Craig Burnham correctly predicted one of two outcomes Saturday. First, he predicted the featured AGB Tour challenge match between himself and Taylor Holley would come down to the wire at Palmer Golf Course, then he predicted he would lose.
A pulled muscle in his neck gave the 29-year-old Burnham reason to worry, but his swing held up for all 18 holes in a 1-up win that proved himself wrong and moved him into the 40th spot in the AGB rankings. While his first prediction was spot on, few could have forecast the roller-coaster ride that took place.
The match was so volatile, Burnham and Holley didn’t halve a hole until the 12th. The match was all square with three holes to play and both players piped perfect drives on their way to halving the par-4 16th. Holley found trouble on the 17th, putting Burnham up one with one to play and Burnham said closing out his good friend was nothing to get nervous about.
“We’re always competing against each other,” Burnham said. “We play in skins games together. We play poker together, so we are always competing with something on the line.”
Burnham needed to get up and down from just short of the par-5 18th green to save par and force Holley to make a 30-foot birdie putt in order to halve the match and retain his No. 40 ranking. Burnham hit one of his best chips of the day, rolling the ball within an inch or so of the hole.
“I’ve taken a different approach in the last couple months, when it comes to my chipping,” Burnham said. “I went from four wedges down to two wedges and try to just be the best at one or two wedges and that’s really helped a lot.”
Holley, 26, displayed his own short-game magic, making some incredible putts to keep himself in a match he trailed three down after three holes. Holley was admittedly losing spirit after losing the first three holes. A pep talk from playing companion Wes Masters helped him rebound to win the fourth hole.
“I don’t even remember what he said,” Holley said. “It was impactful, though.”
Holley progressed to a 1-up lead by the time he left the ninth green and then won the 10th without having to hole out. A terrible drive left Holley more than 200 yards from the par-4 10th green, but he roped a long-iron shot onto the green, making par a likely possibility. Moments later, Burnham’s first tee shot was discovered to be out of bounds by less than a foot, so he conceded the hole.
“After he conceded No. 10, I felt really good,” Holley said.
The comfortable feelings were short lived, as Burnham bounced back to win the 11th hole and trim Holley’s lead to a precarious margin of 1-up.
“Looking back on it, there were a lot of chances that I had to capitalize on,” Holley said. “I felt like I was playing from behind even when I had one stroke on him.”
Burnham and Holley both produced highlight-reel shots to offset a mixture of mistakes and give fans like Casey Bieber and Adam Baxter a show. Baxter appeared briefly to watch Burnham win the second hole and Bieber played in a group behind the match and checked in on the progress a few times on the front nine.
“It was a good round, altogether,” Holley said. “It was a dog fight.”
