Burton tops Kane, finally gets his title

The longer Sunday’s finale in the Central Virginia Match Play Championship stretched, the more spectators emerged from every nook and cranny of Spring Creek Golf Club’s sprawling neighborhood.
Jerry Burton, one of their own, had just birdied the 15th hole to take his first lead of the day, and must have wondered if they were coming in support or rather there to watch him slit his wrists if yet another title eluded his grasp.
Burton had been at the sport for years, seven of them as a professional, and had one lousy win to show for all the pain and suffering, a pro-am title at the old Crown Royal event at Royal New Kent. Since then, nada.
Oh, he had been close a few times. The 2008 Reines Jewelers Charlottesville City Championship, where his train
derailed early and never returned to the tracks. Then, the painful missed two-footer in the Cannon Cup in front of the same gallery that turned out Sunday.
That one stung for a long time.
So, it was only natural that the locals were actually there to pull for Burton, a likeable, good-natured guy, who deserved better results. Even mom and pop showed up to bring good luck.
Farmington’s Paul Kane, considered one of the area’s best amateurs over the last 13 years, was well aware of Burton’s past struggles, but hasn’t closed the deal on a tournament title in recent years either, so there was no sympathy coming from his golf cart.
What golf fans got was a classic match between two determined players at the top of their games.
Too bad this one had to come to an end ... and it didn’t until the 20th hole, the second day in a row Kane played two holes past regulation to settle the issue. All-square after 18, the two battled on, halving the first playoff hole with pars, before the drama ended abruptly on the second playoff hole, the par-5, second.
Kane, normally a terrific driver of the ball, pulled his tee shot deep into the thickets down the left side of the fairway. He didn’t say much, but he knew it was over.
When Burton’s drive landed in perfect position, he was surprised that Kane walked over to shake his hand and said, “Good match.”
It was officially over, even though Burton, being the good guy he is, tried to talk Kane out of conceding the hole.
Burton told Kane, “Let’s go look and see at least.”
Later, Kane, who has made it to the finals of this Spring Creek event twice in three years, admired Burton’s attempt to keep the match going.
“I just shook his hand,” Kane said. “The chances of me winning the hole were very slim. He tried to talk me out of it. He didn’t want it to end like that either. He said, ‘Let’s go look for it.’ But I was done playing golf.”
Having experienced the agony of defeat before, Burton would have preferred a more storybook ending, where he drops in a 20-footer for birdie to ice the match.
“I didn’t want to see it end the way it did,” Burton said afterward. “He just made a bad swing. If it was earlier in the match, he probably would have dropped one, but we were both dog tired.”
Each had won three matches in a day and a half, including a semifinals bout Sunday morning, the top-seeded Kane having beaten No. 4 Jeff Toms, 3 and 2, while second-seeded Burton defeated No. 3 Scott Garrison by an identical score.
“It was the best match I’ve ever been a part of,” said Kane, a 50-year-old who has played in tons of amateur events in Maryland prior to moving to Charlottesville in 1996. “This match is why I play golf, two guys with their ‘A’ games. At one point we were both 4-under par. It was just a great match.”
Kane held 1-up leads on Burton three times until the homeboy drained a 15-foot birdie putt on the par-3, 13th to even the match. Burton took his first lead on the 15th with another birdie, again from about 15 feet.
However, the match
returned to even on the next hole when Burton’s errant tee shot came to rest behind a cluster of small trees to the right of the fairaway, causing him to take an unplayable, leading to a bogey.
The two halved the devilish, par-3, 17th with bogeys and the treacherous, par-5, 18th with pars, leading to the drama on the 20th hole.
“I just don’t hit shots like that [drive],” Kane said. “It was a dead duck. But I was glad to see Jerry win. He’s been close so many times, and he’s a great player and a great guy. He beat my ‘A’ game, so he is a deserving champion.”
Kane joked that he figured if he beat Burton, after having eliminated another local member, Jud Foster, in the quarterfinals, that he wouldn’t have been very popular around Spring Creek. Either that or they would have attempted to sell him a membership.
For Burton, it was difficult putting into words what finally winning meant to him.
“It’s awesome to do it and it’s good to do it at home,” said Burton, who joins Bowen Sargent and Nick Little as the match play event titleists. “You lose the Cannon Cup and it’s nice to have a gallery show up like this. That meant a lot to me just to have them out there.
“Plus, instead of missing a two-footer to lose the Cannon Cup, I actually made a five-footer to extend the match today,” the champion beamed with satisfaction.
Burton had taken some good-natured ribbing about losing the Cannon Cup a couple of months ago, missing the putt from gimme range. He had heard all the reminders about choking, but this time he was met with high fives and pats on the back.
He may still be celebrating.
“It was great to have those people out there, and, unfortunately for Paul, most of them were cheering for me,” Burton said. “If it were at Farmington, I’m sure it would have been the other way around. But, like I told my mom and dad today, this is my Spring Creek family.”
Don’t think they’ll disown him after all.