Pilon Survives Shipka, Conquers Copper Canyon in Two-Hole Playoff
The Summer Tour faced its longest test of the season Sunday at Copper Canyon Golf Club, where the Del Webb Invitational stretched to nearly 6,900 yards from the Black Tees. The course was in fantastic condition, but from that distance it had plenty of teeth. Only two players in the 36-man field managed to break par, and they separated themselves from everyone else.
Brad Pilon and Justin Shipka each posted net 68s, four under par and four shots clear of third place. After 18 holes on the longest course the Tour has played this season, there was still nothing between them. It would take two more to decide it.
Steady Wins the Race
Pilon's playing partners used one word repeatedly to describe his round: steady. He isn't one of the Tour's bombers, especially compared with guys like Shipka, Casey Hatch and Kevin Hall. Pilon is much closer to the middle of the pack in distance, but he didn't need to overpower Copper Canyon. He opened with a brilliant net 32 and kept stacking pars. His lone major blemish came on 15 with a double bogey, but by then he had built enough of a round to absorb it.
Shipka, meanwhile, had the kind of length perfectly suited for a 6,900-yard test and wasn't going anywhere. He went 33-35 to match Pilon's 68 and force a playoff, which began at an unusual place on the Lakes course: a par three.
Shipka appeared to seize control immediately, finding the middle of the green while Pilon missed the green with both his first and second shots. Pilon finally cozied his third close and salvaged a four, leaving Shipka with two putts to win the Del Webb Invitational.
He needed three.
Pilon had been let off the hook, and Shipka would pay dearly for it. On the second playoff hole, Shipka found the water while Pilon went right back to the formula that had carried him all day — stay out of trouble and make par. He did, and this time it was enough.
After 18 holes of steady golf, one very unsteady playoff hole and one enormous escape, Brad Pilon was the Del Webb Invitational champion.
Surviving 6,900 Yards
While Pilon and Shipka were four shots clear of everyone else, there were plenty of noteworthy performances behind them. Casey Hatch turned in perhaps the most impressive gross performance of the day. One of the Tour's longest hitters and playing as a 1-handicap, Hatch shot a gross 73 and finished alone in third at net even par. Ken Allen followed at +1, with JJ Monroe and Dave Banks sharing fifth at +2.
Four players tied for seventh at +3: Danny Jean, Brad Thompson, Dan McGurren and Mike Cummings. Cummings' finish deserves a little extra appreciation because he is one of the shortest hitters on the Summer Tour. Sorry, Mike. It is what it is. On the longest setup of the season, while plenty of guys were reaching for everything they had just to keep up, Cummings found a way to finish inside the top 10 hitting fairways and making long putts for par.
Tim Kartman deserves a similar nod just outside the top 10. He isn't exactly striking fear into golf courses with overwhelming distance either, yet battled his way to +4 and a T11 finish. On a day seemingly designed to reward the bombers, Pilon winning the tournament and players like Cummings and Kartman hanging around the leaderboard were good reminders that there's more than one way to get around a golf course.
Match Play: Four Remain
Pilon's championship wasn't even his only dominant result of the day. While building his tournament-winning round, he was simultaneously dismantling Kevin Hall in the Individual Match Play Championship, winning 7 & 6. That score might suggest Hall simply didn't show up, but the leaderboard tells a different story. Hall, a 1-handicap and one of the Tour's longest hitters, shot +4 and finished T11. Pilon just kept making pars until Hall ran out of holes. By the time Pilon finally made his double on 15, their match had already been over for three holes.
Jim Pickus defeated Ken Galica 4 & 3, despite the two eventually posting identical net 78s. Matthew Newsome took down his two-man captain Spencer Harter 2 & 1, no small task against another of the Tour's biggest hitters. Then there was Kartman and Nick Auditore, who produced the tightest match of the day. After trading blows down the stretch, they arrived at 18 still undecided. Kartman won the final hole to take the match 1 Up and grab the last spot in the semifinals.
Pilon, Pickus, Newsome and Kartman are the four left standing. At Eagle Mountain, one more win separates each of them from the Individual Match Play Championship final.
Pilon Goes From 20th to 7th
The trophy wasn't the only thing Pilon took from Copper Canyon. He entered Sunday sitting 20th in the Desert Cup standings with 1,056 points. His victory was worth 550, launching him thirteen positions all the way to 7th with 1,606 — and he still has additional Match Play points coming. In one event, Pilon went from well outside the year-end money to firmly inside the top 10.
And that top-10 line is getting awfully crowded. Kevin Hall now sits eighth at 1,599, followed by Joel Miller at 1,575 and Chris Kazienko holding the final money position at 1,573. Shawn Lambert is 11th with 1,560 — just 13 points outside the money — while Jonathan Chorley remains within striking distance at 1,530. Shipka also made one of Sunday's biggest moves, collecting 330 points for second and jumping from 27th to 16th with 1,220.
That brings us to perhaps the cruelest number from Copper Canyon: one. The points cut landed at +5, where Auditore, Newsome, Chris Orr and Jay Satchfield each collected 57 points. Pickus, Galica, Andrew Chorley and Justin Bowen finished one shot worse at +6 and received zero. With the difference between 10th and 11th in the season standings currently just 13 points, those 57 points could eventually mean a whole lot more than a T15 finish in August.
Next Up: Eagle Mountain
And now there are only three events left.
The Summer Tour heads to Eagle Mountain Golf Club next Sunday, August 16, for the Fountain Hills Open, where Danny Jean returns as defending champion. The Individual Match Play Championship also reaches its semifinals, meaning two players will leave Eagle Mountain knowing they're headed to the championship match.
After Eagle Mountain comes the Scottsdale Championship at Troon North's Pinnacle Course on August 23, followed by the two-day Tour Challenge at Wigwam on August 29–30, where double points will be waiting at the finish line.
Copper Canyon showed exactly how much can change in one Sunday. Brad Pilon arrived 20th in the Desert Cup standings. He left with a tournament trophy, a 7 & 6 Match Play victory, a spot in the semifinals and seventh place in the season-long race.
Three events remain. There aren't many chances left to make a move.