Casullo Battles High WInds in Final Round to Win GLT Belleville Open in 3-Person Playoff

Marc Casullo - GLT Belleville Open Champion

Corbyville ON - The Great Lakes Tour (GLT) was at the beautiful Trillium Wood GC in Corbyville ON for the GLT Belleville Open June 16-17. Situated just north of the city of Belleville, Trillium Wood GC was in excellent condition and ready to host the GLT's top professionals and amateurs for a 5th straight season.

The first round got underway Thursday afternoon with hot and humid conditions greeting the players along with an imminent threat of severe weather to hit the region during the round.  Play was ultimately suspended at 2:56pm as an intense line of thunderstorms approached.  The golf course was spared as two separate storms produced tornadoes that brought much of Belleville to a stand still, however at Trillium Wood play resumed after an hour and half delay...

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GLT BELLEVILLE OPEN RECAP VIDEO 
​Courtesy of GolfZoogle.ca

Once play resumed, it was four players that kept their rounds together to have a share of the lead at the conclusion of Thursday's opening round.  John Maley of Sudbury ON, Mitch Sutton of London ON, Derek Gillespie of Pickering ON and Tristan Renaud also of Sudbury ON all posted 5 under par 67's. Brendan Seys of Port Lambton ON sat just one shot behind at 68 while Sebastian Szirmak of Toronto ON and Marc Casullo of Aurora ON posted 69's to sit in a good position heading into the final round on Friday.

From the opening tee shot on Friday at 7:00 am to the very end of play, high winds sustained at 40 km/h and gusting to 60 km/h made scoring very challenging.  

With just one hole to play Marc Casullo was 3-under par for his round and 6-under for the tournament.  He was leading by one shot over Derek Gillespie and Mitch Sutton. After a wayward tee shot found the fescue resulting in an unplayable lie, he would ultimately make a bogey to finish his round. Casullo would post the clubhouse lead at 5-under par for the tournament.

John Maley, Derek Gillespie and Mitch Sutton all hit perfect drives on the 18th hole.  From 120 yards out and in a divot, Sutton's approach came in hot and ended up just off the back of the green. Maley, needing a birdie to catch Casullo, hit his approach to about 25 feet.  Gillespie struck his approach to 20 feet giving him a great chance to get to 6-under par.  Sutton's chip shot finished 6 feet short giving him a tough par putt to post 5-under.  Maley narrowly missed his birdie and finish one shot back of the leaders.  Gillespie made a great putt but just missed and joined Casullo at 5-under par.  All attention shifted to Sutton, with the wind gusting and forcing him to back off twice, he calmly regrouped and made the 6 footer to join Gillespie and Casullo in the playoff.

The playoff began on the par-5 first hole where all three players hit good drives.  Casullo chose to lay-up to 100 yards and Gillespie mishit his 3-wood leaving him 60 yards on the right side of the fairway and a tough angle to the middle right hole location.  Sutton, who hit his tee shot 25 yards further, hit a great second shot that nearly went in the hole for an Albatross and finished just on the fringe leaving 20 feet downhill for eagle.

Casullo would hit a fantastic approach to 2 feet while Gillespie would hit a nice approach that danced around the hole but would have a large amount of spin and finished 25 feet away on the front of the green.  Gillespie would miss the birdie attempt and after Sutton missed his eagle putt and tapped in for birdie, Gillespie was eliminated.  Casullo would confidently make the birdie and set up a second playoff hole with Sutton.

The two players would go to the par-3 second hole where Casullo would hit the green and have 15 feet for birdie.  Sutton's approach would hit the front the green and spin off leaving a pitch shot that he ultimately hit 6 feet past.  Casullo missed his birdie and it ran out to 3 feet past the hole.  Sutton would lip out his par putt setting up Casullo for the win.  There was no doubt as Casullo made the putt for par and won the GLT Belleville Open.

This was Casullo's second win in his past three events.  He won the ECPT St-Georges Classic June 3-4 in a playoff and finished T-9 on the same circuit earlier in the week at the ECPT Connecticut Classic.  For the win Casullo picked up $4,000 and 600 points towards both the GLT Order of Merit presented by Roll ReadyTM and the Ontario Open Qualifying Series. Casullo sits first on the GLT Order of Merit and second on the Ontario Open Qualifying Series standings.

The next event on the GLT schedule is the GLT Niagara Open at Niagara National G&C in Stevensville ON July 7-8.  This will be the fifth of six Ontario Open Qualifying Series events where the top 2 finishers in the standings not otherwise exempt will earn an exemption into the Sotheby's International Canada Ontario Open Championship July 28-31 a PGA TOUR Canada event.

VIEW FINAL GLT BELLEVILLE OPEN LEADERBOARD
VIEW GLT ORDER OF MERIT STANDINGS
VIEW ONTARIO OPEN QUALIFYING SERIES STANDINGS