Wade Sahmel Wins by Two Strokes on PPA Texas Tour in Longview, TX
Wade Sahmel
Winner of the PPA Texas State Tour event in Longview, TX
(13 September 2003)13 September 2003 - Longview, TX - State weekend for the Texas Putting Tour was held at the one of the best layouts in the state in Longview, Texas. The first event of the weekend was a three round tournament that would give out the last few available state championship spots. The forecast earlier in the week had called for rain on Saturday but the rain ended early afternoon on Friday and great weekend for Putt-Putt showed up instead.
Don Parker took the early lead with an 11-under 25 in the first round. While he was alone in first there were a whole host of players following closely on his heels. With three players at 10-under and another 4 at 9-under it was looking like it was going to be a very tight event over the last two rounds. Wade Sahmel blew that apart in the second round. His 13-under 23 was the best round shot on the day and it gave him a three stroke lead over Jeffrey Smith with Cliff Matthews another stroke behind Jeffrey and three other player five back of Wade.
A solid last round 8-under 28 by Wade gave him an easy win with only one of the players in position to catch Wade able to make up any serious ground, Marc Portugal shot an 11-under 25 that moved him into second place. Jeffrey Smith and Joel Woodall, who had charged from eight off the pace going into the last round with 12-under 24 tied for third. With only two state spots available Jeffrey and Joel needed an 18-hole playoff to see who would join Marc in claiming the last two state spots. It turned out to be Jeffrey Smith who would claim the last state spot awarded.
The amateur division saw Mickey DeLucca jump out to big lead. His 10-under 26 put him three strokes ahead of Dave Blalock with three other players four strokes back. A bad second round by Mickey left the door open and Rhet Wylie walked in. His 11-under 25 was the best round shot in the amateur division and gave him a three stroke lead over Dave Blalock and five stokes over Mickey and Anthony Driver. Rhet left the door slightly ajar in the last round with a six-under 30 and Dave Blalock took advantage. His 9-under 27 would force a playoff with Rhet to decide a winner.
Rhet came strong in the playoff and had the match won by the time the last few holes were reached. Mike Huckaby played three consistent rounds to take third and four players tied for 4th. Of all the players on the leader board only three had not spotted out. Danny Hoel, Anthony Driver and Dennis Biesma. For Anthony and Dennis this was real accomplishment as neither player had played any events on the Texas Tour prior to this one and this was the only chance either one had to claim a spot and get a chance to play on Sunday.
Article and scores provided by Lee Messinger.
Professional Division of Longview, TX Event (13 September 2003)
Round Prize Player 1 2 3 Total Money 1 Wade Sahmel 27 23 28 78 $190.00 2 Marc Portugal* 26 29 25 80 $130.00 3 Jeffrey Smith* 27 26 29 82 $90.00 Joel Woodall 30 28 24 82 $90.00 5 Brice Bergesen 26 30 27 83 $70.00 6 Cliff Matthews 28 26 30 84 $50.00 Joel Baker 27 28 29 84 $50.00 Rainey Statum 26 29 29 84 $50.00 9 Byron Kirby 29 30 26 85 $30.00 10 Lee Messinger 30 30 27 87 $6.66 Mike Baldoza 29 30 28 87 $6.66 Steve Armstrong 28 31 28 87 $6.66 13 Don Parker 25 31 32 88 14 Tom Adair 35 24 30 89 15 Rodney Phillips 29 33 28 90 16 Keith Barfield 31 29 31 91 17 Bryan Woolley 31 32 29 92 18 David Lynch 32 30 30 92 Jon Drexler 31 28 33 92 20 Andy Gaiser 34 32 27 93 21 Steve Norman 27 35 32 94 Steve Tanton 36 30 28 94 23 Kelly Mize 35 32 28 95 24 Greg Simpson 30 34 34 98 25 Al Simpson 36 36 34 106 26 Chris Breedlove 36 37 35 108
Amateur Division of Longview, TX Event (13 September 2003)
| Round | |||||
| Player | 1 | 2 | 3 | Total | |
| 1 | Rhet Wylie | 30 | 25 | 30 | 85 |
| 2 | Dave Blalock | 29 | 29 | 27 | 85 |
| 3 | Mike Huckaby | 31 | 30 | 30 | 91 |
| 4 | Anthony Driver* | 30 | 30 | 33 | 93 |
| Danny Hoel* | 33 | 32 | 28 | 93 | |
| Dennis Biesma* | 30 | 32 | 31 | 93 | |
| Mickey DeLucca | 26 | 34 | 33 | 93 | |
| 8 | Chance Marett | 36 | 30 | 30 | 96 |
| 9 | Gary Plain | 33 | 29 | 35 | 97 |
| 10 | Seth Smith | 33 | 34 | 31 | 98 |
| 11 | Aaron Armstrong | 37 | 32 | 31 | 100 |
| Rob Martin | 31 | 39 | 30 | 100 | |
| 13 | Doug Austin | 35 | 32 | 34 | 101 |
| 14 | Jason Sheffield | 35 | 35 | 34 | 104 |
| 15 | James Taylor | 38 | 30 | 37 | 105 |
| Trevor Lewin | 35 | 33 | 37 | 105 | |
| 17 | Adam Sahmel | 37 | 32 | 37 | 106 |
| 18 | Steve Yancey | 34 | 38 | 35 | 107 |
| 19 | Greg Cole | 38 | 38 | 35 | 111 |
| Mike Wellborn | 39 | 34 | 38 | 111 | |
* Earned TX State Championship Spot.