Drenth fires a 66 to claim QC Amatuer event

Jul 20, 2008 09:48PM

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By Ryan Sergeant, rsergeant@qconline.com

It may have been done differently, but Dusty Drenth set out to repeat his last stop of the Quad City Amatuer tour at Short Hills last month.

Drenth did just that, following up his Short Hills victory with a stellar 6-under par, bogey-free 66 in the final round at Palmer Hills on Sunday to edge out Chris Wilkins (70-67) by three shots.

Drenth had a comfortable four-shot lead at Short Hills in late June going into the final round. But he went into Sunday's final round in Bettendorf trailing Cascade, Iowa's Mike Merritt by one shot. Merritt struggled on Sunday and finished in a tie for 8th (67-77).

"I was just trying to go as low as I can," said Drenth. "I played really well and hit 17 greens in regulation (like Saturday)."

Drenth has been on fire this summer. On top of the win at Short Hills, Drenth followed it up with two solid 73s at Pinnacle Country Club in the John Deere Classic pre-qualifier and 4-spotter events.

He'll take next weekend's Pebble Creek Amateur off in order to compete in the Iowa Amateur Championship at Davenport Country Club, July 28-30. There's no doubt that confidence is riding high as he gets ready at the big time event.

"I'm really consistent right now," he said. "My misses are good. I haven't played Davenport (Country Club) in a really long time but I'm going to try to get over there and play a practice round and I just hope to play really well."

Drenth grew up with Palmer Hills as his home golf course when he competed in matches for Bettendorf High School. He admitted on Saturday to knowing the golf course "like the back of his hand" and it showed this week.

"I lost this tournament by one shot to Tim Flaherty four years ago," he said. "For me to finally win this was nice."

Wilkins played well but couldn't exactly get the putter going. He had opportunities all day long on Sunday and left quite a bit of birdie putts short, right on line to the hole.

"I hit it well but just left it short all day, all tournament long," he said. "I felt like I left a lot out there today."