• Results: Price Cutter Charity Championship
• Scorecards: Steve Friesen
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Steve Friesen is the second Nebraskan to take advantage of a Cox Classic sponsor’s exemption to jump-start his professional golf career.
The 34-year-old Lincoln native won Sunday on the Nationwide Tour. He shot 64 in the final round to claim the Price Cutter Charity Championship in Springfield, Mo., by five strokes.
“It’s been a magical week,” said Friesen, whose tie for 49th place in Omaha last week was enough to get him into the field in Missouri. “I feel like I belong.”
In 2003, his former Husker teammate, Scott Gutschewski, used a string of top-25 tournament finishes starting with Omaha before winning the Monterey Peninsula Classic. Gutschewski is currently on the PGA Tour.
Friesen could be there next year, too.
His win makes him fully eligible for the Nationwide Tour through 2012. If he finishes this season among the Nationwide Tour’s Top 25 money winners, he has a spot on the 2012 PGA Tour. He’s 23rd after claiming the $112,500 first-place money.
Friesen said this is a life-changing event for him and his wife, Chiho. The Lincoln High and NU graduate, now living in Scottsdale, Ariz., had been playing mini-tours since losing a spot on the Nationwide Tour after his rookie season in 2009. He was beginning to doubt whether he should stick with pro golf.
“Leading the whole week, it was tough emotionally not thinking about what could happen,’’ he said in a phone interview. “Now it’s, ‘OK, let’s keep it rolling and get to the PGA Tour.’ I’m not thinking about that tonight, but in a couple days that will be the goal.’’
Friesen finished 26 under par in Springfield, making only one bogey in 72 holes. He birdied four of the final five holes at Highland Springs Country Club, including a holed bunker shot on the par-4 17th.
The first time he looked at a leader board was on the 15th hole, he said. At that point, he was leading by two and “I figured I needed to make a couple (birdies) coming in.”
His nerves kicked in on the 17th tee. He hooked his drive into the trees, and his second shot ended up in a greenside bunker.
“The lie was on the back side of the bunker, which had a high lip. I barely could get the club on the ball,’’ he said. “Luckily, I had some green to work with. The ball had some 40 feet to roll, and it kept trickling. When it went in, the roar out of the gallery was unbelievable.’’
To finish up his 8-under day, he made a 10-footer for birdie on the par-5 final hole.
Friesen didn’t know he was in the tournament until former Husker teammate Andy McCabe contacted him Monday while Friesen was playing in the AJGA Nebraska Junior Pro-Am at Quarry Oaks. Friesen called his wife and went back to Lincoln after the pro-am to pack and pick her up. They reached Springfield about midnight Monday.
Friesen shot a career-low 62 in the first round for a two-stroke lead. The lead was one after his second-round 68, and he was tied for first with Travis Hampshire after his third-round 68.
“There are so many great players on this tour that I knew I had to go real low today,” said Friesen, who became the fourth winner in the past five years in Springfield to post a 26-under total. “When you have an opportunity like this, you want to take advantage of it.”
Gutschewski and Mike Schuchart of Lincoln are the only other Nebraskans to win on the Nationwide Tour, which started as the Ben Hogan Tour in 1990.
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