March 20, 2010
-- Gilbert, Ariz.

Accounting for the second-straight event needing extra holes to decide its champion, Kendall Critfield (70/65/64-199) outlasted Jesse Mueller (67/72/60-199) and Ryan Hogue (67/64/68-199) in a three-hole sudden-death playoff at Desert Winter Series No. 9 to win his third-career Gateway Tour event, worth $16,000.

With each player finishing at 14-under, although coming from much different final round fashions (including Mueller’s blistering, Gateway Tour-low-round-of-the-year 11-under 60) the playoff was a high school reunion, or sorts, considering each player attended golf powerhouse, Red Mountain High School in nearby Mesa. That said, it was all business for Critchfield, as his key to winning this week completely surrounded the process to which has adamantly resurged in his to approach the game.

“Yeah, we all had a good laugh that it was an all-Red Mountain playoff,” joked Critcfield, who faced his first professional playoff. “But the thing I kept reminding myself the whole time was to continue to do what I had focused on this whole week.

“So once I had heard there was going to be a playoff, I took a few minutes to gather myself and said ‘let’s not change anything and just go pick a target and hit at it, and not worry about anything else.’ I think that really helped me stay in the present and I suppose now, after all of this, I’m proud that I did a good job coaching myself through it all today.”

Making an eight-foot birdie putt on the third extra hole (the par 4, 18th) after Hogue missed his birdie bid (Mueller was out of the playoff after hitting his ball in the water on the first extra hole), Critchfield officially clinched his third win on the Tour and second since last summer. More importantly, he clinched a firm reassurance that his mental “shift” over the past couple of weeks is paying dividends.

“After two missed cuts (Desert Winter Nos. 6 & 7), that was really my shift,” Critchfield said. “I was just getting caught up so much in what was going on around me that I decided to start playing much more target focused and on the whole process of everything.

“And I hit it great both last week and this week,” he said, in reference to his T17 last at Papago. “I only missed three greens this week and four or five all week last week, and then, in these last two rounds, I finally got my putting working which put it all together.

“I was really just trying not to over-think things too much out there and this whole week, I just kept staying with the process of what I was trying to do with each shot.”

Tying Mueller for the most birdies of the week with 19, Critchfield’s process didn’t waiver all the way until the last putt dropped.

“I was on seventeen tee, and I got the word that (Mueller) had just shot 60 and was in at fourteen (under),” explained Critchfield. “I first couldn’t believe what he had shot, but I also saw that (Hogue) and (Eric Mierdierks (65/69/66-200; 4th)) had it to fifteen (under), so I just tried to stay with that process of picking my targets and not worrying about what the other were doing and getting ahead of myself, but just the next shot I had to hit.

“And it was good because after hitting up near the green in two (on the par 5, 17th) I hit a fairly poor chip, and instead of getting upset about it, I still reminded myself I had a six-footer for birdie to tie (Mueller), who was already in. And I stepped up and made it. I made a good par on the eighteenth, and maybe got a little lucky with those other guys struggling a bit on the way in, but I think my mindset carried me through again in the playoff.”

Process aside, how does it feel for the Arizona native to win again on The Gateway Tour and bump his ’10 earnings to $28,759.52?

“It’s definitely fun and a great feeling to get the win,” he said. “My putter got hot in the last two rounds and it was to get it rolling like that.

“Now, I just want to keep playing well and get it going again.”


Click here for full field results from Trilogy Golf Club at Power Ranch and stay tuned as the Desert Winter Series returns again next week, March 24th-26th, at Lone Tree GC in Chandler, Ariz…