A little rain delay wasn’t going to damper the mood – or the prowess – that the 67th Annual Divot Derby champions had in their final rounds on Wednesday at Lost Key Golf Club.
The final groups were through about five or six holes on the front nine before a quick storm system moved through the area, and a few lightning strikes too close for comfort forced participants to make their way back to the clubhouse for a roughly 30-to-45-minute break.
Both winners, Bentley Van Pelt – who graduated from West Florida this past spring and is headed to the University of Montevallo this fall – and Abby Vernier – who is a rising junior at West Florida – didn’t appear to be phased, however.
“Honestly, it kind of helped me,” Vernier said of the delay. “After the rain delay, I started making more birdies. It was just a nice little break to see everyone and be able to cool off inside.”
Van Pelt, shot a one-under 70 at Lost Key in the final round of the three-day tournament to win the Divot Derby by 10 strokes, finishing the tournament with a three-day total of three-under par. Vernier held on until the very end, also shooting a one-under 70 at Lost Key, beating the second-place finisher by three strokes to finish the three-day tournament also three-under par.
For both golfers, it seemed like a long time coming to claim the Divot Derby. Both of them said they had been playing in the Divot Derby for years, and now they got to finally hold the tournament flag. Vernier joked that it hadn’t set in yet that she won, and it likely would on Thursday during the Greater Pensacola Junior Golf Association’s annual banquet when she gets to hold the trophy.
“I’d always go to the banquet and realize that they have that big trophy. I never thought it would eventually be me,” said Vernier, who finished in second in the 2023 Divot Derby by two strokes. “But now it is.”
“It feels pretty awesome, man,” Van Pelt said. “It feels good to finally break through.”
‘One of the best feelings in the world’
It took until the 13th hole for things to finally start setting in for Van Pelt, that if he could just keep his composure, he might actually be able to win the Divot Derby. Van Pelt had just birdied the 12th hole before sinking a 12-foot putt for par on par-3 13th. That was immediately followed up by another birdie on the 14th.
Just call that a good three-hole stretch for the former Jaguar. That’s when he started to pull away from the pack.
“I got thinking that if I could just keep it going, I had it in the bag,” Van Pelt said. “I kept it play off the tees nad hit some pretty good iron shots to set up some good looks on the green today.”
That wasn’t all, though. Van Pelt, after straying a little bit off to the right side of the green on the par-3 16th hole, chipped in for birdie. Then he birdied the 18th with a solid putt to officially claim the tournament, sinking what looked like a 10-footer.
“The chip-in was pretty awesome. At that point, I just wanted to get the up-and-down, and it came off the club just like I wanted it to,” Van Pelt said with the Divot Derby flag in hand. “Definitely one of the best feelings in the world, though, to finish it off with a birdie on a pretty long putt.”
Van Pelt said this was his fourth tournament of the summer after competing in the GPJGA Summer Tour throughout the season plus some other tournaments. Before he heads to Montevallo, however, he will compete in the A. Downing Gray Cup at the end of July at the Pensacola Country Club.
Van Pelt shot a three-round total of 212 to claim the Divot Derby. He shot a 70 at Marcus Pointe Golf Club on Monday, followed by a 72 at Perdido Bay Golf Club on Tuesday before Wednesday’s 70 at Lost Key.
During the summer, Van Pelt said there’s been a focus on tee shots and putting – much needed for the tight fairways of Lost Key and the fast-rolling greens – after some solid wedge and iron play. And now he’s got some confidence going into the Downing Gray and into his first college golf season.
“I’ve been hitting it well, but I just haven’t been able to piece rounds together. It definitely felt good to put together three solid rounds,” Van Pelt said. “There’s still a difference between playing good and winning. And it definitely feels good to win one and get some confidence into the Downing Gray. … It shows me I can compete with guys that are good. Hopefully, I can play some good fall golf at Montevallo.”
‘To have that head start, it was nice’
Vernier already came into Wednesday with a two-stroke advantage, but that didn’t mean too much on a tough course like Lost Key. A shot a little bit to the left or right could mean disaster on the tight fairways of the course. Even then, it’s a tough course to be aggressive on given how often the green is separated from the fairway by a hazard.
So Vernier said she was focusing on hitting some solid putts and making sure just to hit the fairway.
“I had a couple putts that just didn’t fall, but a few did. The last two holes, I ended double-bogey and bogey. My chipping wasn’t all that great today, and some of my drives, it’s just a tight course,” Vernier said. “But it all worked out.”
Immediately out of the rain delay, Vernier was set to tee off on the fifth hole where she proceeded to hit three consecutive birdies. That was…
