MENDOTA – As Jason Welker drove his cart up to the 18th green, the only thought running through his head was birdie.

On the second playoff hole, Welker hit his approach shot to about 10 feet, right after Mendota’s Jon Prescott had hit the flagstick with his approach and it stopped within 3 feet of the hole.

Thinking that a par wouldn’t be good enough to extend his chances of winning the 101st annual Men’s Lincoln Highway Tournament, Welker felt he had to hole his uphill, right-breaking putt to force a third playoff hole.

“It was about 10 or 11 feet, uphill. I see him hit the stick and he’s only 2, 2/12 feet from the hole, I knew what I had to do,” Welker said. “When I hit mine from back in the fairway, I knew it was a good shot, but I figured I had to put it close. I definitely knew I had to make that; I didn’t think there was any chance he was going to miss his putt.”

Welker drained the 10-footer for birdie. But Prescott couldn’t match it, as his putt from above the hole missed just to the right of the cup.

“My approach shot was on target the whole way, I was eyeing it up and down from the fairway, because I thought, ‘Oh my God, that’s going to be really good.’ I had no idea it was going to land short and hit the pin. It just wiggled 2 1/2, 3 feet by, and it’s a tough downhill putt there,” Prescott said. “After I saw him bury his 10-footer for birdie, I thought, ‘Well, I’ve got to take some break out of it, and I have to make the putt; I’m not just going to try to lag it in.’ Unfortunately I just pushed it a little bit and it lipped out. It is what it is; that’s golf.”

Instead of another playoff hole, Welker walked away with the medalist trophy, after both he and Prescott shot 210s over the 54-hole best-against-bogey tournament at Mendota Golf Club.

“When they said I was in a playoff, I wasn’t expecting it, the way I finished the final nine holes at 3-over. Luckily, I was in the second-to-last group [in regulation], so I only had to wait for 10 or 15 minutes,” Welker said. “I really didn’t think I had any chance, so it was kind of a shock to me when they said, ‘You’re in a playoff for the whole thing.’ Luckily, I wasn’t sitting around long and thinking about it.”

Welker shot 18-hole rounds of 72, 67 and 71 to finish at even par in stroke play. He finished at +20 in best-against-bogey.

“Definitely happy overall with the way I played. I hit the ball straight off the tee, hit a lot of fairways, had pretty good irons all weekend. My putter was really good today, I had a lot up-and-downs for pars the last 15 holes. I would say it was the putter more than anything,” Welker said.

Prescott also had a +20 against bogey, while his stroke-play rounds were 68, 70 and 72. He matched Welker’s two-putt par on the first playoff hole.

“I don’t get to play much golf now that I’ve got 3-year-old twins, but my game’s been good; I’ve been hitting the driver well,” Prescott said. “There was nothing that was super great, there was nothing that was super bad. All-around, it was just a good couple of days of golf, nice and steady.”

For the fourth straight year, PrairieView’s Jason Wombacher was right in the thick of the medalist hunt; he tied for third, just one stroke out of the playoff. He finished at 1-over-par 211, with rounds of 72, 66 and 73, and his +20 against bogey was tops in the Fourth Flight.

“I was right there again, just came up short. There are always those shots you look back on and think you could’ve saved a stroke here or there,” Wombacher said. “I hit the ball out of bounds on 18, so that didn’t help; it was a bad finish, making 6 on the last hole. I just hit a bad shot, but stuff happens.”

Wombacher was one of four flight winners for PrairieView, and the Byron club also had a flight runner-up as it won the team title for the fourth straight year, and its fifth in the last six Lincoln Highway Tournaments.

Trent Snodgrass (First Flight, +19), Trent Eddy (Fifth Flight, +9) and Tim Marcum (Sixth Flight, +7) also won their flights for PrairieView, and Andrew Canfield (+15) was runner-up in the Third Flight. The team had all six players finish +7 or better, and finished +88 against bogey.

“It was very nice. We knew it was going to be a team game and we all had to play well, and for the most part we did play pretty well. We had a few hiccups here and there, all of us did, but we played great and it was a lot of fun,” Wombacher said.

Prescott and Craig McConville (211, +21) led Mendota’s first team to a runner-up finish on its home course, as all six golfers were in positive numbers against bogey on the way to a +67. McConville tied for third in the medalist race, and was also runner-up in the Second Flight, while Pat Goy was +7 to take second in the Fifth Flight.

“It was really good. It was fun. We’ve got a lot of great guys out here, just great camaraderie on the team. Everyone out here likes each other, and it’s awesome to see us play well,” Prescott said. “Just being that it’s our second year in the tournament, it was really nice. The guys like playing in it, and it’s a lot of golf – not very many of us are used to playing 27 holes in a day, which I’m sure no one really is – but it’s a good time, and I’m really glad we got invited to the tournament as a course. It’s an awesome tournament, and I know it’s been around for a long time, and it’s pretty cool.”

Emerald Hill took third with a +40, led by overall Best Against Bogey winner Trevor Sisson, who finished at +23. He also finished fifth in the medalist race with a 212, and won the Second Flight.

“I couldn’t be much happier, it’s the best Lincoln I’ve ever played. I hit the ball phenomenal, really didn’t have any mishaps, and it feels good. I won my flight, and I think I won Best Against Bogey, beat everybody in that, too. I hit the ball really well, it was a great weekend, and fell just short,” Sisson said.

“[Sunday], the key was the putter and the approach shots; I hit a lot of greens this weekend. [Saturday], I hit the ball beautiful; I had four three-putts and shot 4-over. If I don’t have those [three-putts], I’m sitting really good. [Sunday], I shot under par and made a lot of good putts, and lot of birdies, and I just kept the ball in play. One bad hole got me, basically lost the tournament on just that one hole by taking a double bogey [on No. 15].”

Jarred Hippen placed seventh overall with a 214 in stroke play, and won the Third Flight with a +17 against bogey for the Sterling squad. Jacob Rude added a +8 in the First Flight for Emerald Hill.

Sunset out of Mt. Morris finished fourth with a +23, led by flight runners-up Scott Aken (Fourth Flight, +15) and Brian Weidman (Sixth Flight, +6). Adam Marshall added a +5 in the First Flight.

Dixon’s Timber Creek placed fifth with a +20, as Ryan Harrison finished at +11 in the Fourth Flight, and Luke Hoffman (Second Flight) and Joel Kipping (Third Flight) both had +10s.

Joe Mills placed ninth individually with a 216, and added a +14 to Welker’s +20 to lead Deer Valley to sixth place with a +14 as a team. Dave Pilgrim was +7 for the Deer Grove course.

Shady Oaks of Amboy was 10th with a -42, but Cole Ruckman was runner-up in the First Flight with a +11. Wes Wilson added a +8 in his first Lincoln Highway.

“It was an all-right day, I kind of struggled off the tee, really didn’t hit it how I wanted to. I scrambled a little bit, made a lot of pars; didn’t make many birdies or bogeys, just a lot of pars. And every time I did make a birdie, I’d make a bogey right after it, it seemed like, so it was a little frustrating,” Ruckman said. “Especially winning it back in 2019, and then just the last few years it’s just kind of been a struggle for me, I haven’t really been in contention for medalist or anything like that.

“I’m happy with how I played today. I know the scores probably don’t reflect it as much as I want them to, but I hit the ball way better [Sunday] than I did [Saturday], just didn’t make as many putts as I wanted to. But it is what it is, and we’ll move on for next year and hope for better results.”

Ryan A. Harrison led Lost Nation out of Dixon, which finished 11th at -64. Harrison finished at +8 in the First Flight.

Team scores

1. PrairieView +88; 2. Mendota 1 +67; 3. Emerald Hill +40; 4. Sunset +23; 5. Timber Creek +20; 6. Deer Valley +14; 7. Indian Oaks +8; 8. Fairways +5; 9. Mendota 2 +4; 10. Shady Oaks -42; 11. Lost Nation -64

Top 10 individuals

1. Jason Welker (Deer Valley) 210*; 2. Jon Prescott (Mendota 1) 210; 3. (tie) Jason Wombacher (PrairieView) 211; Craig McConville (Mendota 1) 211; 5. Trevor Sisson (Emerald Hill) 212; 6. Trent Snodgrass (PrairieView) 213; 7. Jarred Hippen (Emerald Hill) 214; 8. Mike Lange (PrairieView) 215; 9. Joe Mills (Deer Valley) 216; 10. Andrew Canfield (PrairieView) 217

* – won on 2nd playoff hole

Team scores

PrairieView (+88): Trent Snodgrass +19; Mike Lange +18; Andrew Canfield +15; Jason Wombacher +20; Trent Eddy +9; Tim Marcum +7

Mendota 1 (+67): Jon Prescott +20; Craig McConville +21; Troy Bauer +9; Eric Elsner +8; Pat Goy +7; Randy Politsch +2

Emerald Hill (+40): Jacob Rude +8; Trevor Sisson +23; Jarred Hippen +17; Mason Hubbard +1; Austin Cook -10; Cody Britt 0

Sunset (+23): Adam Marshall +5; Carson Buck -3; Hunter Schultz +1; Scott Aken +15; Andy Eckardt -1; Brian Weidman +6

Timber Creek (+20): Scott Hargrave +1; Luke Hoffman +10; Joel Kipping +10; Ryan Harrison +11; Bob Venier -6; Alex Harrison -6

Deer Valley (+14): Jason Welker +20; Dave Pilgrim +7; Joe Mills +14; Ben Sondgeroth -7; Mike Batten -11; Heath Warner -9

Indian Oaks (+8): Matt Davis +7; Kyle Davis +9; Justin Becker -2; Sean Haag -6; Louis Faivre +4; Mike Mason -4

Fairways (+5): Josh Johnson +6; Jon Woeppel +10; George Weber +10; Dave Shaw -1; Ian Metzger -1; Garrett Burdin -19

Mendota 2 (+4): Miguel Bermudez +4; Cody Phalen +7; Ethan Hanaman +5; Steve Wasmer -9; Pat Kerchner -1; Spark Larkin -2

Shady Oaks (-42): Cole Ruckman +11; Clay Partington -9; Wes Wilson +8; Matt Welty -10; Chad Noble -15; Jeffrey Dagenais -27

Lost Nation (-64): Ryan A. Harrison +8; Luke Kline -5; Luke Phillips -3; Jeff Heintzelman -14; Randall Glover -19; Alex Frey -31

Flight scores

First Flight: Jason Welker (Deer Valley) +20**; Jon Prescott (Mendota 1) +20**; Trent Snodgrass (PrairieView) +19; Cole Ruckman (Shady Oaks) +11; Jacob Rude (Emerald Hill) +8; Matt Davis (Indian Oaks) +7; Josh Johnson (Fairways) +6; Adam Marshall (Sunset) +5; Miguel Bermudez (Mendota 2) +4; Scott Hargrave (Timber Creek) +1; Ryan A. Harrison (Lost Nation) -1

** – Welker and Prescott were ineligible for Flight win as medalist and runner-up

Second Flight: Trevor Sisson (Emerald Hill) +23; Craig McConville (Mendota 1) +21; Mike Lange (PrairieView) +18; Luke Hoffman (Timber Creek) +10; Jon Woeppel (Fairways) +10; Kyle Davis (Indian Oaks) +9; Dave Pilgrim (Deer Valley) +7; Cody Phalen (Mendota 2) +7; Carson Buck (Sunset) -3; Luke Kline (Lost Nation) -5; Clay Partington (Shady Oaks) -9

Third Flight: Jarred Hippen (Emerald Hill) +17; Andrew Canfield (PrairieView) +15; Joe Mills (Deer Valley) +14; Joel Kipping (Timber Creek) +10; George Weber (Fairways) +10; Troy Bauer (Mendota 1) +9; Wes Wilson (Shady Oaks) +8; Ethan Hanaman (Mendota 2) +5; Hunter Schultz (Sunset) +1; Justin Becker (Indian Oaks) -2; Luke Phillips (Lost Nation) -3

Fourth Flight: Jason Wombacher (PrairieView) +20; Scott Aken (Sunset) +15; Ryan Harrison (Timber Creek) +11; Eric Elsner (Mendota 1) +8; Mason Hubbard (Emerald Hill) +1; Dave Shaw (Fairways) -1; Sean Haag (Indian Oaks) -6; Ben Sondgeroth (Deer Valley) -7; Steve Wasmer (Mendota 2) -9; Matt Welty (Shady Oaks) -10; Jeff Heintzelman (Lost Nation) -14

Fifth Flight: Trent Eddy (PrairieView) +9; Pat Goy (Mendota 1) +7; Louis Faivre (Indian Oaks) +4; Andy Eckardt (Sunset) -1; Ian Metzger (Fairways) -1; Pat Kerchner (Mendota 2) -1; Bob Venier (Timber Creek) -6; Austin Cook (Emerald Hill) -10; Mike Batten (Deer Valley) -11; Chad Noble (Shady Oaks) -15; Randall Glover (Lost Nation) -19

Sixth Flight: Tim Marcum (PrairieView) +7; Brian Weidman (Sunset) +6; Randy Politsch (Mendota 1) +2; Cody Britt (Emerald Hill) 0; Spark Larkin (Mendota 2) -2; Alex Harrison (Timber Creek) -6; Mike Mason (Indian Oaks) -8; Heath Warner (Deer Valley) -9; Garrett Burdin (Fairways) -19; Jeffrey Dagenais (Shady Oaks) -27; Alex Frey (Lost Nation) -31