CHAMPIONSHIPS
Rainaud began his final round at one underpar for the tournament, a full six strokes behind
overnight leader Cody Paladino of Wethersfield
Country Club, who shot 67-68—135 (-7) and
held a two stroke lead over Corey Birch of Silver
Spring Country Club. Rainaud played with Paladino
the first two rounds and was witness to his nearly
flawless golf, so he knew he would need something
special to even have a chance to catch the leader.
“Starting the day, I thought I needed to get
to seven or eight under-par to have a chance, so the
entire round I was thinking ‘Don’t slow down until
you get to seven [under]’,” said Rainaud. “After I
birdied the sixth hole to get to four under-par for
the tournament, at that point I knew I was right in
the mix.”
His front nine of three birdies and no bogies
put him at four under-par, but with Paladino making
an early birdie, Rainaud still trailed by four heading
into his back nine.
18 | CSGA Links // September, 2016
“When I got to the 16th tee, I saw Cody was
in the lead at six under, so I thought I still needed
to make maybe one more birdie,” said Rainaud. “I
hit a couple of good shots and made birdie on #16,
and then made two good pars coming in.“
While Rainaud made birdie on the 16th to go
to seven under-par for the championship, Paladino
found his share of struggles on the back nine. Even
after a birdie on the 11th hole brought him back
to six under-par, a trio of bogies on holes #12-14
dropped him back to three under-par. With all of
the players in the last three groups over par in their
final round, in just over an hour, a clear champion
had emerged, and Rainaud had sealed his first
Connecticut Open title.
After an opening round of 75 and an evenpar front nine to start his second round, Rainaud
played eleven under par in his final 27 holes, making
eleven birdies and no bogies. He shot a 31 on his
final nine in the second round for a blistering 66
www.csgalinks.org