NIC golf coach Grove wins Oregon Open in playoff
Photo by MAKERR MEDIA Russell Grove displays the winner's check after capturing the Oregon Open golf tournament on the fifth hole of a playoff Thursday in Powell Butte, Ore.
POWELL BUTTE, Ore. — North Idaho College men’s and women’s golf coach Russell Grove won the Oregon Open, a Pacific Northwest PGA Section major, on Thursday, beating amateur Graham Moody on the fifth hole of a playoff at The Club at Brasada Canyons, near Bend.
Starting on the par-5 first hole in the playoff, both players birdied.
Grove missed birdie putts on the second and third holes, both par-4s that would have won it, and Moody did likewise on the fourth hole, a par-3.
On the par-4 fifth, Moody was just short of the green in two, and his next shot came up some 10 feet short. Grove then rolled in a 12-footer for birdie for his second Oregon Open win, and fourth section major overall.
“He’s a good player, obviously, and I knew I couldn’t give him many more chances,” Grove said. “Obviously I was trying to end it as soon as possible. Just relieved to have it (the birdie putt in the playoff) drop; it's still a grind and it’s never easy.”
Grove, who trailed Moody by two strokes after Wednesday’s second round of the 54-hole tournament, finished at 65-69-69—201, 15 under par. Moody, from Vancouver, Wash., shot 65-67-69—201.
Grove, who in May missed qualifying for the PGA Championship for the second straight year by two shots, birdied four of the first seven holes Thursday to pull into a tie with Moody. He took a 1-shot lead with a birdie on 11 — his sixth birdie of the day.
He gave the lead back with bogeys on 15 and 16, but got it back when he birdied the par-3 17th, and Moody bogeyed.
On the par-5 18th, “I didn’t know I had a one-shot lead, or I would have played it differently,” said Grove, who thought he was tied, but learned he had the lead just before hitting his approach shot.
He missed the fairway to the right with his driver, punched out, hit a wedge from 150 yards to 18 feet, and left his birdie putt short. Moody made a 3-footer for birdie and a playoff.
It was Grove’s last win since the Montana Open in 2022.
Grove also won the Oregon Open in 2017, and he’s won two section championships.