McCarty charges to victory in Greater Cedar Rapids Open

Sean McCarty hit a mind-blowing drive of about 410 yards on the par-4, 420-yard 10th hole at Hunters Ridge Sunday afternoon.

He only parred the hole, however, and stayed four shots behind leader Brad Winings. But when you can hit the ball the way McCarty does, it takes more than that deficit to be counted out.

When the afternoon was done, McCarty had finished a back-nine 32 to tack a 3-under-par 69 to his first two rounds of 69-68. That was good for a two-shot victory, his first in the 11-year history of the Greater Cedar Rapids Open. He finished second in 2002 and 2003.

“It only took 11 years,” McCarty said while enjoying a beer after the round. To the victors go the spoils.

The 36-year-old head pro at Coralville's Brown Deer Golf Club started his charge to the $13,000 first prize with another of his typically walloping drives on the par-5 12th. He dropped in a 12-foot eagle putt.

When McCarty birdied No. 15, he was tied for the lead. He made a 10-foot putt to save par on 16, birdied the par-5 17th with a 6-footer after hitting his tee shot well off the fairway, and had a scrambling par on 18 after his drive went in the left rough.

He hit a provisional tee shot off 18, but his original drive was less problematic than feared. He finished with a 10-under total of 206.

Winings, of Brownsburg, Ind., won the Waterloo Open and $45,000 a week earlier. He needed a birdie on 18 to force a playoff. He instead bogeyed to tie Michael Walton of Indian Wells, Calif., for second.

McCarty played in the threesome immediately ahead of Wining's. When McCarty's round was done, he kept his distance from the 18th green, mentally gearing for a possible playoff that he did not want.

“More than you can imagine,” he said. “I'm too exhausted to go any more.”

The West Branch native and former University of Iowa player has won bigger sums in his pro career. His biggest was $30,000 at a 2003 pro-am event in Orlando, Fla.

But this was about more than money.

“Purse or no purse,” McCarty said, “I still played good against a bunch of up-and-coming players. I don't feel washed up yet.”

He was a popular winner with the spectators, that's for sure. McCarty is only the second Iowan to win the GCRO's open pro division. Zach Johnson of Cedar Rapids was first, in 2001.

Today won't be a day of rest for the new champ. McCarty is playing in an Iowa PGA Section event in Des Moines.

“I'll get to ride a cart,” he said, “so it'll be all right.”

The amateur division winner, meanwhile, rode all night Sunday. Cameron Lawrence of Nashville and the University of Tennessee men's golf team, won a sudden-death playoff over Cedar Rapids' Nate Dunn on the first hole with a par.

Lawrence and pro Phillip Pettitt Jr., who tied for fourth in the pro division, drove from Cedar Rapids to Auburn Hills, Mich., last night.

Lawrence's tee time at the Monday qualifier of the PGA Tour's Buick Open is 8 a.m. today. That's Eastern time. Pettitt starts play at 9.

Lawrence didn't even get into this tourney until the morning of Friday's first round when GCRO co-founder Jim McPartland got him an entry.

“I hope to come back a few more times,” Lawrence said.

Dunn, the amateur winner here in 2006, started the day five shots behind Lawrence, but had a 71 Sunday to Lawrence's 76.

Barry Cheesman of Sarasota, Fla., won the senior pro division. He is a former PGA Tour member who will make a run at the Champions Tour qualifying school tourney later this year.

The GCRO, whose designated charity this year was Camp Courageous, was in good enough financial shape to actually add some money to the purse Sunday. First-prize was bumped $500.

That money, thanks to McCarty, is staying in Eastern Iowa.