Champs Feeling Chipper Dave Barr, Jeff Tidland Win Chipoff To Capture Tidyman’S Shootout

Jeff Tidland has dabbled on the PGA Tour, but by his own admission, he’s no Hale Irwin.

Or Kirk Triplett, for that matter.

Which is probably why Monday’s win in the $10,000 Tidyman’s Shootout of the 7th annual Pro Classic seemed to mean so much to the 27-year-old Oklahoman.

“It was great,” Tidland said after teaming with 48-year-old Dave Barr to capture this year’s Shootout title and his share of the $2,000 check that was split between the winners of the two-man, alternating shot competition.

“I’m not a regular on the PGA tour, so I don’t get to hang around these guys a lot. It’s just fun for me to watch and learn from these guys.” Tidland, who has played in just two Tour events and the U.S. Open this summer, teamed with Barr, a twotime winner on Tour, to best a 10-team field that included the pairings of Irwin and Jeff Gove and Triplett and Mark Rypien.

The Tidland-Barr duo finished the six-hole Shootout at The Creek at Qualchan Golf Course at 2-under-par and then defeated the team of Rich Beem and Don Bies in a chipoff.

Tidland and Barr made routine pars on 10, 11 and 12 before posting an eagle-3 on the short, 503-yard, par-5 16th. Barr hit the approach shot to within 10 feet and Tidland drained the putt to take a one-stroke lead on Beem and Bies, who made birdie.

Both of the leading teams parred the par-4 17th, setting up an exciting finish on the 504-yard, par-5 18th, where Tidland and Barr had to settle for a two-putt par while Beem and Bies were making birdie.

The chip-off, from right in front of the 18th green, didn’t hold much drama, however, as Tidland and Barr both knocked their lob shots to within 2 feet of the pin, only to watch Beem and Bies blow theirs well past the hole.

The six-hole Shootout gave a gallery of more than 1,000 plenty of chances to watch the touring pros and celebrities hit a variety of shots. And while the setting lacked the intensity normally associated with PGA or Senior PGA Tour events, it meant something to Tidland, who has spent the last couple of summers bouncing around North American mini-tour events and the buy.com Tour.

“I was actually nervous,” Tidland said of the chipoff, where he nearly flew his pitch shot into the hole. “We wanted to win. We were the leaders coming into the hole and we didn’t make birdie, so we kind of felt like we let it get away from us. “But we both hit good chips, so it turned out all right. And we both had a lot of fun.”

Beem and Bies split $1800 for their runnerup finish, while the teams of Irwin-Gove and Triplett-Rypien earned $750 per man for finishing in a tie for third at even par.

The team of host professional Mark Gardner and amateur Marty Nauert, who earned his way into the Shootout by posting the low score in Sunday’s Deaconess Medical Center Junior Pro Classic, finished one stroke over par, despite a birdie on the 18th.

“I was a little nervous the first couple of holes,” admitted Nauert, a senior-to-be at Central Valley High School, “But I loosened up. These guys were fun to watch and fun to play with.”

In Monday’s MSC Premera Blue Cross Pro-Am scramble event, the team of Gove, Clancy Welsh, Pat Redmond, Steve Stockton and John Aune captured first place with a score of 17-under 55.