LANSING – Cody Haughton of Red Run Golf Club in Royal Oak held off two-time past champion Scott Hebert of Traverse City Golf & Country Club to win the Michigan PGA Section Match Play Championship presented by the PGA Tour Wednesday at Country Club of Lansing.
Hebert, a Michigan Golf Hall of Fame member, rallied from a 3-down deficit with birdies at holes 14 and 15, but Haughton held him off and was conceded the 18th hole for a 2-up final-match win and his first major Michigan PGA title.
“It’s nice to finally get it done and get a win,” said the 33-year-old Haughton who has been one of the section’s top players in recent years and is in his 10th year at Red Run.
“I’ve won the (Eastern) chapter championship, and I’ve been close in the (Michigan PGA Professional Championship) a few times. It’s always a goal to win. I always want to go out there and do my best, try to compete and put myself in contention. It’s definitely a goal to win every time I tee it up. A lot of times it hasn’t happened, but this time it did. This is definitely my biggest professional win.”
Haughton birdied the par 4 13th hole with an approach shot inside two-feet to take a 3-up lead for the second time in the final match, but Hebert rallied with birdies at 14 and 15.
It looked like Hebert might tie the match at 16 when Haughton’s second shot hit a tree branch and dropped short of the green in heavy rough. He was able to get his third shot on the green about 35-feet from the hole, and then made the long putt for a par to tie Hebert on the hole and maintain his 1-up lead.
“If that long putt on 16 he made doesn’t go in, maybe things are different,” Hebert said. “Cody made it though. He’s a good player. He hit good shots, got the lead and I had to win those last two holes. It didn’t happen.”
Haughton and Hebert earned their spots in the final match with morning semifinal wins over the Deiters family. Haughton beat Austin Deiters of Midland Golf HQ 1-up by coming from behind and winning the last two holes, and Hebert birdied four of the first six holes on the back nine to beat Austin’s father, Jim Deiters of Midland Country Club, 5 and 3.
Haughton, a Ferris State University graduate like Hebert, called his opponent a great competitor.
“When you think he might be out of it, he can throw a shot in there and make a putt on you and suddenly the roles get reversed, especially in match play,” he said. “You can’t count him out. He made birdies and 14 and 15 and 16 could have very easily gone his way, but I made a very long putt that I guess made up for some that I’d missed earlier in the round.”
Country Club of Lansing hosted the final 16 players in the match play bracket, four who emerged from earlier rounds played in each chapter and the senior organization of the section, over two days.
Haughton’s name will be inscribed on the Jim Picard Trophy and he received a first-place check of $3,200. The Michigan PGA Section Match Play Championship dates to 1980 and is considered one of the four major Michigan PGA championships along with the Michigan Open, Michigan PGA Professional Championship and Tournament of Champions.
SEE THE BRACKET: https://mipga.bluegolf.com/…/contest/13/leaderboard.htm