MCCABE FIRES FINAL-ROUND 64 TO WIN CHAMPIONSHIP AT RUSTIC CANYON

Facing a three shot deficit, Michael McCabe came out swinging in the final round, carding a bogey-free 8-under 64 for a come from behind three shot win at the OnCore Gateway Tour’s Championship at Rustic Canyon in Moorpark, Calif.

McCabe birdied five of the first six holes in round three for a front-nine 31 and made the turn at 10-under par with a two shot advantage over second-round leader Hugo Leon, who was 8-under with nine holes to play.

Playing in the final group, Leon cut McCabe’s lead to one after his birdie on the par-4 11th, but after McCabe made birdie on 13 and 14 and Leon made bogey on the par-4 14th, McCabe had an insurmountable four-shot lead over Leon.

Leon birdied 15 and 16 but could only manage par on the last two holes to finish T2 at 10-under par. McCabe added a birdie on 17 for good measure to finish at 8-under 64 (the low round of the day) and 13-under for the tournament, earning his first win this season.

It was a somewhat surprising win for McCabe, who started the week poorly with his opening-round 1-over 73 that included five bogeys. But he found the magic after that, going 66-64 over the next two days and carding just one bogey over the final 40 holes.

Leon went 69-67-70 to earn his best finish of the year and second Top-5 finish this season.

Jeff Gove, last week’s winner at the Quarles and Brady Classic, shot a final-round 65 and came out of nowhere to join Leon at T2. Gove went 70-71 over the first two days and was five shots back at T12 with 18 holes to play. But like McCabe he got off to a fast start, carding a 31 on the front to get into contention and nearly pull off back-to-back wins.

Steele Dewald started the day one shot back of Leon at 7-under, but couldn’t keep pace with the leaders, firing a 1-under 71 to finish solo fourth at 8-under par. For the week he sandwiched an impressive 64 in the second round with a 73 in round one and 71 on the final day.

Rounding out the Top-10 were Doug Quinones and Hans Reimer at 4-under (T6), Johnny Ruiz and John Davis at 3-under (T8) and Stephen Edman and Brett Silvernail at 2-under par (T10).

For complete results from the Championship at Rustic Canyon CLICK HERE https://gway.bluegolf.com/bluegolf/gway16/event/gway1614/contest/1/leaderboard.htm.

That’s a wrap on the OnCore Gateway Tour’s Winter Series. The Spring Series will get underway with the one-day Spring Series Sponsorship Event on Feb. 29, followed by the ExecuCar Classic, March 1-3, both at Sundance Golf Club in Buckeye.