Multiple records set by Wheatcroft in win
As he came up the 18th fairway with a 10-stroke lead in the Prince George’s County Open, Steve Wheatcroft made his only mistake of the week: He looked at a video board adjacent to the green. On screen was his father, Dan, wiping tears with a Terrible Towel.
Wheatcroft, raised in the suburbs of Pittsburgh, was trying to hold it together before putting the finishing touches on, not only his first Nationwide Tour victory, but the most dominant performance in the history of the circuit.
The 33-year-old journeyman blinked tears from his eyes, then rolled a 20-foot putt over a ridge, down a hill, and into the cup for an eagle 3, putting an appropriate exclamation on a tournament he owned.
With a final-round 7-under-par 64, Wheatcroft finished with the largest victory margin (12 strokes) and the lowest four-day total (255) in the 22-year history of the Nationwide Tour.
“I am absolutely over-the-top ecstatic,” Wheatcroft said. “I’ve wanted to win out here for years and years and I’ve never really been that close.”
Making the victory that much sweeter was the presence of family and friends, many decked out in Steeler black and gold, including his father, and his girlfriend, Sarah Skevington. As Wheatcroft came up the final fairway, he waved and hooted to a friend in a Troy Polamalu jersey.
“You make a birdie and you look up and see Terrible Towels waving,” Wheatcroft said. “You hear voices in the crowd, screaming your name, you know exactly who they are. It was awesome.”
The only time Wheatcroft didn’t enjoy seeing his supporters was when the Golf Channel flashed to his father.
“I look up on the big screen, just to see scores,” Wheatcroft said. “And there’s my dad wiping his eyes with a Terrible Towel. I start choking up, tearing up, and I said, ‘Come on you’ve got to hold it together for at least one more putt.'”
Wheatcroft’s fans came from the City of Champions to toast the newest member of the club, who put on another dazzling show on Sunday, playing the final four holes in four-under-par. Wheatcroft made six birdies in the final round, giving him 31 for the week, tying another Nationwide Tour record.
Wheatcroft birdied No. 8, a 346-yard par 4, all four rounds, and played the 547-yard par 5 finishing hole in 5-under-par, allowing fans to enjoy $1 beers, provided after players made birdies on No. 18.
If only they served Iron City.
“I wanted to go out with a bang,” Wheatcroft said. “The 18th green on Sunday is as good as you’re going to get.”
Wheatcroft, who failed to stick on the PGA Tour in 2007 and 2010 and missed the cut the last two years at the P.G. Open, opened the day with a Nationwide Tour record eight-stroke lead and never back-tracked.
Playing with Nicholas Thompson, his closest pursuer most of the afternoon, allowed Wheatcroft to see exactly where he stood. When Wheatcroft drove into a fairway bunker at No. 9 and made a bogey, Thompson answered with a 4-foot birdie putt and a two-shot swing. But all it did was reduce Wheatcroft’s 10-shot deficit to eight.
On the next hole, Wheatcroft responded with a birdie, quelling any notions of a rally by Thompson, a 28-year-old who spent the last three years on the PGA Tour and was seeking his second Nationwide victory.
Wheatcroft had all the answers on Sunday. When he hit his worst shot of the day, missing badly on the 250-yard uphill par 3 fifth, Wheatcroft followed with a brilliant recovery, over a bunker, to within 12 feet, where he drilled the par-saving putt.
“To pour in that putt gave me all the momentum in the world. I just looked at my caddie and said, we’re off and running now,” Wheatcroft said. “It was a huge putt, kind of a statement putt for me. I didn’t want anybody to think they had a chance today.”
Nobody did. It wasn’t as if his challengers were inept. Second-place finishers Jon Mills and Ryan Armour, who closed with a 62, shot 17-under par, matching the score of last year’s winner, Tommy “Two Gloves” Gainey.
Wheatcroft’s course-record 60 in the second round set the scene for his runaway. But instead of cruising and protecting his lead, he extended it in the final two rounds.
“I was just trying to go as far and as fast as I could away from second place,” Wheatcroft said.
The 6-foot-3, 215-pound Wheatcroft did it by bombing drives and making putts. His 96 putts in the tournament were the second fewest in history in a Nationwide event, one more than Grant Waite needed at the Miccosuke Championship in 2003.
Wheatcroft has little time to celebrate. He has a 7:55 a.m. starting time in the 36-hole U.S. Open Sectional qualifier Monday at Woodmont Country Club. Wheatcroft has fond memories of the course. He survived a four for one playoff last year, making a birdie on the first hole, to advance to the U.S. Open for the first time.
“You don’t want to win and have to play 36 holes the next day,” Wheatcroft said. “But Monday night’s gonna be a blast. I can promise you that.”
