Baley Lehr finishes with 8-under round to claim 5th Berry Memorial title

STREATOR – After Saturday’s opening round of the 44th Richard J. Berry Memorial men’s golf tournament, Baley Lehr found himself one stroke behind defending champion and longtime on-the-course rival/off-the-course friend Josh Gass.

Despite a birdie on the first hole of Sunday’s final round at the Eastwood, four-time champion Lehr found himself two strokes back after five-time champion Gass marked an eagle to start his rain-delayed final round.

Birdies on Nos. 4 and 5, however, allowed Baley Lehr to catch up to Gass, and Baley Lehr just kept carding birdies – 10 in all Sunday – on his way to a come-from-behind, runaway victory and his fifth Berry Memorial Championship Flight title. With his 8-under-par 64 at the Eastwood combined with his 3-under 67 Saturday at Pine Hills, Lehr finished with a two-course, 36-hole score of 131, a whopping eight strokes better than Gass’ runner-up 139.

“I birdied the first hole, but it was after a shaky tee shot. After that, I started hitting the ball pretty well.” Baley Lehr said. “And I putted very well today. I made a lot of putts. I gave myself a lot of looks, too, but I made the putts when I had them.

“[Saturday] I had a lot of looks, too. I just didn’t make the putts. Today was a little different.”

Previously the champion in 2022, 2018, 2017 and 2015 along with being last year’s runner-up, Baley Lehr joins Gass and Bob Berry – the son of the man for which the tournament is named – tied for the second most Berry Memorial championships won behind Rich Holloway’s record eight titles. Between them, Josh Gass and Baley Lehr have won 10 of the last 11 Berry championships.

“I guess we’ll keep racing to whatever the record is, me and Josh,” Baley Lehr said. “We’ll see what we can do.”

Although he didn’t suffer a bogie Sunday until taking ones back-to-back on Nos. 12 and 13, Gass’ lead had evaporated into a deficit long before that thanks to Baley Lehr’s run of birdies. The eventual champion putted in one stroke ahead of par on Nos. 1, 4, 5, 6, 9, 10, 13, 14, 15 and 18 as Gass recorded par after par – good enough to not implode but not enough to keep up.

“He played well,” Gass said. “When Baley gets going with the putter like that, he’s tough to beat. Today he made the birdies, and I didn’t. I’m happy for him.

“I think this makes us even at five championships apiece. These next few years coming up should be fun.”

Brian Lehr finished with a 1-under 141 to place third, two strokes behind Gass and 10 off the champion’s pace. Jeremy DeBernardi moved up two spaces Sunday to finish fourth with an even-par 142.

Behind them in the top 10 of Championship Flight were Jake Delaney (144), Lane Barbier (144), Rick Krumscheid (145), Bryer Harris (145), Huston Gass (146) and Rick Lehr (146).

In the Berry Memorial’s other flights:

• Joe Cravatta (146) salted away first place in Championship 2 by shooting 1-under Sunday at the Eastwood. That was five strokes better than runner-up Jake Strabala (151), with Collin VanDuzer (152) besting Eric Phillis (152) in a two-hole playoff for third place.

• In A Flight, Eric Arambula (150) dominated the field, finishing off a seven-stroke victory. Adam Harris (157) topped Austin Cinotto (157) in a one-hole playoff for second, with Dan Sabol (161) finishing fourth.

• In B Flight, recent Streator High School graduate Christian Benning (163) held onto the top spot over runner-up Tucker Hill (167), third-place Mitch Barton (168) and fourth-place Charlie Dunkel (170).

• In C Flight, Mitch Vickers (169) fought back to force a playoff with leader Chris Dye (169), then outlasted him in a four-hole playoff for the title. Jose Barajas (170) placed third ahead of fourth-place Andrew Barton (175).

• In D Flight, Jake Ferrantino (185) claimed first place. Damion Nambo (188) placed second, Dustin Masley (189) third and Jeff Harcar (194) fourth.

• In the forward-tee Legends Flight, Bill Mattingly (159) suvived a one-hole playoff with Bull Sipula (159) for the title. Bud Dilley (166) was third, with Dave Edwall (177) placing fourth.

• Tony Muscato (156) successfully defended his Senior Division crown, finishing three strokes ahead of runner-up Al Retoff (159).