From Wednesday to Sunday, Neil Spitalny played 146 holes of golf, an endurance test for anyone, let alone a 58-year-old.

“And some of them were even good,” Spitalny said. “I was 10 under for the first 54 of them.”

Spitalny did cool off a bit after putting together back-to-back rounds of 67 in the Chattanooga TPC qualifier at Council Fire and 69 in the second round of the TGA Championship Series at Bear Trace. But he still managed to fight and scrap his way to the TPC championship match on Sunday.

And not surprisingly, Spitalny gave himself every opportunity to defeat Sam Bedwell, a Lee University player more than 30 years his junior and 60 yards longer off the tee. Ironically, it was a missed three-foot putt that did him in after a week in which he putted as well as he ever had.

The two combatants, clearly showing fatigue after a long day—Bedwell defeated Mitch Hufstetler, 4 and 3, and Spitalny beat Caleb Roberson, 3 and 2 in the morning semifinals—found themselves tied after 18 holes and headed to No. 1 for a playoff.

Spitalny had the tee by virtue of Bedwell’s bogey at No. 18, and promptly blocked his drive out of bounds. Bedwell briefly considered putting his driver back in his bag and hitting a 3-wood off the tee, but he stuck with the big club, even though he’s struggled with it in the afternoon. Bedwell lashed a right to left sweeper that found its way into the gunch that’s marked as a lateral hazard.

Spitalny re-teed and found the left side of the fairway. His approach landed just three feet from the hole, giving him an opportunity to save bogey.  Bedwell dropped two club lengths from the point his ball crossed the hazard line, then left himself a fifteen foot par save.

If Bedwell were to two-putt for bogey Spitalny could escape to the next hole, in spite of the errant tee shot.

“I was so sure he’d make it I parked the cart [on the way to] the second tee,” Bedwell said.

Bedwell two-putted for bogey, setting the stage for Spitalny. But his putt zipped past the hole, and his long week of golf was over.

“It’s frustrating,” Spitalny said of the short-lived playoff. “After Sam bogeyed 18, that was the first time I thought I could win the match.”

Actually, Spitalny had plenty of chances to win. After he saved par at the par-3 7^th and Bedwell bogeyed, he led 1-up.

“I knew to have a chance to win I had to be 2-up [going to the back nine],” Spitalny said.

Things didn’t quite work out that way. He bogeyed No. 8 and 9 to fall 1 down, and when Bedwell birdied No. 10 from 35 feet, it looked as though he could close out Spitalny early, given the fact three back-nine par-5s were ahead.

Oddly enough, though Bedwell is more than long enough to reach all of Council Fire’s par-5s in two, he struggled off the tee and didn’t give himself a chance to reach any of them. His drive at No. 2 went right of right—so far right it didn’t even splash in the water and instead hit dry land out of bounds. Spitalny won the hole.

On the back-nine par-5s, Bedwell hit his tee shot out of bounds left at 11, hit two balls into the water at 13 and bogeyed 18. Spitalny won all three.

“I won some holes I shouldn’t have won,” Spitalny said. “Playing a guy who’s 60 yards longer off the tee and can reach all the par-5s, I’m not supposed to win any of them.”

“I didn’t drive the ball well in the afternoon after hitting my driver great in the morning,” said Bedwell, who made five birdies in his victory over Hufstetler. “Fatigue had a little bit to do with it. And Council Fire was playing so long this week [after heavy rains the week before], that you have to hit driver on every hole. Sooner or later, you’re going to hit a bad shot.”

Spitalny knew the feeling, for he too had a balky club in his bag.

“My caddy at Chicago [in the U.S. Senior Amateur] told me he was going to break my 5-wood because I’d hit it poorly up there,” Spitalny said. “And today I hit five poor 5-woods.”

Spitalny easily rattled off the holes where his 5-wood let him down—4, 8, 9, 10 and 15.

“And I lost every hole,” Spitalny said.

Bedwell’s victory puts him in rare company. In the 17-year history of the TPC, he’s one of only three players who won it and the Chattanooga Metro in the same season. Tom Schreiner (2003) and Bryce Ledford (2005) were the first to pull off that double.