Westfall shot a 135 over two rounds last weekend and leads the 100th Springfield City Am Tournament sponsored by Schuler’s Bakery by four strokes over 2018 champion Avery Green. Shane Meek and Brandon Marlowe are tied for third place at 149.
With the victory, Westfall would join Dan Schuler and Josh Sine as one of three golfers to win four straight City Am titles. Schuler and Sine each won five in a row.
“It would be pretty cool to keep the streak going, keep playing good golf and put your name up there with all those guys you just mentioned,” Westfall said. “I play a lot of golf in this area. This is the one tournament where you see basically everybody you grew up playing with or people you played with sporadically. It’s always nice to compete against everybody again. It’d mean a lot to keep the good golf going.”
Westfall shot 66 on the South course during the first round on July 9 to grab the early lead.
“The first day I played pretty well,” Westfall said. “It could’ve been a lot better. I missed a couple short putts for birdie that could’ve made it a really, really good round.”
He shot 69 on the North course on July 10 to grab a four-stroke lead despite not playing his best golf.
“I didn’t hit the ball that great and had to grind for a couple pars, but coming down the last nine I hit a couple good shots and good putts and I was able to save the round and post a pretty good score,” Westfall said.
This weekend’s final two rounds — both of which will be played on the more difficult North course — will essentially be a two-man race between Westfall and Green. The three-time defending champion knows he’ll have stiff competition against Green, a Southeastern grad who played collegiately at Northern Kentucky University.
“We’ve been playing against each other for 10 years now,” Westfall said. “We’re really good friends and we hang out all the time. He’s a really good golfer and a really good competitor. We always enjoy going out and competing against each other. I feel like I push him to play better and he definitely pushes me to play better.”
The tournament saw 92 total golfers compete in the City Am this summer, which is up from recent tournaments, said Reid Park golf pro Kurt Heintz.
“It’s the most players we’ve had in the past five years,” he said.
Shawnee High School’s Lucas Berry won the junior division with a score of 161. Jo Wisecup won the Ladies Division title with a 149 and Justin Pratt was the seniors division champion with a 151. Buzz Rader won the 75 and over Super Senior Division at 159.
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