Golf
Indy golf pro downs beers before marathon playoff, then gets into the Rocket
Washington Township — Nick Bienz works at Golf Galaxy in Indianapolis. He’s not going to make it to work the rest of the week. He hadn’t told his boss as of early Monday night, but that’s OK. Social media told him, for him.
Bienz, a teaching professional out of Indianapolis, survived an eight-hole playoff at The Orchards at Monday’s PGA Tour qualifier, earning his first start in a PGA Tour tournament. He was among four players to advance out of the playoff, and earn themselves a tee time at this week’s Rocket Mortgage Classic, starting Monday.
Bienz still was in disbelief Monday, as he sat at the scorer’s table under the pavilion outside the clubhouse, his hands on his head, continuously muttering to himself, “This is unbelievable.”
Bienz, 28, joined Virginia’s Brandon Berry, 25, Toronto’s Angelo Giantsopoulos, 24, and North Carolina’s Danny Guise, 29, in surviving Monday’s qualifier and the playoff. Each shot a 7-under 65, as did Howell’s Beau Breault, 27, an Eastern Michigan alum who made a huge par save on the fifth playoff hole, but couldn’t match the birdies of Bienz and Guise on the eighth playoff hole, to miss out on a spot in his hometown Rocket.
More: The News’ tee-to-green coverage of the Rocket Mortgage Classic, all right here
The qualifiers round out the 156-player field in the sixth annual Rocket Mortgage Classic. Guise will be playing in his fifth PGA Tour event and Berry his fourth, while Bienz and Giantsopoulos will make their PGA Tour debuts.
“It won’t hit me until we pull up to Detroit Golf Club tomorrow,” said Bienz, an IUPUI alum and 2023 Indiana Open champion, who was playing his first PGA Tour Monday qualifier of the year.
“This is crazy, dude,” Bienz said as he sat at the scorer’s table.
Bienz posted the first 65 of the day, and was so nervous he had a beer, and then another, and then another, drinking one as he did an interview with Alpena’s Ryan French, who runs the popular Monday Q Info website. It looked for a bit like his 65, which featured an eagle at the par-5 15th and a 12-footer for birdie at the 18th, was going to be good enough for a spot. But late, four more 65s came in, forcing the playoff.
Berry, a Loyola-Maryland alum, made quick work, hitting his approach stiff on the short par 4 for birdie. That left three spots, for four players. That’s how it went, until the sixth playoff hole, the uphill par-4 10th, which Giantsopoulos birdie — draining a 50-foot putt, after reaching the green from a fairway bunker.
That capped a rollercoaster day for Giantsopoulos, who kept himself alive in the playoff with a 10-foot par save, a 12-foot par save, and a 3-foot save from a greenside bunker. That bunker save came on the fifth playoff hole, when Breault made an all-world par himself. He found the right trees off the tee; in fact, his tee shot struck a golf cart driven by a Michigan PGA official. The ball dropped right down, he had no other option but to punch out into the fairway, and he hit hit his third to 20 feet. Breault then stepped in and drained the putt for a par.
Giantsopoulos moved on the next hole, back at the 10th, where his two long par saves came earlier in the playoff.
“Everything,” Giantsopoulos, who played at Drexel, said when asked what the opportunity means to him. “I’ve been putting my life into this.
“It’s something I’ve dreamed about since I was a kid.”
Extra special: His dad, Dan, was on the bag for him during the qualifier, and will be again at the Rocket. They’re one of the few father-son duos who work together on the grueling qualifying circuit.
It paid dividends during several heat-of-the-moment moments Monday.
“He just keeps me grounded,” Giantsopoulos said. “He just kind of settles me back down.”
With three players left for two spots, and a busy night of league play going on at The Orchards, the playoff shuffled up the hole rotation (it had been 18, 10, 18, 10, 18, 10), and moved on to the 16th, another par 4, where the three remaining players made par. They then moved to the 17th, another par 4, where the playoff finally came to an end.
Guise, a Wake Forest alum who played in a Korn Ferry Tour tournament earlier this year, hit his approach on the 17th to about 15 feet, and made the putt.
He learned from playing the hole in regulation. He had the exact same putt, and missed it. Not when it mattered the most, earning his ticket back into the PGA Tour limelight.
“Relief,” Guise said. “You never know when the opportunity is gonna come.
“Every opportunity is special.”
No need convincing Bienz, although he’s never had this kind of opportunity. Bienz, who hit a 9 iron to 3 feet from 144 yards for birdie on the eighth playoff hole, doesn’t even pack for more than a day when he’s trying to qualify. He had no idea where DGC is. He was told he’d get a courtesy car, and he jumped at that, even though he had his own car in town. The courtesy car sounded cool. Bienz had a whole lot of questions for Kevin Helm, executive director of the Michigan PGA, most notably: Where do I go?
Fear not. They’ll let you in. And your caddie. Oh, he didn’t have a caddie either, but that problem is solved. Recent Michigan grad Colin Christie was on the bag Monday for his buddy, Canton’s Cody Haughton. While Haughton didn’t make it, Christie stuck around after and hit it off with Bienz.
When the playoff began, Christie was on the bag. And after he qualified for the Rocket, and was asked by Helm if he had a caddie, Bienz, who went bogey-free for 26 holes, shouted across the pavilion, “Colin, you wanna caddie?”
“I’m down,” said Christie, wearing a maize Michigan polo. Christie is plenty familiar with DGC, and it should be a good fit. It definitely will be an experience of a lifetime, for both.
“I’ve played golf all my life,” said Christie, “so this day is something I’ve dreamed of.”
Bienz, by the way, got quite the social-media following Monday, after French posted video of his interview before the playoff, as Bienz was having his second beer. French later posted Bienz’s Venmo QR code on X (formerly Twitter) and, given French’s vast following, donations started flooding in from all corners of the golf and business universe. Garage Beer, owned in part by the NFL’s Kelce brothers, donated $500. Thousands in donations were expected.
Just missing out on making Monday’s playoff — which didn’t see a single bogey — was 16-year-old Konner Kubica, of Northville. He shot a 6-under 66 and was trying to join 15-year-old golf phenom Miles Russell in the Rocket Mortgage Classic.
A field of 59 teed it up at Monday’s qualifier, after nearly 200 competed in two pre-qualifiers last week, including Bienz, Giantsopoulos and Guise.
tpaul@detroitnews.com
@tonypaul1984
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