Long bombers win Champions Challenge again

Lehi » Long-drive champions Jason Zuback and Bobby Wilson proved they can hit the short shots, too. Then again, it is difficult to kick about a drive that travels nearly 600 yards, even with the aid of 35 mile-an-hour winds.

Conditions that were more in tune with the British Open did not give the two big bombers much trouble as they won the 12th Champions Challenge at Thanksgiving Point Golf Course for the second time. Their combined scramble twosome score of 12-under par was good enough to claim the $50,000 first-place check.

Zuback and Wilson, with 16 long-drive titles between them, also won in 2005.

"They chipped in three times," said tournament host Johnny Miller of the duo's first victory. "It was a fluke. At least I thought so.

"Bobby Wilson is a player. If he was groomed when he was a youngster, he would have been a [PGA Tour] superstar."

Three teams, Ian Baker-Finch/Brett Quigley, Scott and Andy Miller, and Rocco Mediate/Bradley Shaw finished 11-under. Mike Weir and Dean Wilson, seven under at the turn, couldn't get it going on the back nine and wound up 10 under.

Although the spotlight was focused on the big hitter and young professionals, it was the venerable Billy Casper who created the day's largest buzz with his 24th career hole in one.

"Everyone on the green went crazy," Billy's son Bob said. Father and son wound up at 8 under.

The 78-year-old

with 51 career PGA victories, including three majors, hit a "rescue club" shot 160 yards. The ball rolled past the hole, down around a bank and in. Casper also eagled No. 5 and followed up the ace with a natural birdie on the seventh hole.

"I think there was a lot more than talent there," Billy Casper said.

The economic downturn forced Miller to move the tournament to blustery October rather than the normal June spot. Still, the two-day event escaped the rains that fell Monday night.

Yet, even with renewed sponsorship, the winning purse was cut in half from prior years.

"Even to have a tournament, most [Monday-Tuesday] tournaments don't last 12 years," Miller said. "We were lucky enough for [the sponsors] to hang in there. We pulled it off, and the players seemed to love it. We don't have to beg for them to come back."

Mediate, a first-time competitor, wanted to come back. Certainly, Zuback and Wilson won't need any coaxing. Wilson holed an 80-yard shot on No. 7 from the thorny brush.

"It looked like we were going to like it," he said. "Then, whoop, it goes in."

That the pair were able to routinely bomb the ball down the fairways with control, several times reaching par 4s with their tee-shots, in hard sweeping winds was amazing enough. When they hit with the wind, such a the par 5 fifth hole, "I got it up in the wind and let it ride," Wilson said. "So, 590 yards, not bad."

martyr@sltrib.com