Bettencourt wins Reno-Tahoe Open
Matt Bettencourt took the Reno-Tahoe Open title home after winning the tournament by one stroke. This is Bettencourt’s first win on the PGA Tour; he finished with four-under 68 and is taking home a $540,000 check as well as an invitation to the PGA championship at Whistling Straigts next month.
Bettencourt shot a one-over on the back nine and made Bob Heintz's turn at the 18th hole extremely dramatic. If Heintz hadn’t missed the three-foot putt it would have force a playoff, but luckily for Bettencourt he did.
Bettencourt not only had luck on his side, but an excellent eagle, pristine putting conditions and a caddie who kept him calm and on track all week. He gave a lot of credit to Matthew Achatz, who is usually Rocco Mediate’s caddie. Mediate lent him to Bettencourt while he was working as a TV analyst at the British Open.
"Thank you, Rocco, for letting me use him," Bettencourt said to the cameras. "He made me believe in myself."
Bettencourt eagled on the par five 584-yard 11th hole. His second shot carried 276 yards and landed just on the edge of the green. He made the seven-foot putt for eagle. Bettencourt closed the18th hole with the eagle, a birdie and two bogeys on his score card. His bogeys were on the 18th and par four 14th hole. As for his putting, Bettencourt had 12 one-putts for a total of 24 when the weekend concluded.
With five holes left to play on Sunday, Bettencourt had a three-stroke lead. He failed to get up and down out of the greenside bunker at the 14th hole. On the 15th hole, he drove the ball into the rough left and struggled to hook his approach around a tree in order to get to the green 165 yards away. He chipped about six feet to make the par putt.
At the 16th hole Bettencourt was scrambling for another par. He missed the green off the tee and had to chip eight feet. When he reached the par five 17th hole Bettencourt made a poor shot into the greenside bunker but was lucky enough to blast out of it to five feet. He took a two stroke lead over Heintz when he rolled in the birdie to get 12-under. Heintz retaliated on the 17th hole with his eight-foot birdie to set up the drama for the 18th hole.
Heintz started his week struggling to qualify for a Nationwide Tour event in Ohio. He was notified that he had, instead, qualified for the Reno-Tahoe Open at Montreux Golf and Country Club and flew off to Navada. He shot a 69 on Sunday. Heintz, 40, finished second place and walked away with $324,000. He graduated from Yale with a degree in economics.
Of winning over Heintz, Bettencourt said,
"You hate to see somebody miss one like that at the end but at the same time I played well enough all week to win and didn't feel like I was really getting the bounces I needed until today," Bettencourt said. "I'm just so excited, I'll take it any way you can."
Bettencourt won the 2008 Nationwide Tour money title, and tied for 10th place at the 2009 U.S. In the same year, Bettencourt finished at 111th place on the PGA money list with $740,037 in career earnings.
Third place was split between John Merrick and Mathias Gronberg, both of shot 69 and whom finished nine under. Fourth place was also a tie between Robert Gamez, Kent Jones, Alex Cejka, Kevin Stadler, and Craig Barlow who finished 8-under.
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