First-time winner assured at Lima City Men's Golf Championship
Jun. 25—BLUFFTON — The high quality golf is still there. It's just the names that are different.
The four golfers in today's semifinals of the championship flight of the Lima City Men's Golf Championship have a total of one previous trip to the semifinals among them. And no former champion made it past this year's quarterfinal round.
"There are a lot of different names and I'm one of them," said Justin Akers after a 4-and-3 win over Zach Stechschulte at the Bluffton Golf Club on Friday sent him on to today's semifinals at the Shawnee Country Club.
Joe Hobensack, Zach Miller, Logan Dray and Akers are the four semifinalists in the championship flight who emerged from 36 holes of match play on Friday.
Hobensack defeated Brady Schroeder 1-up, 19 holes after taking a 1-up win over Chad Gray in the morning.
Miller won 5-and-3 over Kayne Richardson after starting his day with a 5-and-3 win over Todd Burkholder.
Dray claimed a spot in the semifinals by beating Braydon Bottles 4-and-3 after a 1-up win over Clay Bryan. Akers beat David Johnstone 1-up before his win over Stechschulte.
Miller, a recent Allen East graduate, had maybe the most unique path to the final four by beating two of his former high school coaches — last year's champion, Josh Hollar, on Thursday and Richardson on Friday.
"I've played a lot of big tournaments but there is still pressure in any tournament. But my main thing was I wanted to play my two coaches. I got that done so now I just want to have fun the rest of the way," he said. "I was hitting the driver really well and the wedges were also really good today."
Miller finished sixth as an individual in last fall's high school state golf tournament and recently was fourth in the Junior Ohio Amateur. He will play Akers in his semifinal match today.
The other semifinal match-up will be Hobensack against Dray. Hobensack is playing in the tournament for the first time in several years.
He went par, birdie, par to win No. 15, No. 16 and No. 17 to take the lead in his match against Schroeder before they went to a one-hole playoff when Schroeder dropped a birdie putt for a win at No. 18.
"It was back and forth all day. I think we tied maybe three holes all day," Hobensack said.
"I just stuck with it. I never got off the rails too far. A bad shot didn't bother me too much today. I made a lot of recoveries, like yesterday. I just kept hanging in there," he said.
Akers said chipping and putting were the keys to his two wins. "The first match today I was just getting up and down from everywhere. In the afternoon it was my putter. I was in the middle of the green for the most part and just made two putts."
The semifinals in seven other flights will also be played at Shawnee today.
In the First Flight, Braydon Ruble will play Michael Sarno and Rich Dackin will face Levi Hoy.
The match-ups in the Second Flight will be Greg Stumbaugh against Douglas Collins and Braden Goodwin against Josh Buetner.
The Senior Championship Flight pairings are Gary Karch against Tim Windau and Troy Breidenbach against Todd Stump.
In the Senior Open I Flight, Greg Buchanan will play Christian Inskeep and Chad Smiley will play Todd Coil. In the Senior Open II Flight, Bill Haidle and Jeff Harris will be one of the match-ups and Frank Pugh and Patrick Heffley will be the other.
The Super Seniors I Flight pairings are Mike Allen against Gene Dugan and Mike Bollinger against Bob Moser. The Super Seniors II Flight's final four are Doug Kent against Mike McGough and John Simindinger against Bob Hollar.
Reach Jim Naveau at 567-242-0414.
