Woitas Survives Marler In A Thrilling Instant Classic at The Quarry
The highly anticipated match between Jon Woitas and Justin Marler had the crowd on their feet when they made it to the tee. The first tee box felt like an opening match at the Ryder Cup. Two heavy weights battling for championship glory kicked off and it didn’t disappoint.
Jon Woitas and Justin Marler delivered a back-and-forth spectacle worthy of major championship history — a dramatic, emotional contest filled with clutch putts, momentum swings, and late heroics that had spectators lining fairways deep into the evening.
From the opening tee shot, both players looked locked in.
The first two holes set the tone for what would become an unforgettable afternoon. Matching drives. Matching approaches. Matching pars. Neither competitor blinked.
The first crack appeared on holes three and four.
Woitas settled into rhythm early, rolling in consecutive pars while Marler stumbled to back-to-back bogeys, giving Woitas the first meaningful edge of the match. But Marler answered immediately on the fifth after Woitas sprayed his tee shot offline, allowing Marler to capitalize with a composed par and cut into the deficit.
The punches continued to trade.
Hole six swung back toward Woitas after Marler found trouble off the tee, and Woitas once again leaned on steady par golf to maintain control. But just when it appeared Woitas might begin pulling away, Marler delivered one of the shots of the front nine.
On the seventh, Marler poured in a birdie to Woitas’ par, trimming the lead back to just 1UP and reigniting the contest. Woitas responded immediately at the eighth with perhaps the touch shot of the day — lagging a stunning 60-foot putt to within three feet before calmly converting the par save to reclaim momentum.
Then came the ninth.
Facing immense pressure heading to the turn, Marler buried a dramatic 30-foot putt to match Woitas’ par and keep the match within striking distance entering the back nine. The crowd surrounding the green erupted as the realization set in that neither player was going away quietly.
Woitas appeared ready to slam the door shut early on the inward nine.
Pars on both 10 and 11 proved enough to beat Marler and stretch the advantage, with Woitas seemingly operating on autopilot as the “par train” continued rolling through The Quarry.
But championship golf rarely follows a script.
Momentum shifted sharply at the 12th when Marler answered with a clutch birdie to steal the hole. Another win on 13 with a composed par suddenly brought the match within two, and the pressure that once sat squarely on Marler’s shoulders quickly transferred to Woitas.
The tension only intensified on 14.
Marler produced a textbook par after Woitas missed his approach left of the green. Facing a critical up-and-down to avoid surrendering more momentum, Woitas chipped brilliantly to six feet before calmly draining the putt to halve the hole and preserve his shrinking advantage.
Both players traded bogeys on the demanding par-3 15th before chaos erupted again at the 16th.
Marler authored the scramble of the tournament, somehow escaping disaster and converting a remarkable birdie that electrified the gallery. Suddenly, Woitas stood over a 12-foot putt with the entire complexion of the match hanging in the balance.
Miss it, and the lead shrinks to one with momentum fully on Marler’s side.
Woitas never flinched.
The putt dropped center cup.
The emotional swing proved decisive. Riding the momentum from the clutch save, Woitas stepped onto the 17th tee and delivered the knockout blow with another birdie, closing out one of the finest matches the Prairie Golf League has seen in recent memory.
Afterward, Woitas acknowledged both the magnitude of the victory and the opportunity now in front of him.
With both Justin Marler and Zachary Janes eliminated from the bracket, the path forward suddenly looks far more open.
Woitas now advances to await the winner between Brayden Malica and Marc Hermanns, knowing that a few more performances like this could turn a dream run into a championship reality.
