Golfer Luke Coyle decided at the last minute to play in the 84th Northern Kentucky Amateur Championship at Highland Country Club in Fort Thomas.
“I originally wasn’t planning on playing in it,” Coyle said. “I decided shortly before the deadline. It’s good competition. I know a lot of guys who are in it. I thought I might as well play it and have some fun.”
He had a blast.
Coyle made the three-hour drive from Campbellsville. Fellow tournament participant Joel Craft invited him to stay overnight at the Craft residence right next to the golf course. Coyle politely declined, preferring to stay overnight with his parents at another location. Coyle was invited to dinner following Monday’s opening round. He accepted. He took in a Reds game the next night with Craft and other golfers teeing it up this week at 6,190-yard, par-70 Highland.
“Joel and Justin Begley, Zach Watterson, Luke Muller, Zack Beard. We all went to the Reds game Tuesday,” Coyle said.
Coyle spared no mercy Wednesday and vanquished every one of them to win his first Northern Kentucky Amateur Championship.
“I have great friends. We have a great time off the course,” said Coyle, a University of Alabama golfer. “On the course, we want to beat each other pretty bad. We all want to win.”
Among many of his golf buddies for the first time in a while, it was Coyle doing the winning. Much to the disappointment of defending champion Adam Horn.
Coyle survived a potential winning putt by Horn on the first playoff hole and defeated the Wright State golfer in a tense, two-hole playoff. He played even on par-3 No. 7 and won his first Northern Kentucky Amateur Championship.
“Once he made 5 on No. 7, I felt like it was mine,” Coyle said. “But anything can happen. I thought it was over on the first playoff hole.”
Horn was attempting to become the tournament’s first repeat winner since 2011 when Eric Fuldner won his second straight.
“There definitely is some frustration. I wanted a different outcome,” said Horn, a former high school golfer at Milford in Ohio. “It was still a great day to come from behind and give myself an opportunity to win.”
Rain delayed the third and final round until a 10:30 a.m. shotgun start. Coyle and Horn completed 54 holes in a tie for first with matching scores of 8-under-par 202. Coyle, the two-time Kentucky Mr. Golf from Taylor County High School, was the second-day co-leader. Horn, University of Kentucky’s Oakley Gee and Eastern Kentucky golf coach Justin Tereshko made final-day charges. Gee and Tereshko, both shooting 203, fell short of the top two.
Coyle and Horn went to par-4 No. 1 for the first playoff hole. Coyle two-putted for par. Horn had a chance to become the tournament’s second repeat winner in 20 years. But his six-foot uphill putt lipped out of the hole.
“I was standing just to his right. It was a hard lip-out,” Coyle said. “Adam outputted me on that hole. I really dodged a bullet. I felt like I needed to take advantage of still being in it on the next hole.”
They carted to No. 7, a par-3 around 200 yards long.
“I was still confident after the first playoff hole,” Horn said. “It’s one of those things that you have to forget about quickly.”
Coyle’s tee shot on No. 7 landed 30 feet from the pin. His second shot left him with a 5-foot upfill putt which he converted from the right side. Horn couldn’t keep up.
“Any time you can win is great,” Coyle said. “I played well three straight days and I just feel super blessed. I’m really glad I came up. It was a great week. If I hadn’t won, it would have been disappointing.”
Muller, a former Highlands golfer playing at Northern Kentucky University, finished in a tie for eighth at 208. Other notables making the 30-man final-day cut and placing in the top 25 include former Cooper golfer Rylan Wotherspoon. The University of Cincinnati player finished in a tie for 12th at 211 with Beard, Muller’s NKU teammate. Former Highlands golfer Marty Arnzen tied for 15th. One-time Bluebird Justin Gabbard, now at Xavier, finished 23rd.
As for the rest of Tuesday’s Reds attendees, Eastern Kentucky’s Watterson finished seventh at 207. Begley, his EKU teammate, tied for 18th. Craft, formerly of Highlands, didn’t make the cut but Coyle said he was a great host.
University of Dayton golfer Megan Yoder successfully defended as Northern Kentucky Amateur women’s champion in a small field. She defeated three golfers with a 54-hole score of 235, good for an 8-shot cushion. Yoder, from Fort Wayne, Indiana, carded an 81 Wednesday. She scored the low women’s round of the tournament with 76 on Tuesday. She won last year at Triple Crown.
NKU golfer Hailey Coleman finished runner-up at 243. Coleman scored Wednesday’s best round, parlaying five birdies into a 78. Riley Johnson, a former Ohio high school golfer at Lebanon, placed third at 247. Former Notre Dame Academy golfer Natalie Lovell finished fourth.