McCulla holds off challenge from Traeder on back nine to win third consecutive city championship

QUINCY — After watching Jason Traeder narrowly miss an eagle putt that dropped him to his knees on the 17^th hole, Alex McCulla was sure Traeder was going to make the birdie putt on the 18^th hole and force a playoff.

“I thought he looked good over it,” McCulla said. “He’d been playing well all day. He’d been hitting a lot of putts that looked like they should have gone in, and they weren’t going in, but I was like, ‘I’ve got a feeling he’s gonna make this one and put a little pressure on me.’ That’s what it’s all about.”

Instead, Traeder’s 18-foot birdie putt failed to drop, and McCulla made his tap-in par putt to clinch his third consecutive Quincy Men’s City Golf Championship — and fourth overall — on Sunday afternoon at Westview Golf Course.

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At left: Alex McCulla hits his tee shot on the 11th hole at Westview Golf Course on Sunday.

Both shot 4-under par 67s on Sunday, with McCulla’s two-day score of 136 edging Traeder’s 137. Adam Pfeiffer, who is still trying to win a ninth city championship to break a tie with Mike O’Connell, shot a 1-under par 70 on Sunday and finished at 139.

“I over read it a little bit, and you don’t ever want to be on the low side of a putt like that,” Traeder said of his putt on No. 18. “I was trying to just miss on the high side, trying to give it a chance. It was a good opportunity.”

The head-to-head battle between McCulla, who completed his career at Illinois State University earlier this week, and Traeder, 45, a local businessman and father of two who played just his third and fourth rounds of the spring this weekend, was compelling on the back nine.

The twosome was tied through 10 holes, but a chunked chip on the par 3 No. 11 eventually cost Traeder a shot. He got that shot back, however, when he made a 30-foot birdie putt on No. 13 that caused his knees to wobble.

“It was all day long,” McCulla said. “Jason played really good on the front. I think he shot four under and probably could have shot a few lower. We were all kind of leaving some shots out there too. We weren’t really getting any putts to go in. Everyone was hitting good in our group. We were all close to the hole it seemed like every time. Every time you walked up on a green, you thought somebody was going to make a putt. It just didn’t quite go that way, but the ball striking was really good. It was tight all day.”

McCulla and Traeder both missed birdie putts on No. 14. A tee shot that found the right bunker on the par 3 15^th hole led to a two-putt bogey for Traeder, his second on a par 3 on the back nine. McCulla made his par putt and never relinquished the lead.

Traeder made him work for it, however.

Both parred the par 4 16th hole. McCulla, Pfeiffer and Traeder then all chose to hit their drives on the 17th hole back down the 16th fairway. McCulla’s drive rolled through the 16th fairway and onto the 17th fairway, and Pfeiffer’s drive landed in the middle of the 16th fairway. However, Traeder’s drive landed in the rough on the right side of the 16th fairway. His second shot, from 188 yards, would have to clear trees and still manage to stay on the green to give himself a chance to steal back a stroke — or maybe even two.

As he waited for the group ahead of them to finish the 17^th hole, Traeder drove his cart near the 17^th green to look at what he had to work with.

“The whole goal was, I wasn’t trying for the pin,” Traeder said. “The pin didn’t even exist. It was like, just get on the green, give yourself a putt and try to make a putt. I hit a high seven (iron) and just tried to drop it right in the middle, and it worked out perfect. 

“Then I hit a perfect putt, and I thought I had it.”

Traeder’s 20-foot eagle putt just slid past the hole. 

McCulla had a chance to extend his lead to two shots but his eagle putt from 15 feet sat on the left edge of the hole, setting up the 18^th hole drama.

“I thought we got a really good read on it, and I thought I put a good stroke on it,” he said. “I think it definitely just kind of hit something and kicked it a little left, which was happening to everybody in the group all day. It kind of evens out.”

McCulla gave credit to Seth Anderson, his caddie for the tournament and a childhood friend since they were at St. Peter School and later at Quincy Notre Dame. When McCulla went on to Illinois State, Anderson played soccer for four years at Saint Louis University.

McCulla said advice from Anderson, who didn’t play golf until his senior year at QND, proved to be beneficial on two of the final three holes.

“Seth is one of the biggest competitors I know in my life,” McCulla said. “He knows golf. We play a lot together when we’re home, and he definitely knows my game.

“He stepped me off two clubs coming in on 16. I was going to hit a 48(-degree wedge) back there, and he’s like, ‘You know, you’ve probably got some juice. Just leave it short.’ Then on 17, I was going to hit a 54(-degree wedge). ‘He’s like, I think with how you’re swinging it and you’re hitting it solid, if you beat a 58(-degree wedge) up there, I think it’s going be the number.’ And they were both good. Seth understands maybe what somebody’s feeling in that moment.”

McCulla says he’ll return next year to extend his streak.

“Any tournament, if you’re the defending champion, you come back and tee it up,” he said.

Traeder said the beautiful weather and strong competition made it a “regular day on the golf course.”

“To come out and have this result is actually better than my expectation for me,” he said. “It was fun. Just a lot of fun.”