Jimmy Ellis took several different approaches to winning the Pennsylvania Open at Oakmont Country Club, mainly because he said he’s not as good as some of the other players in the field.
They might beg to differ.
Ellis, a 34-year-old amateur who is a recent member at South Hills Country Club, shot his third consecutive par-71 on Wednesday, despite beginning and ending his round with his only bogeys of the day. In between, he was rock solid with two birdies and a whole slew of pars to post a one-shot victory over two other amateurs — Troy Vannucci of Marlton, N.J. and Chris Davenport of Palm City, Fla.
“Geez, is that place hard,” Ellis said of Oakmont, which will host the 2021 U.S. Amateur. “That was a grind.”
Like Ellis, Vannucci and Davenport each shot 71 to finish at 1-over 214. Because amateurs cannot accept prize money, J.D. Dornes of Lancaster collected the $8,000 first prize as low professional. He finished tied with local amateurs Mark Goetz and Connor Schmidt at 216.
But they were no match for Ellis, who made only five bogeys and one double bogey in three days. Three of those bogeys came at the 484-yard 18th, a hole in which Ellis used a 3-iron off the tee to play into the adjacent 15th fairway.
He did the same thing at No. 14, a 358-yard par-4, playing into the adjacent 12th fairway with the same club to stay away from the deep bunkers that line the 14th fairway.
“It’s around the pond but thank God you can do it,” Ellis said. “I’m not good enough to hit it down all these hallway fairways. I got to play it safe.
“On the (18th) tee, you have Angel Cabrera on your mind who just pumps driver right down the middle and doesn’t even care. But I also have ‘I’m not as good as Angel Cabrera’ on my mind and I could screw this up. Let’s just get something over to the left and get out of here.”
That’s what Ellis did, despite the bogey at the final hole. He started the final round in a three-way tie and quickly three-putted the first hole for bogey. But he got the stroke back when he hit 7-iron to within 4 feet for birdie at the 194-yard sixth hole, then two-putted from 30 feet for another birdie at the par-5 ninth — only his seventh in three days.
After that, he spent the final nine holes grinding for pars. He missed a good birdie chance at the par-4 15th when he wedged his approach to 6 feet, but had to get up-and-down for par from a familiar spot at the par-3 16th — the right greenside bunker, which he found all three days.
Then, after hitting his tee shot at the uphill 313-yard 17th into a fairway bunker, 40 yards from the green, Ellis played his approach to 10 feet and two-putted for another par, his 41st of the tournament.
“I think the keys here are you got to manage the five-minute windows when you can make absolute disaster here,” Ellis said. “If you think you can make birdies, it really hurts you. You got to accept, look, we’re trying to make as many pars as possible. I’m not Dustin Johnson. I got to get it on the green, two putt and go to the next hole.
“It almost helps me that I’m not as good as some of these guys. They think they can make birdies out here and I know I can’t. I got to get it to the middle of green, try to two putt and just try to grind. If I had to play Goetz and Connor Schmidt 10 times, I might beat them once. They’re studs.”
On this day, those players might disagree.
Gerry Dulac: gdulac@post-gazette.com and Twitter @gerrydulac.
First Published: August 12, 2020, 9:47 p.m.