CHEYENNE \u2013 Patrick Stolpe has been in contention for the Wyoming State Open championship most of the years he\u2019s played the tournament.<\/p>\n
The Scottsdale, Arizona, resident had played in the final group of the 54-hole tournament, but hadn\u2019t been able to take home the top prize.<\/p>\n
Until Sunday.<\/p>\n
Stolpe carded a 6-under-par 64 during the final round to finish the tournament at 14-under 196. He won the tournament by two strokes and left Airport Golf Course with the $10,000 winner\u2019s check.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt means a lot to win this tournament,\u201d Stolpe said. \u201cI haven\u2019t won a real state open or anything in quite a few years, so this is really special to me. I don\u2019t play most of the winter, so I try to get my game ready in the summer.<\/p>\n
\u201cI really enjoy coming here. There are a lot of good people, I like this course, and I feel comfortable here. It\u2019s a lot of fun.\u201d<\/p>\n
Stolpe \u2013 who works as a caddy \u2013 sat in a five-way tie for fifth at 8-under after two rounds. He was in the final group to tee off on Hole No. 10 on Sunday.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe first two days, I played solid \u2013 nothing great, but real solid,\u201d Stolpe said. \u201cI knew I was playing well, so I just kept doing what I was doing. I was solid and stayed patient all day, especially with the wind we had.<\/p>\n
\u201c\u2026 I was trying to play as good of golf as I could play and hit good shots. I couldn\u2019t control what everyone else was doing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Stolpe started his round with a birdie on the par-5 Hole No. 10 and another on the par-4 Hole No. 11. He also notched birdies on Hole Nos. 15 and 18, and followed with another birdie on the par-4 Hole No. 1 to get to 5-under for the round.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe way these greens are, there are spots where you can be aggressive and spots where you just kind of play the middle of the green,\u201d Stolpe said. \u201cIf you get to the wrong spot, it\u2019s a real tough up and down. I tried to pick my spots and be aggressive when I felt good about it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The lone blemish on his score card came with a bogey on the par-4 Hole No. 5. He followed that miscue by birdieing the next two holes.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis isn\u2019t the hardest course, but you can get in trouble, for sure,\u201d Stolpe said. \u201cYou have to figure out how to navigate that. I\u2019ve been coming here for seven or eight years now, so I\u2019ve been learning and tried to take advantage of that knowledge.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jimmy Morton of Aurora, Colorado, and Braydon Swapp of Ogden, Utah, split second place at 12-under 198. Swapp was playing in the final group and shot a 3-under 67 thanks to birdies on the par-4 Hole Nos. 15 and 16.<\/p>\n
\u201cAny time you\u2019re playing in the last group, it\u2019s a great opportunity,\u201d Swapp said. \u201cIt\u2019s something golfers look forward to because winning happens so seldom. My (putter) was a little off to start the round.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had three three-putts today, so that\u2019s what I\u2019ll be thinking about as I drive home. Those are the three shots I needed to win. \u2026 The goal for the week was to not be mad for three days, and I think I did pretty good at that. It was fun to keep the mental game in check and grind it up.\u201d<\/p>\n
Riverton amateur Parker Paxton held a three-stroke lead at 14-under entering the final round. He carded a 5-over 75 and finished the 54-hole event 9-under 201. Paxton won the championship amateur title by five strokes.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was never really able to get comfortable and get into a rhythm with the swing or with the putter,\u201d said Paxton, who will be a junior at the University of Colorado this fall. \u201cI missed a lot of putts, didn\u2019t really chip it very good and didn\u2019t really hit it very good.<\/p>\n
\u201cNothing was really clicking. It\u2019s hard to get the ball in the hole when it\u2019s like that, especially with the wind blowing like it was.\u201d<\/p>\n
Paxton started his final round with a birdie on the par-4 Hole No. 1, but carded bogeys on three of his next five holes. He made the turn onto the back nine after bogeying the par-3 Hole No. 9. The par-5 Hole No. 10 provided Paxton\u2019s final birdie of the day. He bogeyed Hole Nos. 14, 15, and 18 and double-bogeyed the par-3 Hole No. 17.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs soon as I tried to get something going, I\u2019d follow it up with a bogey and I just never got going all day long,\u201d Paxton said.<\/p>\n
Paxton\u2019s older brother, Easton Paxton, won the Wyoming Open amateur title in 2020.<\/p>\n
The Wyoming Open is the first in a busy month of competitive golf for Paxton. He was eager to test himself against the young professionals in the field. Instead of comparing scores as he had on the first two days, Paxton teed it up alongside pros in Sunday\u2019s final group.<\/p>\n
Paxton hopes it will be an invaluable experience.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt first, I didn\u2019t think I was going to be able to play in the final group with the pros,\u201d he said. \u201cSo, I was really excited to see myself in that final group. \u2026 Once you get to a certain level in golf, there\u2019s not much of a difference in players. The level that I play at in college, I play with really, really good players all the time that look like pros and will eventually be like these pros.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was great to play with these pros and see their game. Other than (Swapp), we all were kind of in the same boat with how we played, but it\u2019s always fun to play against good competition.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dominic Piccirillo of Salem, South Carolina, and Jake Ezell of Austin, Texas, rounded out the final group. Piccirillo shot a 3-over 73 and split ninth at 8-under for the tournament. Ezell fired a 3-over 73 in the final round and tied for 14th at 6-under.<\/p>\n
Other winners<\/p>\n
Barry Conser of Scottsdale, Arizona, won the senior pro title at 1-over 211. He won the pro title in 1994 and \u201995.<\/p>\n
Flighted amateur titles went to Chase Chapman of Robinson, Texas; Yun Ro of Cheyenne; Derek Valencia of Aurora, Colorado; Aaron Martens of Cheyenne and Trent Keller of Cheyenne.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CHEYENNE \u2013 Patrick Stolpe has been in contention for the Wyoming State Open championship most of the years…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":35624,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[2337,44,2335,293,2846,2336,834],"class_list":["post-35623","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-european-tour-events","tag-golf","tag-golf-tournaments","tag-men","tag-par-score","tag-pga-tour-events","tag-tournament"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35623","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35623"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35623\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35624"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35623"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35623"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35623"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}