Playoff Payoff: Texas State Open goes down to the wire

The 42nd Bright Realty Texas State Open took place last weekend at the Lakes of Castle Hills in Lewisville and the standard 72 holes of golf weren't enough to determine a winner.

And when the winner was finally determined, it wasn't even a Texan.

Nathan Tyler (of Tucson, Ariz.) took that honor as he birdied the first hole of a sudden-death playoff between he, Coppell's Jamie Elliot and McKinney's Dustin Risdon.

"I was really just trying to downplay what I was playing for," Tyler said. "The course was playing difficult to say the least; it was almost like a U.S. Open set up, so you had to hit it in the fairway to hold the greens and you had to hit the greens to make par. It was a great test. There were not a lot of places where you could attack, so I tried to make birdies on the holes I thought I could and just hang in there on the others. It took extreme patience."

Tyler shot rounds of 71, 70, 70 and 69 on the par-72 course.

That looked like it would be enough midway through the event, but Risdon came charging up the leaderboard in last Saturday's third round, carding a 67.

"I talked some things over with my caddie [Saturday] and told him it was moving day," Risdon said. "I wanted to make a nice move and I felt good coming off [Friday's] finishing holes."

Risdon shot 8-under in the final two days.

But Tyler and Risdon's dual 8-under scores were matched by Elliot, who shot a 67 on the final day to advance to last Sunday's playoff.

It was Tyler who would win the playoff though, courtesy of his first-hole birdie. Tyler, who tied for eighth at last year's event, took home $25,000 for the victory while Risdon and Elliot each pocketed $12,000.

Those weren't the only locals competing at the four-day event.

Mansfield resident Kolton Crawford finished as the top amateur, placing in a five-way tie for sixth overall (287). Crawford, who made this year's field after placing third in the Texas State Open Amateur division in 2011, is a sophomore at Arkansas and coming off a season in which he was named to the SEC All-Freshman Team.

Southlake's Vincent Martino (290) followed in the amateur ranks and tied for 15th. Like much of the field, Martino had issues during the first round (77) before settling in.

Other local linksters included McKinney's Christopher Ward (290), who tied for 15th, and Frisco's Jaxon Brigman and The Colony's Brian Norman, who tied for 20th (291).

Lewisville's Dan Parker (149 through two rounds), Sachse's Richard Woodson (149), Plano's Jeff Howard (150), Plano's Perry Arthur (150), Plano's Craig McCoy (152), Frisco's Sarosh Adi (152), Carrollton's Austin Green (153), Coppell's Key Young (154), Lewisville's Cory Stone (154), Plano's Lucas Boyd (155), Plano's Matthew Rosenfeld (155), Rowlett's Trevor Arianna (156), Carrollton's Peter Krause (158) and Plano's Joshua Ky (170) missed last Friday's cut.

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