James climbs from rough to win

CEDAR RAPIDS - Chris James stood among the throng searching for his errant tee shot in the brush off hole No. 2 Sunday at Ellis Golf Course and thought to himself, 'find it and give me a shot.”

Even though the resulting bogey - his first of the round - trimmed his lead to a single stroke over Ryan Schrimper with seven holes to play, James found not only his ball but his birdie binge.

'I just wanted to stay calm and composed,” James said after birdies on the next three holes and four of six helped him win his third Cedar Rapids City Amateur golf tournament by five strokes. 'I knew that Ryan and Scot (Glasford) would make a run at some point, so I just had to kind of battle through those tough holes. The next three holes I got them all back there so that was good.”

The former Cedar Rapids Washington prep, who golfed collegiately for Kirkwood and St. Ambrose, scored a 4-under par 68 for the second day in a row and finished with a 9-under 207 for the three-day tournament, with the first two at Gardner. Schrimper entered the final round tied with James at 5 under, but finished five strokes back with a 1-over final round of 73. Two-time winner Steve Koepke fired a 68 to finish tied for second.

'Today was just one of those days you just couldn't really get anything going,” said Schrimper, who prepped at Linn-Mar and also played at Mount Mercy.

The round began on the back nine and Schrimper left a few strokes out on the course right from the start. Par putt attempts lipped out on both the first and fifth holes, and a birdie try on the final hole hugged the cup without finding a home. All he could do was shake his head when his eagle chip on the par-5 No. 12 found only the flagstick.

'I knew that in the last few weeks I have been struggling with the short ones,” Schrimper said. '(I've) got to make every shot count.”

Instead it was James who continued to cash in, and now the current co-coach of the Washington boys' golf team can lay claim to being just the fourth golfer (Sam Aossey, Bob Kollsmith and Dave Aossey) to win three Cedar Rapids City Ams in the 61-year history of the tournament.

'Wow, it really hasn't sunk in yet,” said James, who also won in 2008 and 2010. 'The first two were hard to get. This one was definitely harder. It's taken me four years.”

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