JUNO BEACH, FLORIDA | Stewart Hagestad doesn’t have many unfilled holes in his lengthy mid-am resume, but not winning the Coleman Invitational at Seminole Golf Club – a course where he has built some history over the past few years – was certainly one that bothered him.
That hole is not there anymore. The top mid-am in the game stormed out of the gates in Saturday afternoon’s final round with three opening birdies, weathered a lackluster stretch and then regained his footing on the back nine to shoot a closing 1-under 71 that earned him a two-stroke victory over Evan Beck.
“It’s just a total honor to have my name on the board,” Hagestad said, referring to the list of Coleman winners displayed in the locker room. “There's a tremendous amount of history that's here. There's so many good players that have hit balls on that range and played out there. And it's just a really important and special place to me, and a place where I have a lot of great memories.”
Hagestad, 31, is now two-thirds of the way to the career “triple crown” of historic mid-am invitationals. The No. 16 amateur in the world won the George C. Thomas at Los Angeles Country Club in runaway fashion a year ago and now just needs the Crump Cup at Pine Valley Golf Club to complete the trifecta. He also has two U.S. Mid-Amateur victories (2016, 2021), a made cut in the Masters (2017) and has been on three American Walker Cup teams (2017, 2019, 2021), the last of those appearances coming at Seminole a year ago this week.
The Southern Californian has had his chances to win the Coleman in the past. In 2017, he came into the final round of his first Coleman with a two-stroke lead but imploded early – including a double-hit chip on No. 4 – and shot 78 to finish two strokes back of champion Scott Harvey. In 2018, he backdoored his way into a tie for second, shooting a closing 68 to finish two back of Michael Muehr. He tied for third in 2019, but wasn’t close to catching Harvey once again.
With COVID-19 canceling the Coleman in 2020 and the tournament not being played in 2021 because of Walker Cup preparations, Hagestad and everyone else had to wait three years for their next opportunity. The first two rounds saw threatening skies, wicked winds and stoppages, but Saturday’s final round was quintessential Seminole – a gorgeous day with the traditional wind pushing everything away from the Atlantic Ocean, the salty air thick enough to taste.
The day began with Evan Beck, a former Wake Forest player who has enjoyed success in his home state of Virginia, holding a one-stroke lead over Hagestad, the two players being four and three shots clear of Mark Costanza, last year’s U.S. Mid-Am runner-up to Hagestad.
"I put myself in position to hopefully win in the past and, you know, couldn't couldn't get it done and got beat a couple times. I'm fired up to do it and get my name on that board.”
Stewart Hagestad
Hagestad opened with a sense of urgency, hitting his first two approaches within 10 feet and converting the birdie putts while Beck also hit two close approaches but missed his attempts. After Hagestad hit the par-5 third in two and easily two-putted for another birdie, he had suddenly grabbed a two-stroke lead that grew into three strokes once Beck, who had been executing brilliantly tee-to-green and failing to convert with the putter, missed a 6-foot par try on No. 5.
Everything appeared to be heading Hagestad’s way, but suddenly momentum turned. He flew the green on No. 6 and made bogey. He got incredibly lucky on No. 7 when he attempted to carry the water with his second shot out of a bunker and found a small slither of land in between two penalty areas – that led to another bogey but it could have easily been a catastrophe.
“It was an awful tee shot and an awful second shot and I got the best break you could ever imagine,” Hagestad said.
The wheels continued to wobble with a bogey on No. 8 and a sloppy layup on the par-5 ninth that led to his fourth straight bogey. Beck had plodded his way around, slowly picking up shots, and had a great birdie look on No. 9 to actually take the lead heading into the back nine. It slid by, and the tournament would head to the final nine holes with a tie at the top.
But just as it had been slowly slipping away from Hagestad, momentum flipped to start the back nine. Hagestad hit an excellent approach to No. 10 to make birdie and then earned a two-stroke advantage when Beck couldn’t get up-and-down from a tricky spot on No. 12.
On No. 14, the short downwind par-5, the dam broke. Hagestad flushed a gorgeous, high cut – really the only shot shape he played all day – to less than three feet for a tap-in eagle. Beck had hit the lip of the fairway bunker with his second and settled for par.
Meanwhile, another storyline had been developing. Costanza, who had started with a triple bogey on arguably the easiest par-4 on the course, made birdies on Nos. 7, 9, 10, 11, 14 and 15 to go from 7-over for the tournament to 1-over. He coughed up a couple of strokes on the last few holes, but the effort made the finish interesting for a moment.
In the end, Hagestad had no sweat coming up the 18th. His drive ended up behind a palm tree and he had to pitch out sideways, leading to a bogey, but his first Coleman victory had been secured.
When asked if he was tired after a long day of stressful golf, he said that wasn’t the right word.
“I'm just fired up,” Hagestad said. “I certainly wouldn't say it's like a long time coming. But I put myself in position to hopefully win in the past and, you know, couldn't couldn't get it done and got beat a couple times. I'm fired up to do it and get my name on that board.”
In the senior division, Bob Royak shot 6-over 222 to clip Mike McCoy and Robert Gerwin II by one stroke. Royak, of Alpharetta, Ga., closed with a 2-under 70, the lowest score for the week among the seniors.
Sean Fairholm
RESULTS