JANESVILLE — With a course conducive to making birdies and eagles, no lead is safe during the Ray Fischer 72-Hole Amateur Championship.
Dustin Schwab of Lodi learned that lesson — and in turn gave it to another player during third and fourth round play Sunday on Riverside Golf Course.
What was a four-shot lead halfway through the tournament evaporated on the final day, and thanks to a double bogey about midway through his final round, he found himself looking up at a handful of players on the leaderboard as he played his final nine holes.
Schwab played them at 5-under par, including a clutch eagle at 17 to tie the leader Jacob Beckman, then beat Beckman on a single playoff hole to win his second Ray Fischer title.
The Waunakee High grad and former Marquette men’s golfer overcame plenty of final-day adversity on his way to the win.
It started in the third round, the first of two played Sunday, which he started with a four-shot lead on one player and a six-shot lead on a few others, including Beckman, a current University of Wisconsin player out of Middleton High.
Schwab carded his first three bogeys of the weekend during round three and wound up with a 2-under round of 70.
“The birdies weren’t happening, and I made a few bad bogeys in the third round,” he said.
While he did that, Beckman closed to within one stroke with a 7-under 65.
Several others in the groups ahead of Schwab, including former UW-Green Bay players Joe DuChateau of Fond du Lac with a 65 and Joe Forsting of Edgerton with a 66, also put pressure on the leader. Waunakee’s Max Brud, who plays college golf at Minnesota State, also had a third-round 66 to join the party heading into the final round.
A double bogey on No. 7 in his final round threatened to put an end to Schwab’s championship hopes. He lost a ball in some long grass on that hole and incurred a penalty stroke.
“That’s a tough spot to be in because when I looked at the leaderboard, I saw I was three, four shots back at that point,” he said.
DuChateau, Beckman, Brud and Forsting all took turns at or near the top of the leaderboard over the final 10 or so holes of the tournament.
Knowing he would have to get hot over his last nine holes, Schwab got to work after only making par at the par-5 10th hole.
“I didn’t birdie 10, which, knowing I needed to shoot 4-, 5-, 6-under on the back nine, not birdieing 10 was not an ideal start,” he said.
But on the 11th, he picked up a shot after draining a birdie putt, a hole he thought kick-started his run back to the lead.
He followed that a few holes later with a two-putt birdie on the par-5 14th, hit a 9-iron approach shot to within a yard of the 16th hole and tapped in for birdie, then drove the green on the par-4 17th and made an eagle putt from about 10 feet to tie Beckman at 20-under for the weekend.
Playing one hole ahead of Schwab, Beckman made par at 18 and stayed at 20-under.
After he got close to the pin on 16, that’s when Schwab said he felt like he had a chance to get back to the top of the board.
Schwab also came within just a few inches of canning an approach shot on 18 that would have won him the championship, but he two-putted for par instead, leading to a playoff against Beckman.
On the playoff hole — the par-5 10th — both players drove their ball into the rough along the right side of the fairway at the bottom of a steep incline that serves as a sledding hill during the winter months.
Facing a difficult lie on his second shot, Beckman laid up to the top of the hill while Schwab hit his to about 10 yards short of the green. Both reached the putting surface in three, and Beckman rolled a long attempt to within a couple of yards.
Schwab putted twice to finish off his par, leaving Beckman with a good look to force another playoff hole. But his attempt lipped out hard, making Schwab the eighth player to win multiple Ray Fischer Amateur Championship titles.
2022 champ posts tournament-low 62
Mason Schmidtke of Sheboygan did not join the club of two-time Fischer champs Sunday, but he did have an impressive final round to get into the top 10.
He played Riverside’s front nine, his final nine holes of the tournament, in just 29 shots as part of his 10-under round of 62. He birdied holes No. 1, 3, 4, 6 and 7 and made eagle at the par 4 second.
2024 RAY FISCHER 72-HOLE AMATEUR CHAMPIONSHIP
At Riverside Golf Course, Janesville; par 72 (288 for the championship)
FINAL
TOP 10
1. Dustin Schwab 64-66-70-68—268 (won playoff hole). 2. Jacob Beckman 67-69-65-67—268 (lost playoff hole). t3. Joe DuChateau 67-71-65-66—269. t3. Joe Forsting 66-71-66-66—269. t5. Max Brud 70-67-66-69—272. t5. Jack Schultz 69-65-70-68—272. t5. Mason Schmidtke 75-69-67-62—273. t5. Sabastian Kasun 70-69-70-64—273. Ricky Kuiper 70-67-70-66—273. t7. Ty Kretz 66-70-67-70—273.
LOCAL PLAYERS (ROCK AND WALWORTH COUNTY RESIDENTS)
t3. Joe Forsting (Edgerton), 269. t23. Cory Aune (Lake Geneva) 280. t25. Caleb Kern (Edgerton) 281. t36. Kade Wieland (Milton) 285. t40. Nathan Boltz (Elkhorn) 286. t46. Daniel Ozga (Edgerton) 287. t52. Trey Oswald (Beloit) 289. t54. Brett Wieland (Milton) 290. t63. Matt Behm (Janesville) 293. t69. Easton Haworth (Janesville) 294. t73. Nick Hagen (Beloit) 296. 77. Raymond Jordan (Delavan) 298.
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