Allshouse Rallies to Win Art Wall Super-Senior
SCRANTON, Pa. – Hannastown Golf Club’s Robert Allshouse knew that the putter would be a key to his chances of contending at the 15th Art Wall, Jr. Memorial Championship at Country Club of Scranton. An excellent short game player, Allshouse moved up the leaderboard with a trio of birdies early in the second round and held off Don Erickson to win the Super-Senior Championship, which was presented by LECOM. Allshouse finished with a 36-hole score of 146 (+2), including a second round score of 1-under par 71, which was the only under par round of the event’s Super-Senior Division.
“I suppose all winners make putts and I made a lot of putts today,” said Allshouse, who captured his first solo Pennsylvania Golf Association individual championship after tying Lee Lykens in last year’s rain-shortened Art Wall at Centre Hills Country Club. “My putting was really what won it today.”
Allshouse was paired with DuBois Country Club’s Erickson, the first round leader, and began the day trailing him by three shots. On the first hole, Allshouse failed to convert a par putt and fell four shots back. But then started his birdie binge to vault up the leaderboard.
First, Allshouse birdied the par-4 second hole, while Erickson made a par. Erickson again parred the third hole, but Allshouse birdied the par-3 for the second day in a row. And then on the par-5 fourth hole, Erickson rolled in a 54-footer while Erickson made bogey, tying the two at the top of the leaderboard.
“That putt set the tone for me today,” Allshouse said. “I really had no putting mistakes after that until the 15th hole.”
The players traded bogeys on the next two holes, but Erickson made a bogey on No. 8, enabling Allshouse to take a one-shot lead as they turned to the back nine.
The next key hole was the par-5 12th. Erickson had a great two-putt for par but Allshouse faced about 30 feet for eagle, then subsequently left that putt about 10 feet short. Still, fate was on his side on this day.
“True to what was happening to me today, I knocked in the 10 footer,” Allshouse said.
The momentum continued on the par-4 13th hole. Allshouse tried hit a wedge approach between the bunkers and on the green. But he pulled it a bit and got what he thought was a bad bounce. It turned out, however, that the ball took a 90-degree bounce directly to the right and ended up about 27 feet from the hole. And again, the putter came up big, as Allshouse’s putt went up and over the hill with perfect pace and landed in the bottom of the cup. That birdie gave him a cushion that got a little larger when Erickson’s approach went over the green and he ended up making double bogey. Allshouse had a 5-shot lead with just four to play.
“But I needed every single of them,” said Allshouse of the 5-shot lead.
He made double on No. 15 after a three-putt. He bogeyed the 16th after hitting 6-iron from 190 yards in an attempt to make sure he didn’t go over the green. That strategy worked except his next chip left him a sizeable distance to clean up his par and he missed the putt, putting him three shots ahead with two to play. On 17, both players made par as Allshouse executed a handsome sand save. That set up No. 18, where Allshouse hit his drive in the left bunker, had to lay up, but then hit a nice wedge and rolled in the clubhouse birdie that clinched his victory in the championship.
Erickson, the 2017 Super-Senior champion of the event, shot 150 (+6) to finish in second place. Applebrook Golf Club’s Gary Daniels finished at 9-over par 153 for third place. Tying for fourth were Hannastown Golf Club’s Vincent Zacchetti and Butler Country Club’s William Wigton, who each finished the 36-hole championship at 154 (+10).
The Pennsylvania Golf Association would like to thank the staff and membership of Country Club of Scranton for the hospitality in hosting the event this week. Thanks also to LECOM for sponsorship of the championship.