CHICAGO DISTRICT GOLF ASSOCIATION

“Fight On!”

The 19-year-old Trojan battled back from a 2-down deficit with two holes to play to claim the 104th CDGA Amateur Championship Thursday at Beverly Country Club, besting Danny Stringfellow (Roselle / Medinah CC) on the third extra hole of the 36-hole title tilt.

“It was crazy,” a weary Greenspahn said following his triumph, which consisted of 127 holes over the course of the four-day event.

Greenspahn’s comeback began on 229-yard par-3 17th, the 35th hole of the Championship Match. Stringfellow, needing only a tie of the hole to clinch the title, found the front of the green off the tee. Meanwhile, Greenspahn went long, leaving him a delicate chip into a back hole location.

“My ball on 17, I had a really good lie,” Greenspahn admitted. “I envisioned the shot, a high, soft one. It ended up rolling out to six feet.”

Greenspahn buried the par attempt before Stringfellow’s short par putt for the win lipped out, extending the match to 18 and changing the dynamic.

“I knew the momentum had changed a little bit,” Greenspahn said.

On the 609-yard par-5 finisher, both Greenspahn and Stringfellow were left with wedges into the green for their third shot. Another match-clinching opportunity for Stringfellow slid by the hole before Greenspahn emphatically fist-pumped home a six-foot birdie bid to send the match back across 87th Street for the third time.

The first two playoff holes again saw Greenspahn in a disadvantageous position. His iron off the tee on the 356-yard par-4 opener found the left rough, while Stringfellow’s drive settled within 50 yards of the green. Then, on the 590-yard par-5 second, Greenspahn was in a fairway bunker off the tee, in juxtaposition with Stringfellow being able to go for the green in two.

In both instances, however, Greenspahn was able to rely on his methodical process to hit strong recovery shots and deft lag putts to match Stringfellow with pars.

“Just keep going through my process in terms of my lag putts,” Greenspahn said. “If I do the same thing every time, I know it’s going to be somewhere around the hole, and that’s what happened.”

Greenspahn finally found himself with the upper hand on Beverly’s third hole, a brawny 245-yard par 3. His tee shot landed in the middle of the green and flirted with the hole before barely rolling off the back. Meanwhile, Stringfellow pulled his ball 25 yards left of the green, and when his chip rolled 20 feet past the hole, Greenspahn knew another up-and-down would likely lead to victory.

“I had a little bit of an in-to-the-grain shot from about 12 yards,” Greenspahn said. “I closed the face, closed my stance, and then landed it two yards on the green. It ended up rolling out to about two feet.”

Stringfellow missed his lengthy par attempt before Greenspahn cleaned up his to etch his place in Chicago golf history.