G.J. McCarthy photo

Scott Hovis of Jefferson City tees off on the ninth hole during yesterday’s final round of the Phil Cotton Invitational at A.L. Gustin Golf Course. Hovis placed second.

Every year it seems current and former University of Missouri golfers figure prominently on the leader board at the Phil Cotton Invitational. Their familiarity, if not fondness, for the Tigers’ home track at A.L. Gustin Golf Course, gives them an edge over the rest of the field.

But in yesterday’s final round of the tournament’s 49th edition, it was a future Tiger - neither familiar with nor fond of Gustin’s rolling hills and bending fairways - who walked away the winner.

G.J. McCarthy photo

Columbia’s Chris Johnson flips his club in disgust after his tee shot on the eighth hole. Johnson, a recent Hickman graduate, placed fourth.

Tyler Hillis, an MU signee and recent graduate of Poplar Bluff High School, fired a par 70 to finish at 4-under 136 for the tournament. But it took a 3-foot birdie putt on the par-5 first for him to capture the championship division title in a playoff against Jefferson City’s Scott Hovis.

Playoffs are nothing new to the Phil Cotton Invitational. Travis Mitchell beat John Kelly in an eight-hole playoff to win the tournament last year, and Don Bliss bested Andy Smith in a playoff yesterday for the senior division crown after both finished with two-day scores of 3-under 137. But it was unfamiliar territory for Hillis.

"I haven’t been in many, maybe two or three," he said. "The one I can remember, I won. It was at Little People’s one year when I was little."

That playoff, in the annual junior golf tournament in Quincy, Ill., came back in 2001. That was roughly the same year Hillis previously played at Gustin. But his inexperience in extra holes didn’t have a chance to show yesterday. It was over too quickly.

Teeing off first, he smacked his drive down the left side of the fairway and into the rough, in good shape to have a go at the green. He then ripped a fairway wood to about 5 feet off the putting surface.

Hovis, meanwhile, left his approach from the left rough short and in the bunker right of the green. He knew he’d probably have to get up and down for birdie to keep the playoff going.

"I walked into the bunker, and I could just feel that the sand was kind of compact," he said. "I didn’t feel too much underneath my feet. I tried to hit a chunk-and-run, and I just got ahead of it a little too much and caught more golf ball than I wanted to."

His shot flew over the green and came to rest behind a pine tree. That forced him to hit a low chip shot that ran about 18 feet past the hole. He two-putted from there for bogey.

It wouldn’t have mattered anyway because Hillis calmly dropped his chip shot about 3 feet left of the hole, setting up the clinching birdie.

It was a fitting finish for a weekend full of steady shots by Hillis. That despite his professed dislike for the course’s layout.

"I like courses where you can hit your driver off every hole, and out here I have to hit a lot of 3- and 4-irons off the tee," said Hillis, who tied for eighth at this year’s MSHSAA Class 4 Championship. "I hit my driver really good, so I like holes where you can bang away. … It doesn’t really fit my game that good, but I guess I just played good this weekend."

Hillis, who won’t actually get to call Gustin home because the Tigers are moving across town to the recently opened Club at Old Hawthorne in the fall, got off to a blazing start yesterday with birdies on No. 1 and No. 3 to move to 6-under for the tournament. He remained there until a bogey on No. 10 and an even-harder-to-take one on No. 12, a par-5 easily reachable in two.

That mistake would leave him behind recent Hickman graduate and fellow MU signee Chris Johnson.

Like Hillis, Johnson had gotten off to a fast start with birdies on No. 1 and No. 3, but he began to unravel during the second half of his front nine with three bogeys in a span of four holes, including a lip-out on the par-4 eighth.

Johnson had appeared to right himself by getting up and down for birdie from the front bunker on No. 9 to get back to even for the day, and he moved into red numbers with a birdie on No. 12, set up by a spectacular pitch shot from right of the cart path.

But a double-bogey on No. 14, caused by a drive pulled into the woods, bumped him from the top spot.

"I had the lead through 13," said Johnson, who tied for second at the Class 4 state tournament. "I was at 5-under for the tournament. Then that double on 14 just shot me to hell and gone."

Another bogey on No. 17 would end his chances of victory, and he finished with a 2-over 72 that left him 2-under for the tournament. That was two shots off the lead and one behind his Hickman teammate Nick Wilson, who finished alone in third with a two-day score of 137.

Hovis, who played with Johnson and St. Louisan Skip Berkmeyer in the final group, was ready to capitalize when Johnson faltered.

He’d played a shaky front nine, making three bogeys without a birdie, to fall five shots off the lead. But things started to turn around on No. 11 when he hit his second shot to the back left portion of the green.

"I thought I hit a bad shot. It shot off my club face," said Hovis, who was almost immediately yelling for it to get down.

The ball obeyed, landing in position for Hovis to make his first birdie. He two-putted for another birdie on 12 and sank an 8-foot putt for still another on No. 14 to move to 3-under, tied with Hillis.

A bogey on No. 16 bounced Hovis from the top spot, but with a few dozen spectators lining the green, he sank a 10-foot birdie on No. 18 to force the playoff.

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