By Justin Sokeland
WBIW.com
BEDFORD – Standing on the 18th tee, with history hanging heavy in the humid air, Aaron Harrell was one swing away from a championship. After a back-nine battle with two worthy adversaries, his legacy among the great names in the Otis Park archives came down to a final stroke.
With a majestic shot, with a solid last-hole par as his competitors faltered, Harrell etched his name in limestone, joining an ultra-exclusive list of winners with a fifth Bedford Men’s City Tournament title on Sunday afternoon.
Harrell posted a fourth-round 69 to complete 72 holes at 9-under 279, recording a two-shot margin of victory over former tourney leaders Trevin Hutchinson and Colten Girgis in a tense finish to a tournament that has produced more than its share of drama since its start in 1931. Harrell became the fifth man in City chronicles with five titles, adding his name to a legendary list that includes Don Gratzer, Ken Hackney, Gordon Jeffries and Michael Gratzer.
Starting the last day two shots back, Harrell fell back further with a slow start to the front nine while his young-gun challengers were carding multiple birdies. He recovered with three red numbers during a five-hole stretch, took control with a huge birdie on 15, then posted a clutch closing par as both Hutchinson and Girgis found trouble on that par-3 finisher.
Harrell and Hutchinson were tied at 9-under, with Girgis one shot back, to start that closing test. Hutchinson got too aggressive and pulled a 7-iron long and out-of-bounds, Girgis plunked his shot in a bunker. That opened the door for Harrell, and he slammed it shut.
“You’ve got to slow your mind down, you can’t let yourself get in your own way,” Harrell said about his mindset on the last tee. “I knew what to do.
“It was pretty tight. I just kept my mind in the present, the way you’re supposed to do. I just worried about the next shot, tried to hit the best shot I could. I knew someone would make a mistake somewhere, and it could have been me. I just tried to minimize the mistakes.”
On the front nine, Hutchinson charged with a scoring explosion, carding five birdies to rally from a five-shot deficit. Girgis, who blistered Otis with a record-setting 64 in the third round, had two birdies, and Harrell was just about to resign himself to spectator status. That changed with his spectacular eagle on the par-5 sixth, followed by a birdie on the 7th. When the smoke cleared, all three went to the back nine in a deadlock at 8-under.
“I was thinking the birdie barrage was on,” Harrell said. “I was about to get left in the dust. They played really good golf. This could have gone any way.”
Harrell made the first move with long birdie putt on the 10th. He dropped a shot on the 14th as Girgis pulled even again, then got it back with a birdie on 15 while Girgis suffered a bogey. Girgis birdied the 16th to get back within a shot, and Hutchinson dropped birdies on 15 and 17 to get to 9-under and atop the leaderboard.
His title chances flew long with his iron on 18. He finished with a 4-under 68 and 281 total.
“I didn’t know we were tied,” Hutchinson said. “If I had known that, I might have played the tee shot a little differently. I had a little adrenaline going. But that’s golf.
“I knew I had to come out and play the best I could. It was working for a while. It was pretty crazy. But the two doubles (he also stumbled on 11) on the back shook me a little bit. I’m proud of how I played for 16 holes.”
Girgis couldn’t recapture his third-round magic and fired a final-round 73 for his 281 over found rounds.
“I’m frustrated with the finish,” Girgis said. “I haven’t shot over par at Otis all year, so shooting a 73 today felt like a nightmare.
“I’ve been put in a lot of stressful situations with college golf (at IU Indy), so playing with this pressure in the summer is good to have going into my fall season and beyond. Looking forward into the future, I really need to work on my wedges and my chipping. I couldn’t put anything close and didn’t get the up-and-downs I felt like I normally did. The putting will come, but I didn’t have any putts drop today.”
Harrell responded to the competition with the gritty savvy of a veteran.
“I just wanted to have fun with it,” Harrell said. “My goal was not winning, it was the joy of the competition. These college players should win it, they play all the time. And they will. I’m very proud of them, they’re very good players.
“I’m very proud to be on that list of five-time winners. I never thought I would win five. I just wanted to win one. That’s a cool list to be on. I hold all those guys in a very high standard of respect. I spent a lot of time at the golf course growing up. The history there is very cool.”
