Published: June 29, 2009 12:33 am      

Breaking away

Gillis surges past field, wins Players Cup

BRIDGEPORT — Tom Gillis proved himself Sunday to be not only the champion of the $600,000 Nationwide Players Cup, but he was also the “chompion”.

Demonstrating that you can work up quite an appetite traipsing around the hills and valleys of the 7,308-yard Pete Dye Golf Club layout, Gillis cruised to a 2-under-par 70 for a 72-hole total of 273 and three-stroke victory over Australian Cameron Percy and America’s Roger Tambellini, who each shot 68 for a 276 total.

In fact, Gillis had worked up such a hunger that rather than sit with the media for a friendly little chat, he conducted his session off at a side table with a plate of grilled chicken and roll, the first post-tournament combined press conference and dinner in this tournament’s history.

“We’re not fancy here,” Gillis allowed, referring to the rather drab victory dinner he was gobbling down. “I’m starving.”

So it was that as he explained the way he put this victory together, it went something like this:

“I thought there’d be more of a push from the back (chomp, chomp). I didn’t look at the board until (chomp, chomp) the back nine.”

Certainly, Gillis was saying a mouthful, if for no other reason than while others were choking around him out on the course, he just sailed smoothly along.

The day started with them putting 15 or so horses that had a legitimate chance at victory into the starting gate but by the time it ended it was a one-horse race, something that surprised Gillis to no end.

“When I saw the leaderboard at No. 10, I was surprised there were not a lot of guys at 15-under like me,” he said.

One by one, the contenders dropped out of sight as the day went on. Kyle Reifers, who was paired with Gillis, was the first to take a bite of the bogey apple, stringing consecutive bogeys together at Nos. 5, 6 and 7, finishing with six bogeys for the day.

Jeff Gove, another of the contenders at the start of the day, came apart on the back nine by bogeying four of the final six holes. Won Joon “Boom Boom” Lee came undone in the creek at No. 9, the toughest hole on the course, when he took a triple-bogey 7, then made the day a total disaster with a double-bogey 7 on the 14th hole.

The same fate awaited all the contenders and there came a moment when Gillis, a 40-year-old veteran out of Michigan, could have suffered the same fate. Leading by five shots he came to the par 4 11th hole and bogeyed for the third time in four rounds, then at par 3 No. 13, which he had bogeyed and double bogeyed the two previous rounds, he hit a shot straight on but short and wound up with yet another double.

His 5-stroke lead was down to 2 and disaster seemed to lurking just around the corner.

Gillis never flinched.

“Deep in my heart I felt I’d win even if I gave it all back,” he said. “I never stressed.”

Gillis admitted the 11th hole wasn’t a very tough hole but said “it just wasn’t good to me.”

As for 13, that was a different story.

“That hole can get anybody. With the greens firm, it makes that shot even tougher,” he said.

But he wasn’t going to play it safely.

“I just felt you can’t chicken out. I figure if you play the hole, play it correctly. Take it on and deal with the consequences.”

Gillis dealt with them quite well, putting together a birdie on No. 14 to get back on track.

“Obviously, that was important,” he said. “I didn’t feel it made the round, though. I can’t say I was sitting out in the fairway thinking I got to make birdie. I felt I’d get chances all the way in. It was nice, yeah, but I was putting good so I wasn’t worried.”

From there he just parred out, getting him into the clubhouse in time for dinner.

Oh, one final note from the tournament, which in many ways was dedicated to Nationwide golfer Chris Smith, who lost his wife, Beth, in a car accident last week and whose children were injured. As part of the tribute to Smith the players wore stickers with No. 15 on them, which was Smith’s favorite number.

Gillis finished at 15-under.

Coincidence?

NOTES: With the $108,000 payday, Gillis jumped from No. 108 to No. 10 on the Nationwide money list …. The Pete Dye course can be made to play tough when they want to. On Sunday, only 14 of 71 players broke par … For the tournament, only Tom Gillis, Cameron Percy, Roger Tambellini and Bob May broke par all four rounds … The toughest holes during the final round were the 500-yard, par 4 9th, which played to 4.549 strokes, and the 497-yard par 4 18th, with the pin tucked behind a rise in the green and a bunker, which played to 4.521. The easiest hole was the 504-yard par 5 17th at 4.577 … For the tournament the toughest holes were No. 9 and No. 7, a 246-yard par 3, while No. 17 was the easiest … During the tournament there were 76 eagles, of which 44 came at No. 17. And this is mind-boggling, there were 1,599 birdies and 1,326 bogeys … The course played almost perfectly to its par, averaging 72.240 strokes per round.

E-mail Bob Hertzel at bhertzel@hotmail.com.