The 106th Indiana PGA State Open Championship took place the last three days at Purdue’s Ackerman-Allen Golf Course. The weather this week provided many obstacles for the participants.
The first day of the tournament on Monday, there were two rain delays that forced the afternoon wave tee time golfers to not finish before dark that day. They had to come back the next morning at 7:30 a.m. to finish their first rounds, and then tee off again at 11 a.m. for their second round, which ended up being at Ackerman instead of Kampen Golf Course because of wet conditions at Kampen. Seth Fair shot the low first round of a 6-under-par, 65.
The players ended up not finishing their second rounds Tuesday due to rain delays again, so they came back the final day of the tournament at 7:30 a.m. to finish. After all of the second rounds were in, the field was cut to the top-70 players and ties, and the final round tee times started later that morning at 11 a.m.
Even though the delays the first two rounds of the tournament were a true test of the players’ toughness, many players shot low. One of these was Michael Davan, who shot a 36-hole-total of 12-under-par and had a one-shot lead over Seth Fair going into the final round.
“I played really well my first couple of days,” Davan said. “I’ve been working on some things with my swing coach, and it definitely paid off, so I was happy about that.”
Davan continued to play solid in the final round of the tournament, starting off hot by chipping in on the par-5, 2nd for birdie. Fair was able to stay one shot back from Davan until the par-3, 5th where Davan bogeyed, allowing Fair to catch a share of the lead. Fair’s lead was short-lived, however, as this bogey was Davan’s only bogey the whole final round and the whole tournament in general.
Davan birdied holes 6, 7, 9, 10 & 11 to move to 17-under-par for the tournament and extend his lead by three shots over Fair.
Last time the State Open was at Ackerman, however, Davan shot two-over-par on the back nine to lose by one shot from Brian Maurer. These bad memories did not phase Davan though.
Davan played rock-solid and parred the remainder of the holes on the back nine after 11 to shoot a final round of 5-under-par, 66 to finish at 17-under-par for the tournament and defeat Seth Fair by two shots. This is Davan’s second State Open win since 2019, and the 17-under-par tournament score tied the 54-hole State Open tournament total record.
“It’s so great to win again, especially since my wife and son were here to watch me,” Davan said. “It’s the first time my son has been able to watch me since he’s been born and the first time my wife has been able to watch me play since his birth, so it was a very special win.”
Davan’s next tournament is a team Pro-Am and then he is thinking about competing in Cedar Rapids, Iowa at the Cedar Rapids Open.
