ST. CHARLES – It took 30 years for Randy Spring to return to Sunday’s St. Charles Men’s Golf Tournament Championship flight title match.

So it only seemed natural that the round, played at Pottawatomie Golf Course, would need more than the regulation number of holes to determine if Spring or Dan Pessetti would be the winner.

Spring, taking the advice of his caddy and son, Chris, focused on his drives to win the 19th hole and the championship title of the match play tournament, 1 up.

The golfers played the 368-yard, par 4 sixth hole for the playoff round.

Spring put the ball on the green in two shots.

“As you get tired, your legs get tired. Chris just reminded me to maintain good posture in the drive so I stood up a little straighter and hit a good drive,” Spring said. “We did the same thing on the wedge shot.”

Pessetti needed three strokes. His second drive landed in a sand trap just left of the green.

“At the tee, I was just about to hit my drive when I look down and in the middle of my backswing, I thought, 'Man that ball looks like it is teed up too high and then I popped it high left,” Pessetti said. “At that point, I knew I could recover. When I pulled the shot into the trap I got a little deflated. At that point ... unless it goes in the hole, it's over.”

Spring sank his first putt to win.

‘I left a lot of puts short today, and we just tried to make sure we got that one to the hole,” Spring said.

The lead see-sawed between the two golfers throughout the match. Neither one had more than a one-hole lead. They were also tied at the end of the front nine.

“I don’t think either of us were playing our best today. It was the battle of the bad driver versus the bad putter,” said Pessetti, who had several drives land just off the fairway.

Spring resumed playing in the tournament last year after a 28-year absence.

“I played in it from about 1970 to 1986. The last time I won, it was 1985 and I was runner-up in 1986,” Spring said. “Because of family stuff, I didn’t play again until last year. I got beat in the semifinal.”

Gus Eash won the A-flight title with a 3 and 2 win over Ken Harris.

B-flight top honors went to Carl Masters, who bested Wayne Heuertz, 3 and 2.

Jon Quirin earned the C-flight title, beating Ed Blyshak, 4 and 3.

“It went very well. Many of the matches went to the very end and the championship level went to a playoff,’ said Pottawatomie pro Ron Skubisz of the three-weekend tournament. “How much better than that can it get?”