Burke Spensky getting a yardage for his approach on the 10th hole at RedHawk in the final round of the 2024 Match Play Championship.
By: Shane René, USGA P.J. Boatwright Intern
Burke Spensky arrived at RedHawk Golf Course Friday morning for the 2024 Mid-Amateur Championship with a cocktail of context swirling beneath his bucket hat.
The reigning Master-40 Player of the Year left the 2023 Mid-Amateur at Pinecrest Golf Course wounded by the memory of a five-foot putt railing off the right edge on the final hole of regulation. Less than an hour later, after finding the wrong side of Pinecrest’s famously lush tree lines, he lost in a playoff.
“Last year I lost a heartbreaker to Jesse Hibler,” Spensky said following a two-under opening round of 68.
“So, I’d like to avenge that. I’m right where I want to be.”
This year’s venue, however, seemed poised to soften the scar tissue. After a strong showing at the 95th State Amateur and heartbreak at the Mid-Am, Spensky won his second IGA Four-Ball title with Justin Merz at RedHawk Golf Course this past fall.
“I love this course,” he said. “It’s a fun course; it gives you a lot of options ‘cause there’s not very many trees, so you can hit the ball left to right or right to left. It plays firm and fast which is a lot of fun. And the greens are good — you guys had a few nasty hole locations out there.”
Spensky for a closing birdie on Saturday.
Spensky said his spring was a bit of a struggle — despite winning the 2024 Mixed Couples Chapman with Kris Fenwick in May — and was pleased to find a bogey free 32 on the back nine to vault himself just two-shots behind Andrew Cornella’s lead (-4) and tied with Hibler, setting the stage for a repairing of the final round in 2023.
First out on Saturday morning, both players managed two bridies in the first four holes, moving into a tie for the lead at four-under par. But it was Hibler who ultimately stepped into the spotlight, playing his first 15 holes bogey-free with five birdies. Tap-in bogeys on the brawny par-3 16th and from an awkward fairway bunker lie on the 18th would drop him back to five-under, but still leading the way. Stumbling through the turn, Spensky birdied two of his last five holes for 69, leaving him two shots back at three-under par.
In Saturday’s afternoon wave, Gilbert Livas stormed out of the gates with 31 on the front nine to tie Hibler but stumbled down the stretch, making nine on the drivable 15th to kick him out of Sunday’s final pairing. Meridian’s Sean Travis buried a long birdie putt on 18 to be the last of three men under par, earning a place in the final pairing. Cornella, the round-one leader, struggled early and withdrew.
Hibler playing his second on the par-5 ninth.
With two shots separating each of the three men in Sunday’s final pairing, Hibler was in a position to separate himself early — and he did. Matching Spensky with a birdie on the opening par-5, Hibler watched his lead balloon to four-shots as Spensky bogeyed two of his next three holes. But you could almost see the steam rising off Hibler’s brow as the defending champion rolled onto the back nine.
A third consecutive day of clinical ball-striking had suddenly gone unpaid by his putter. A short par putt on the long par-3 sixth limped wide of the left edge for a second consecutive bogey to see his lead shrink back to two. His birdie putt on the short par-3 8th died in the jaws. An equally good look on the par-5 9th did the same.
Sharing a cart with Hibler, Spensky rolled in a clutch par save on the 8th after a poor chip and cut the deficit to one with a six-foot slider for birdie on nine. Trading pars at 10 and bogeys at 11, Spensky’s ball horseshoed out of the hole as he tried to clean up for par.
Back to where he started the day, Hibler stepped up on the par-3 13th and hit the kind of golf shot we expect of championship players, stuffing one inside 10 feet to a back-right hole location shoved against the water. With his momentum slipping, Spensky needed to respond.
“I just had to step up,” Spensky said. “I made some really sloppy swings on 10 and 11. And I’ve been struggling this year, so it was basically just trust in yourself to hit the shot and have some guts about it. And I did — that was cool.”
Spensky battling from the hay.
Firing just left of the flag, Spensky put the ball right back in Hibler’s court, forcing him to putt first. But once again, a good roll from Hibler limped right as the ball’s shadow cast over the hole and died on the right edge. Spensky settled over his putt and knocked it in the middle.
The deficit was back to one with five holes to play — none of which Spensky had bogeyed all week long.
Each finding the fairway on the par-5 14th, Spensky leaned on his patented draw and threw one high-up over the water some 30 feet behind the hole. Hibler, with a shorter approach, knocked one aboard 35 feet left of the hole. Two-putt birdies sent them onto the drivable 15th where green-side drives and chips left them each inside 10 feet for birdie — and the putting dynamic continued. Short right for Hibler; the bottom of the cup for Spensky.
Tie ball game.
Both players then found trouble at the 16th. The hole cut behind the deep, front-right bunker 234 yards from the tee, Spensky went hunting, pitch a five-iron on the front edge of the green that trundled off the back and into a catch basin.
“It hit right where I wanted,” Spensky said. “I didn’t realize it was shaved back there, it rolled all the way down and then I had the downslope going straight up the bank.”
Then Hibler, once again looking for some magic, found the front right bunker. But he found the magic with his second, knocking his bunker shot inside two feet. Spensky, opting for the low route, skipped his ball up the slope some 12 feet by the hole. With Hibler securing three, Spensky poured in the par save to keep the championship tied with two holes to play.
“That was big because [Hibler] had just hit an amazing bunker shot from where he was.” Spensky said. “So that kept the momentum going. That was a big, big hole.”
Routine pars at 17 and 18 left the 2024 Mid-Amateur Championship (and the Master-40 title race) with a tie at the top through 54 holes of regulation. Returning to the 17th tee for the first playoff hole, both players played safe, blowing their tee shots well right of the water, trading fairway lines for an ideal angle into undulating green with a back-left hole location. Hibler’s approach found the middle of the green, leaving a putt up and over a ridge. Spensky, from a patch of fescue, got his approach onto the back shelf some 25 feet from the hole.
Both lagging their birdie putts withing three feet of the hole, Spensky tapped in leaving Hibler a short, slippery putt to force a second playoff hole — but it slipped by the right edge.
Spensky hoisting the Hiskey Family Cup.
“I feel great — oh, man, I feel great,” Spensky said. “I had a heartbreaker last year to Jesse Hibler... we battled for the last two days, went to a playoff — it was tough. He’s such a great competitor, such a good golfer, so steady. I made a little run on the back nine, birdied three in a row — got me back in it. We both made great pars on 16, good pars on 17, good pars on 18. Then I got a little lucky, he three-putted to another nasty pin...
“But it feels great to get a victory.”
Despite being among the IGA’s most pedigreed players with five USGA Championship appearances and consistently competitive showings across the state, this is Spensky’s first major individual IGA title. He also earned the Master-40 title with the win.
