Whisman Finds A Way Defending Champ Uses Late Flurry, Playoff To Eclipse Carey And Reclaim Rosauers Title

If this had been a fight, they’d have stopped it after one round (hole).

Called it a TKO. Too much bleeding.

Or, if Tom Carey and Greg Whisman had been playing ping-pong, they’d have said it was over after seven points (holes).

Carey skunked him.

It was golf, however, the Rosauers Open at Indian Canyon, to be specific.

And although Carey owned five-stroke leads over Whisman on the first hole and again on No. 7, Whisman battled back, birdied the final two holes to tie it and ultimately defeated Carey on the second playoff hole.

The only repeat winner in tournament history, Whisman pocketed the $12,000 winner’s check.

How did he surmount a seemingly insurmountable Carey lead?

With Daly-esque drives frequently well in excess of 300 yards, with unrelentingly aggressive play, and perhaps most importantly, with the unshakable notion that he COULD win the tournament.

“I was almost going at it like it was match play out there,” said Whisman, who was paired in the final group with Carey - leader after each of the first two rounds. “I wasn’t really paying attention to how I was scoring, but where I stood with him.

“I put a lot of pressure on myself doing that, especially when he was up five strokes,” Whisman said. “I wanted to try to make some birdies to put pressure on him and actually I was putting it on myself.”

In the end, on the par-3 No. 11, the second playoff hole, Carey almost dunked a wedge shot, but saw it plant within a foot of the hole and then juice back to 9 feet away.

Whisman, meanwhile, settled his wedge shot 3 feet from the pin. Carey skimmed by the edge of the cup with his sidehill putt, while Whisman dropped it in the heart for the birdie and the win.

“I thought I pulled it; I mishit it pretty bad,” Whisman said. “But it went in, so it was a pretty good miss.”

When it was over, Carey went back and tried his putt again, draining it.

Sorry, no mulligans.

Playing two groups ahead of Carey and Whisman, Rick Acton and Jeff Coston both made strong runs - each finishing at 6-under - one stroke off an invitation to the playoff.

Really, though, this was a duel between Whisman and Carey. And it represented, too, a conflict in approaches.

Whisman, from Everett, sometimes simply overpowered the course off the tee. Even when he was on the PGA Tour, in 1991 and 1993, he was ranked among the longest hitters.

Saturday, his drive on No. 14 screamed down the middle at least 330. On the first playoff hole, No. 10, he blasted a 3-wood 320 yards.

And in what he calls “my best shot of the tournament,” he faded a 3-wood off the tee to the green of the 280-yard No. 17. That two-putt birdie closed the gap to one stroke and set up the birdie on 18 that sent it into extra innings.

Carey, in contrast, didn’t use a driver off the tee in his final 36 holes, choosing rather to land his iron-shots on the fairways.

“I’ve got no second-guessing,” Carey said. “I gave up a heck of an advantage with him hitting his driver; he hits it so long and so straight. But I had a game plan and I stuck with it.”

Whisman, who shot a final-round 70 to Carey’s 73, wasn’t about to second-guess Carey, either.

“I played aggressively, and that’s how I always play,” Whisman said. “Sometimes it’s great and sometimes I go in the trees, but I’m not the kind of player to hit a lot of irons off the tees. He had a plan that obviously worked for him because he was leading the tournament and he sure made some good ups-and-downs.”

Carey’s lead could have been even more impressive except for missed birdie putts from roughly 3 feet on No. 2 and No. 3. Sink those two, and the issue is at rest.

“I just didn’t putt well, didn’t roll it well,” said Carey, of Heron Lakes in Portland, Ore. “And that was 100 percent attributable to nerves. I’d like to say I was cool in the saddle, but I really wasn’t.”

Whisman birdied No. 6, but then appeared to play himself out of contention on 7 by being too aggressive.

All week, Whisman had used an iron off the tee of the short (287-yard) hole with a severe dogleg. And as he reached the tee, he pulled an iron from his bag. His father/caddy, Bob, though, suggested it might be time to pull out the 3-wood and try to fade it onto the green.

Whisman blew it right through the fairway - discounting the value of parental advice - and landed in a thick shrub. By the time he found the cup, it added up to a double bogey and Carey once again was up on him by five.

Even with Whisman’s furious rally, Carey could have put it away with a birdie on 18, but his sidehill 9-footer missed the cup by less than an inch.

“Hey, I had a ball out there, no regrets at all, I’m tickled with second place,” Carey said.

He should be happy with his $8,500 check, since he barely got into the tournament, being the 12th alternate and such a late addition that his name didn’t show up on the starter’s list the first day.

Coston and Acton had adventurous, and impressive, rounds. Coston, a slender yet powerful ball-striker - built like a 1-iron - birdied the first three holes and got it to 7-under after eight holes. But he bogeyed 9 and then parred out.

Along the way, he was warned about slow play.

“That’s just part of the game,” Coston said. “I take full responsibility.”

Acton, like Coston, shot a 68 Sunday, but not without bloodshed. Reportedly, he somehow clunked himself on the shin with a wedge and bled through his pant leg.

The best round of the day came from an amateur, Ken Bensel of Lake Padden Golf Course, who burned the Canyon with a 65. The effort earned low amateur honors for the tournament.

The three-day tournament earned $70,000 for the Vanessa Behan Crisis Nursery.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color photo

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: LEADERBOARD Scores and earnings Sunday from the final round of the Rosauers Open Invitational at Indian Canyon: Greg Whisman, $12,000 68-68-70-206 Tom Carey, $8,500 65-68-73-206 Jeff Coston, $5,500 70-69-68-207 Rick Acton, $5,500 70-69-68-207