Pearsall, Bedell win Senior, Super Senior Amateur titles

For Stevensville native Cory Bedell, who said that while at home he’s a 30-minute drive from the nearest driving range, that meant installing a simulator in his garage recently to work on his swing anytime year-round.

All that prep certainly didn’t hurt in capturing his third Montana State Golf Association Men’s Super Senior Amateur title in four years Saturday at Laurel Golf Club, part of the MSGA’s annual statewide Men’s Amateur Championships this weekend.

Bedell fired a final-round 74 — tying for the low round of the three-day tournament within the Super Senior Amateur division — to complete a furious late comeback as he was behind first place by four strokes entering the back nine, but rallied to go 2-over par for the day and 11-over for the weekend as he won by two strokes.

He and Billings native Jerry Pearsall (in the Men’s Senior Amateur) were the early winners on the final day of the Amateur Championships, with the Men’s State Amateur being delayed in the afternoon by lightning in the area and not completed at press time.

“It was fun. That’s a great course there, and I had to come from behind,” Bedell said of his time at Laurel Golf Club. “I hit good shots, I just went with rhythm and tried to hit the ball solid. It started going straight, so I just kept doing that.”

Bozeman’s Lee Levine paced the field in the Super Senior Amateur division (for golfers 65 and older) going into Saturday, leading Bedell by a stroke as his second-round 77 was the lowest in the division Friday.

Levine’s lead grew right away as birdies on hole Nos. 5 and 8 contributed to a sizzling 35 through nine, whereas Bedell fell back with a 39 on the front. But the Stevensville native found his stride on the back nine, going bogey-free during his last half of the round with a birdie on the 12th hole to shoot his own 35, while Levine faded with a 40 on the back nine.

Bedell said that his best shot of the day came on that 12th hole, when he had about a 40-yard pitch on the par-4 with some water danger to navigate. He pinpointed his shot within a few feet of the hole, sinking the crucial birdie putt moments later.

“I just hit the ball so good,” Bedell said. “Back nine, that’s what did it. … Just want to thank the Montana State Golf Association and the Laurel Golf Club, they both put on a good tournament.”

Meanwhile, another man that’s no stranger to winning MSGA events is Pearsall, as the 2019 Montana State Senior Champion outdueled runner-up and three-time State Senior Amateur division (for golfers 55 and older) winner Bill Dunn of Missoula over three rounds to capture this weekend’s crown by four strokes.