By Greg Gulas
Greatest Golfer
CANFIELD – Evan Cravener won the ’22 Greatest Long Drive Shootout championship with a 319-yard drive down the middle of the grid, the first time he ever entered the area‘s premier golf showcase.
The Beaver, Pennsylvania native missed last year’s event when he traveled abroad to Ireland, returning to Tippecanoe Country Club on August 7 looking to recapture the crown he wasn’t able to defend.
Qualifying for the finals with a 308-yard drive in the preliminary round – he was the third and final qualifier to Zach Jacobson’s 315 and Ryan Monahan’s 309 attempt – his 299-yard drive on his first attempt in the finals outdistanced Monahan’s 298-yard effort as he won his second title in as many tries.
Girard’s Kylie Kulon won the 12th annual Morgan Stanley-Michelob Ultra women’s long drive competition with a 225-yard drive, one of four shots that she placed on the grid as she unseated defending champion Felicia Drevna, a multiple event champion who posted a 207-yard best drive on her fifth and final attempt.
Garrett Frank captured the Par-3 competition while Kiersten Kleckner-Alt, a two-time defending Ladies Open Division champion, walked off with top honors in the Putting Shootout, her winning putt falling just five feet short of the cup.
For Cravener, the hopes of defending this crown will hinge on whether or not he returns in time from a work trip to Portugal that is already on his docket for next August.
“It was a little windy out there today and that didn’t help, but my mindset was to just hit the ball straight with my five preliminary attempts and see what happens,” Cravener said. “I used a new driver, a Titleist TSR3 and it did the job. Going to Ireland last year was the trip of a lifetime. I played a lot of golf at some very nice courses but I hope to be back next year to defend my title.”
Kulon is a 2013 Girard High graduate who actually played softball in college, studying mechanical engineering during her time at Gannon University.
A lefty, she currently serves as manager of Stonebridge Tavern in Howland. She won this year’s championship by 18 yards.
“I just tried to stay focused hoping to keep my drives on the grid,” Kulon added. “I like to go left to right and knew that I had the distance, I just needed to concentrate on putting the ball on in play.”
Garrett Frank won the Par-3 preliminary round with 13 points while Josh Zarlenga, the event’s first champion, Jonah Karzmer, a multiple Greatest open division titlist and Joey Cilone, each tied for second with 10 points.
With Karzmer (eight points) holding onto the lead over Zarlenga (six points) and Cilone (three points), and Frank holding at five points and one shot remaining, his final shot dialed in on the pin and earned him four points for a 9-8 win over Karzmer.
“I was lucky that they put me toward the end because I always like to know what is going on, then what I need to do,” Frank stated after the event was completed. “I knew that I had to beat eight points, had the right club with my nine-iron but it was tough to see. I took some spin off of it and picked a good intermediate target to shoot at.”
The Par-3 event turned out being arguably the closest and most exciting prelim-final in event history.
In the final event of the evening, Kleckner-Alt won the 220-foot Putting Shootout as she dethroned Cilone, the defending event champion by less than three feet.
Cilone’s second of three attempts came within eight feet of the cup, only to have Kleckner-Alt’s second putt fall six feet away and her final shot land a foot beyond that for the winning shot.
“My strategy was to hit the ball as hard as I could and then let Nature take its course,” she noted. “I always love playing Tippecanoe Country Club because the people are great and the course is always in tremendous shape. Todd Franko and his staff are also great to work with as they do an excellent job with this event.”
Michael Spiech is currently in his 21st year as head pro at Tippecanoe C.C.
“Tippecanoe hosting the open division is a great asset for the event,” Spiech said. “This is the toughest golf course in the Valley and the players will be in for a real test. We should always host the open division on the Saturday of the event and I think the players would agree with that.”
With money seeded by the Bellino Family, Inspira Health Group and Greatest Community, the Greatest Golfer “George Bellino Scholarship” awarded five, $1,000 scholarships to area students, rewarding teens who use golf as a path to a good life.
This year’s recipients include Taylor Morrone and Luke Leskovac of Canfield, Sophia Rivera of Boardman, Badger’s Hudson Rice and Chase Forsythe of Ursuline.