Brad Nurski Gets His Major at Missouri Amateur Championship
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Updated: Mon 6/28/2010 3:16 am
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Springfield, MO - June 27 - It was the perfect ending to a very long and very hot week at Twin Oaks Country Club. A 36 hole final that went the distance before Brad Nurski could secure a 2 up victory over Matt Miller and win his first Missouri Golf Association major championship.
Nurski had experienced the disappointment of being second best on the grandest stages the Missouri Golf Association could provide. Near misses at the Missouri Stroke Play Championship and Missouri Mid-Amateur Championship provided Nurski all he needed to know about finishing second. At times during Sunday's finale, it appeared as though this would be yet another runner-up finish for the BNSF railroad employee from St. Joseph, MO. "You always worry and I just kept fighting. I struggled at the beginning of the round and just knew I had to keep trying because putts were soon to fall," said Nurski following his 2 up victory.
After the morning 18 holes, Matt Miller, the standout from Central Missouri State University, maintained a 3 up advantage and appeared in control of the match. "I just wasn't scoring. My irons were just a bit off and I was struggling to hit my lines with my putting," commented Nurski when asked what wasn't working well for him during the early portions of Sunday's final match. Nurski lost 4 holes during the morning by making bogey, a practice that would have surely led to a loss had he continued the same in the afternoon.
Yet while Nurski struck early in the second round with a birdie on the 1st (19th hole of the match), it was Miller who continued to apply the pressure with birdies at 3, 4 and 7 to assert his claim on the Missouri Amateur title with a 4 up lead through 25 holes. However, as he had all week long, Nurski responded when he needed to most. A birdie on the par 5, 8th hole slimmed the lead to 3 up for Miller and then Nurski hit what he considered to be the critical shot of the match on the par 4, 9th, "I hit a shot to a couple inches on 9 and that really got me fired up."
Brad Nurski's victory on Sunday places him in elite company in Missouri Amateur golf history. Previous winners in the three Missouri Amateur Championships held at Twin Oaks Country Club include Tom Watson, Don Walsworth and Michael Letzig. All three players spent time or are spending time on the PGA Tour. Being from St. Joseph, MO and having played a lot of golf in Kansas City Golf Association events, Nurski is very aware of what being named in the same sentence with Tom Watson means, "It's an unbelievable feeling to have your name on the trophy with all those great players. Watson, Payne Stewart, Warren Riepen (the only other player from St. Joe to have won the Missouri Amateur Championship) and many more".
Yet despite placing his name forever among the greatest players to have ever played golf in the state of Missouri, Nurski will now return home and get back to work at BNSF railroad. When asked if his co-workers will understand what he accomplished this week at Twin Oaks Country Club, Nurski had this to say, "Yes, I have to go work tomorrow and no they won't understand." In the meantime, Nurski plans to celebrate with everyone from St. Joe that was rooting him on, "We have a few stories to tell from today's round," said the 2010 Missouri Amateur Champion.
