David Wagner Comes from Behind to Win BDGA Mid-Am
By Mark Gaughan
David Wagner won the first district-wide golf tournament of his career Tuesday, and the fact it came at Park Country Club in Williamsville added to the pride and emotion he felt afterward.
“It’s by far the biggest win of my career, and it still hasn’t hit me yet,” the 33-year-old Wagner said after claiming the Buffalo District Golf Association Mid-Amateur championship.
“I grew up playing this course as a kid with my dad,” Wagner said. “He was on the grounds crew here. That makes it pretty special.”
Karl Wagner died in 2017, and he was on his son’s mind throughout the final round.
Wagner held a two-shot lead on the tee of the 442-yard 18th hole Tuesday, but he pulled his drive into a tree left of the fairway. Two wedges out of deep rough later, Wagner faced a 60-foot, uphill wedge shot from just short of the front right of the green. He had to get up and down to save bogey or he was staring at a playoff.
“Before I hit it, I said to myself, ‘If you could be with me dad one time, let it be now,’” Wagner said. “I kind of skulled it, and it hit the pin.”
It rattled the flagstick and stopped 1 foot away. The bogey capped a 1-under round of 70 for Wagner, who lives in Clarence and plays out of Elma Meadows Golf Club. No one else in the tournament had a round that broke or matched par. Wagner finished 36 holes at 2-over 144 to win by a shot.
Crag Burn’s Billy Hanes shot 72-73 to finish at 145 and place second for a third straight year in the 25-and-over event. Hanes, 40, is a two-time New York State Mid-Amateur champion, a five-time Buffalo District player of the year and won the Buffalo District Individual title in 2023.
Tied for third at 4-over 146 were: Jimmy Pizzutelli, 41, a six-time Park club champion; and Lancaster CC’s Andrew Romano, 31, the 2022 BDGA Mid-Amateur champion. Pendleton Creek Golf Club’s Tyler Edholm, who finished his collegiate career at Niagara in 2023, was fifth at 5-over 147.
This was the second straight year and the second time in the 23-year history of the event that a golfer from a public course won the title.
Last year’s winner, Sheridan Park Golf Club’s Shane Dobesh, has known Wagner since college. Dobesh played at Monroe Community College, while Wagner played at Niagara County CC. In fact, after missing the cut by a shot last year, Wagner caddied for Dobesh in his final-round march to victory at Transit Valley.
“He made a joke to me on 11 – caddy to competitor,” Wagner said of Dobesh.
Wagner started the day two shots off the lead. He bridied No. 2 with an 8-iron from 164 yards to 6 feet. He hit a wedge to 10 feet for birdie on No. 3. He made a 20-footer for birdie on the par-4 seventh.
The 6-foot-3, 230-pound Wagner showed power and accuracy in tough scoring conditions. Near record rainfall totals for spring in Western New York has made the rough deep and lush. Plus, golfers haven’t been able to play as many rounds as usual due to the cold and rain.
“It was tough,” Hanes said. “I think a lot of it is nobody has really played much yet this season. You throw yourself in tournament pressure, and people are not used to it.”
Yet Wagner hit 15 of 18 greens in regulation on the final round.
“He takes a lash at it, which helps in the wet rough,” Dobesh said of Wagner’s power game. “He can go down and after it and get the ball up quicker. He made a few good birdies in the first couple holes and got some momentum going.”
Wagner made a good save on the par-4 15th with a deft chip from an awkward, thick lie near the left bunker to 5 feet. He made the putt.
But on the par-4 16th, Wagner four-putted from 45 feet downhill, which included a missed 2-footer. That left him briefly tied for the lead with Hanes. What was Wagner thinking as he walked to the 17th?
“I watch Ted Lasso, and he always says be a goldfish,” said Wagner, referring to the fictional coach’s advice for letting go of mistakes and moving on. (Goldfish, Lasso says, have short memories.) “So when I had the four-putt, I thought, ‘Be a goldfish’. Then I stuck a pretty good wedge on 17 to get one back.”
Wagner made an 8-foot birdie putt on the 390-yard 17th to give himself a two-shot cushion, because Hanes three-putted from 35 feet downhill for bogey on No. 16.
The two most remarkable shots of the day arguably both came from Pizzutelli, a former Niagara University golfer who has been a factor in Buffalo district play for two decades. He tied for fourth at the 2021 NYS Mid-Amateur and also tied for second at the 2022 BDGA Mid-Am.
Pizzutelli drove the green on the 321-yard, downhill 15th, hitting it to 4 feet and making eagle. On the 18th, the signature hole at Park, Pizzutelli hit an iron to 1 foot, making the only birdie in two days of play on the closing hole. The 18thyielded 40 pars, 40 bogeys, 25 double bogeys, four scores worse than double and Pizzutelli’s birdie.
The win gives Wagner an exemption into the NYS Mid-Amateur, to be held at the Country Club of Buffalo Oct. 5-7.
