Correspondent photo / Robert Hayes. The Greatest Golfer winner Brandon Pluchinsky tees off during the middle of his round Sunday afternoon at The Lake Club in Poland. Pluchinsky finished at -6 to win his fourth straight title and his sixth overall.

YOUNGSTOWN — As Brandon Pluchinsky stepped onto the 18th tee Sunday at The Lake Club, one shot behind leader Garrett Frank, he knew he needed to try to make birdie on the par-3 ninth hole to give himself a chance in the Greatest Golfer tournament.

Pluchinsky put his tee shot about 15 feet from the cup. Had the ball rolled another few inches, it likely would have trickled down a ridge that would have rolled his ball to within a couple feet from the pin.

Pluchinsky’s shot put the pressure on Frank, whose tee shot caught an unlucky gust of wind and carried it past the green into the weeds near Evans Lake. Frank was forced to take a drop near the water and needed to get up-and-down in order to try to salvage a possible playoff.

“The wind was kind of swirling on the tee box and we were all trying to guess what to hit,” Pluchinsky said. “I got a little lucky that it picked up a bit and held my ball in the middle of the green. I think it died a bit when (Frank) hit because it carried it a yard too far and it went down that back hill, which is never good back there.”

Pluchinsky would end up making par, while Frank had to settle for a double bogey. But that par was enough to give Pluchinsky his fourth straight Greatest Golfer tournament title in the Men’s Open division and sixth overall in the event’s 13-year history.

“A win is a win — but I never want to win because someone else screwed up,” said Pluchinsky, a South Range product and former Horizon League men’s Golfer of the Year at Youngstown State. “I’d like to go get it, but golf is one of those sports that sometimes you need someone to screw up to get a win. But I never want to see something bad happen.”

Pluchinsky started hot on Friday with a 5-under 65 that gave him the lead after day one, but Frank fired a 64 Saturday that put him ahead. The pair battled back and forth during Sunday’s final round at The Lake Club.

“The first round, I hit a lot of greens and got the putter hot a little bit,” Pluchinsky said. “Second round, made a million birdies, but also made a million bogeys, so I just hung around all day and then (Sunday) just kind of grinded it out.”

Correspondent photo / Robert Hayes. Kiersten Klekner-Alt putts on the final hole near Evans Lake Sunday afternoon, winning the Ladies Open division title with a score of 216.

In what was the largest Ladies field in the 13-year history of the event, according to organizer Todd Franko, Kiersten Klekner-Alt dominated from start to finish.

Klekner-Alt opened up with a six-shot lead after a first round 72, then maintained her steady, consistent play for the next two days with a 71 on Day 2 and then a final-round 73 Sunday at The Lake Club. Her final margin of victory ended up being 21 shots.

“It made it very relaxed and certainly playing my home course is pretty easy,” Klekner-Alt said. “I think the greens were probably the biggest change from the first couple days — just quicker and very sloping. But there were a couple tee shots where I didn’t even need driver. I just took an iron or a hybrid out of the bag and bladed up to a safe spot. I was comfortable and so I didn’t feel like I needed to grind quite as hard as I would have had it only been a couple strokes margin.”

Klekner-Alt first started playing golf when she was 10 years old. After winning some tournaments during her youth growing up in Canada, she ended up playing a couple years collegiately at the University of Ottawa, before then coming to the U.S. and playing at Newman University and Gannon University.

She now works in the compliance office in the YSU Athletic Department. But even with the time demands of working in college athletics, she’s still able to find the right “balance” to continue to play golf.

“My boyfriend actually talked me into playing (the Greatest Golfer tournament), but it was a great event,” Klekner-Alt said. “It was very cool to meet different young ladies in the area that I wouldn’t have necessarily had the chance to play with and there was a lot of good golf and a lot of potential. So, I’m excited to come back next year.”

Although one aspect of the tournament is about the competition, with its 340 participants, that’s not necessarily at the forefront. Community and camaraderie are the most important aspects, according to tournament organizer Todd Franko.

“Two things I think the Valley loves to do is compete and get together,” Franko said. “I think Greatest grabbed on both — the chance to compete and the chance to get together as a community, this golf community. We just try to do it right and 13 years and 340 players just shows the Valley’s itch to want to go out there and compete right up to age 80 and also get together as a group.

“I just feel grateful. I feel lucky in our 13th, supposedly unlucky year, to be in this position to affect a lot of lives and partner up with so many good people in golf and in business to do something good for the Valley. I say it enough, it’s competition third, but before that it’s community and camaraderie first.”

nmadhavan@tribtoday.com