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Wise pulls out victory Justin time By DON HUNT Justin Wise is not the same golfer he was a year ago. He's a little bigger and a lot stronger. He's more mature and more committed to the game. Most of all, he's just plain better. Wise and fellow Medford resident David Kaplan were both on top of their games during the second round of match play at the Southern Oregon Golf Tournament Friday. But when the smoke cleared at Rogue Valley Country Club, Wise had squeaked out a sudden-death victory with a birdie on the 19th hole. Three upsets stood out in men's championship flight matches Friday as Ian Parent edged 1993 champion Brad Bills, 1-up; Kelly Owen upended Glen Clark, 4-and-2; and Ted Stark ousted last year's runner-up Jimmy White, 2-and-1. In other matches, two-time defending champion Tommy Smith beat Jason Wittkopf, 5-and-3; Carl Johnson edged Todd Dixon, 3-and-1; Eric Austad downed Kevin Dixon, 5-and-4; Bret Breeze routed John Barry, 6-and-5; Scott Tuttle defeated Doug Luther, 3-and-2; Ryan Schaefer nipped Mike Spiegel, 1-up; and Gary Loeb nudged Jerry Eklund, 3-and-2. Also, it was former three-time champion Doug Olson over Rob Mullaney, 5-and-4; Brooks Newsom over Ron Holland, 4-and-3; Dave Boals over Mark DeBoer, 6-and-5; Kevin Klabunde over Mike Finnell, 2-and-1; and Dave Schoenmann over Scott Plankenhorn on the 19th hole. The 20-year-old Wise and the 40-year-old Kaplan went at it like a couple of heavyweight boxers. Kaplan landed the early blows with four birdies over the opening seven holes to take a two-shot lead, but Wise got off the ropes and retaliated with birdies on 10 and 11 to go 1-up. Each golfer registered a 3-under-par 33 on the front nine. Heading up the 18th fairway, Kaplan had a one-hole advantage but hit his second and third shots into sand traps while Wise knocked his second shot within five feet of the cup. Thus, the seesaw match necessitated an extra hole. And that's where Wise finally took command, blasting his drive 350 yards down the center of the fairway to set up his eighth birdie on the day and the victory. "That guy is tough," Wise said of Kaplan. "He gets four birdies right off the bat and I'm thinking, whoa, slow down a little. But I was playing well, too, and there was a lot of golf left to play." The most important hole for Wise was the par-4 17th. He trailed by one going into that hole and hit his driver well to the left. But his ball hit a big pine tree and bounced back into the fairway, enabling him to halve the hole with a par. Had he lost the 17th, Wise would have lost the match. "I got lucky on that hole," he admitted. "But you take what you can get out here, because sometimes you get unlucky, too." Wise has been playing the best golf of his life this summer. He credits Ed Fisher, a teaching pro at Grants Pass Golf Club, for improving his swing, and a weight-lifting program for improving his strength. Fisher has been working with Wise for the past eight months. "He (Fisher) tightened up my swing," said Wise, a lanky 6-foot-1 and 160 pounds. "It's much more compact now. "When my ball goes left or right, now it's 10 yards instead of 20 or 30." Wise, who hopes to be playing at Oregon State next spring, has been playing golf throughout the summer; the Southern Oregon marks his seventh tournament. Kaplan, on the other hand, has played sparingly after spending much of the summer at a work seminar back east. But he didn't use that as an excuse and he gave all the credit to Wise. "I watched him grow up on this course and he's really coming into his own," Kaplan said. "He hits the ball long and he's got great touch around the greens. And today he hit the shots he had to hit to win the match." Smith, meanwhile, struggled to a 3-over-par score through 15 holes but had little trouble dispatching Wittkopf. "I scraped it around today but it was good enough to win," Smith said. "Hopefully, I'll hit it better the rest of the tournament." Counting his march to the championship in 1989, Smith has now won 20 straight matches in the tournament. Smith turned pro and didn't appear in the tourney for a decade. He then won titles in 1999 and 2000. "If I would have run into either of those other two guys in our group today I would have lost," said Smith, meaning Wise and Kaplan. "But I tend to play to the competition." Parent got his victory over Bills when he sank a 10-foot par putt on the 18th hole but admitted he didn't play well. Parent won despite hitting three shots out of bounds. Boals, making his first appearance in the regular men's division in 13 years, advanced to the third round by shooting one-under through 13 holes. Olson, whose last title came in 1997, also shot one-under during his victory over Mullaney, while Klabunde was 3-under through 17 holes in his win over Finnell. In other divisions, defending junior-senior champion Doug Ward rolled to a 5-and-4 win over Mike Derryberry, while defending senior champ Bob Harrell scored a 2-and-1 victory over Mike Morris. Reach reporter Don Hunt at 776-4469, or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.