NIAGARA FALLS, N.Y. — Western New Yorkers are rightfully touchy —and territorial — about their sports heroes.
Until recently, the NFL’s Bills had largely been synonymous with Super Bowl losses. The local NHL hockey team, the Sabres, have been the league’s doormat for a decade.
So when someone breaks through and captures glory, the outpouring can be overwhelming.
Ben Reichert now grasps this.
The University of Alabama-Birmingham senior, who hails from nearby Williamsville, New York, ended a 56-year drought for local players at the storied Porter Cup. He stayed out of trouble — sometimes miraculously — on the back nine at Niagara Falls Country Club to hold off mid-am star and NHL referee Garrett Rank as well as Ethan Ng by two strokes to capture the victory.
Hundreds of friends and family members lined the tight 18th hole, a par 3 surrounded by numerous bunkers, and while Reichert was up two at the time, he thought his lead was just one.
Understandably, he was jittery. He caught an incredible stroke of luck on the 17th hole when he pushed his drive right but it caromed off a tree into the middle of the fairway. Now, with blood pumping through his veins, Reichert decided to play it safe on the final hole, opting for a club he thought would leave him short or just on the front of the green.
Instead, he caught it flush and the ball sailed over, hurtling toward a road that sits behind the wide, but shallow green and out of bounds.
“I’m not sure what happened,” Reichert said. “I think it hit a cameraman or something. All I know is I got the safe sign.”
Reichert made par and finished with a solid 68 for the day, putting him at 11 under for the four-day event, and giving a local player the title for the first time since Ward Wettlaufer of nearby Country Club of Buffalo took top honors in 1965.
Interestingly enough, the last time a local player took the lead into the final round was 11 years ago, when Jake Katz — who graduated from the same high school as Reichert — was in front.
Reichert remembers. He was there.
“It was the coolest thing in the world to go through this after following Jake,” he said. “I was like 10 or 12 and I just remember the whole town of Buffalo came out to watch. I always thought it would be cool to do the same thing, and then win it. I couldn’t have dreamt it any better than this.”
Heading into this week, Reichert believed he had no chance to win the event, which has previously hosted amateurs like Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson, Justin Thomas, Adam Scott, Rickie Fowler, Davis Love III, David Duval, Tom Lehman, Hal Sutton, Justin Leonard and Ben Crenshaw.
“There were some really, really dark times,” he said. “My whole college season was really tough, I was battling mental demons and just didn’t think there was any coming back from this,” he said.
“I had the lowest possible expectations. I honestly was just trying to not finish last. I didn’t want to finish last and embarrass myself in front of my friends and family. And then this happens.”
