118.

As the event resurfaced in the afternoon, winds started calming down and the carpet was drying out even further, thus creating humongous low scores for the afternoon. Ward continued to maintain his pace with a front nine 12, but slipped on the back nine to send some players back into contention. Ward's four-shot lead was still the case and stayed that way at the end of each subsequent round.

The race for second turned out to be the exciting part of the championship in the afternoon. Caudle's 28 in the fourth round gave him a score of 105, and was tied with Anders after he posted a 26 in that game, while Tony Varnadore crept back in with a 24 to go in at 106, tied with Randal Smith. In the fifth round, Caudle fired a 27 to hold on to his second place spot at 132, but six players were within three shots of second. One of those was Rybaczek, who tied the course record of 22, originally set by Mike Brown in his 1996 win in White Lake, for a single round to go in the final round tied for third with Smith at 133.

As soon as the final round was completed, Ward had already smelled victory. Ward used a final round 26 to finish the event at 154. Caudle managed to finish in a tie for second with Varnadore and Rawles, each of those two finishing out with a 24, at 158. Hitt wound up in third at 159, and Rybaczek, whose 22 in the fifth round was later matched by Brown in the final round, ended up in sixth at 160.

Ward's win is his fourth in the last 11 events played, all on North Carolina soil. He also won in Charlotte in 1992, in Forest City in 1996, and in Asheville in 1998. Rawles' and Caudle's second place finish is their highest finish ever on either tour. Varnadore's finish is his best since he won in Rock Hill last September.

Qualifying spots that came from this event went to Ward, who picked up State Qualifying spots for both the North Carolina and South Carolina State Championships, and grabbed both the one-day and two-day low medalist spots for the World Putting Championships offered by the North Carolina program. Caudle received the eighth North Carolina Match Play spot taken from this event, and Brad Lebo received the South Carolina two-day low qualifying spot for their State Championship in Spartanburg. Betty Helton won the two-day amateur spot for the North Carolina State Championship to be held in High Point in October.

The South Carolina tour will resume play this coming Saturday, May 11, with a double-header on Course 3 in Spartanburg, and will start at 10:00am. Robert Johnson is the course defender after winning with an impressive score of 67 to set the new South Carolina 54-hole record. The second tournament will commence one hour after the first one is completed.

The North Carolina tour will be back in action on Memorial Day weekend, May 25 & 26, in High Point for the Barbara Nance Memorial, defended by Gary English, and the Wayne Hancock Memorial, defended by Greg Newport. The event will kick off at 12:00pm on Course 1 on the 25th and at 10:00am on the 26th.

Special thanks to the Womble family for providing the PPA with their lodging at White Lake and for their continuous hospitality throughout the entire weekend.

		Round							Prize	NC
	Player	1	2	3	4	5	6	Total	Money	Points
1	Greg Ward	23	27	23	28	27	26	154	$ 300.00	40
2	Billy Caudle	24	25	28	28	27	26	158	$ 173.00	33
	Thomas Rawles	24	30	29	26	25	24	158	$ 173.00	33
	Tony Varnadore	27	26	29	24	28	24	158	$ 173.00	33
5	Michael Hitt	31	23	25	30	25	25	159	$ 125.00	31
6	Rick Rybaczek	28	27	25	31	22	27	160	$ 110.00	30
7	Dan Anders	28	24	27	26	30	26	161	$ 93.00	26.5
	Mike Brown	31	27	27	26	28	22	161	$ 93.00	26.5
	Gary English	30	27	30	25	25	24	161	$ 93.00	26.5
	Greg Newport	26	33	23	24	30	25	161	$ 93.00	26.5
	Randal Smith	27	25	29	25	27	28	161	$ 93.00	26.5
	Randy Reeves	24	26	27	30	27	27	161	$ 93.00	26.5
13	Vince Batten	29	30	25	27	25	26	162	$ 73.00	22.5
	Brad Lebo	28	25	28	25	28	28	162	$ 73.00	22.5
15	Bob Haizlip	27	27	29	26	28	26	163	$ 65.00	21
16	Rick Baird	29	29	31	25	23	27	164	$ 60.00	19.5
	Bill Kirby, Jr.	29	30	23	27	26	29	164	$ 60.00	19.5
18	Peter Neumann	30	28	25	28	26	28	165	$ 60.00	18
19	Gary Hester	30	27	27	24	28	30	166	$ 60.00	17
20	Darrell Britt	26	26	30	26	28	31	167		16
21	Andy Coradini	31	29	27	26	27	28	168		14
	Todd Fowler	30	27	32	28	25	26	168		14
	Tony Jackson	24	28	30	28	31	27	168		14
24	Larry Simpson	28	26	29	29	29	29	170		11.5
	Frank Warren	29	29	28	27	28	29	170		11.5
26	Kevin Garrett	24	32	30	32	28	30	176		10
27	C. L. Jones	30	25	33	30	30	29	177		9
28	Robert Johnson	30	29	31	32	31	25	178		8
29	Chris Bunting	29	30	28	28	34	30	179		6
	Ray Guthrie	34	25	29	30	32	29	179		6
	Bobby Jackson	33	30	30	32	28	26	179		6
32	Randy Carter	33	31	28	31	30	28	181		5
33	Tommy Barbour	30	30	33	28	28	33	182		5
34	Rob Smarzik	32	30	26	31	31	33	183		5
35	Gary Moore	36	30	28	27	30	33	184		5
	Opie Roberts	33	34	31	28	30	28	184		5
37	Michael Cardwell	31	35	34	31	31	31	193		5
38	Jay Klapper	29	29	31						5