Freeman caps dominant week with Nebraska Match Play Championship
Calvin Freeman was a victor from wire to wire at the Nebraska Men’s Match Play Championship.
By News Channel NebraskaVideo courtesy Nebraska Golf Association
BEATRICE, Neb. – Calvin Freeman was a victor from wire to wire at the Nebraska Men’s Match Play Championship.
Freeman capped a dominant week at the Beatrice Country Club by defeating 2003 champion Ryan Nietfeldt in Friday’s title round.
Nietfeldt claimed the second hole to gain a one-hole edge, but Freeman countered by going on a tear over the next five holes. Freeman won the third, fourth, sixth and seventh holes, while halving the fifth, to take a three-hole advantage.
Freeman kept his foot on the gas pedal on the next nine, claiming three more holes to build on his lead and take a five hole advantage into the second batch of 18 holes.
The torrid pace continued in the next round of 18, with Freeman claiming three of the first five holes of the second round. That included an eagle on the par-five fourth hole, with Freeman holing out from 108 yards away.
Freeman then birdied the par 5 ninth hole to go nine up, and he clinched the crown by halving the 10th hole, winning 9&8 over Nietfeldt.
The Southeast Community College golf coach won the two-day stroke play qualifying round on Monday and Tuesday to claim the top seed heading into match play.
Freeman defeated Omaha’s Rex Soulliere in the opening round before topping Lincoln’s Owen Tucker in the round of 16.
In the quarterfinals, Freeman topped Norfolk native and current Oklahoma Sooner Luke Kluver before knocking off Lincoln’s David Easley in the semifinals.
Freeman’s quarterfinal win over 2020 champion Kluver was the only match that required him to go the distance in any of his matches.
A Table Rock native, Freeman competed collegiately for SCC and Nebraska before competing in various mini-tours professionally.
It is the first Nebraska Men’s Match Play crown for Freeman. Nietfeldt, who competed in 43 holes on Thursday, including a 25-hole marathon over former NFL running back Danny Woodhead in the quarterfinals, was aiming to pick up his second Nebraska match play title. It would have been the second longest gap between two championships in tournament history, trailing only Knox Jones’ victories in 1979 and 2000.