Daniel Northington Wins Men’s City With -12 Over 72 Holes

At the beginning of the final round the leaderboard looked like it would be a two man race between Daniel Northington and Peach Reynolds. But golf is a dynamic game and the leaderboard changed throughout the final round like the colors on a lava lamp.

Justin Williams and Brian Noonan were making strong bids to move into contention.  Williams, who started the day at -4, shot 30 on the front nine to get to 10 under par and Noonan, the defending champion, shot 32 to get to -8.  They were several groups ahead of Northington and Reynolds.  After Northington posted 35 on the front nine to get to -11, things were getting tight. Keep in mind that Noonan came from behind to win the 2012 championship and he was thinking that another good nine holes might provide similar results in 2013.

Then Northington stepped on the gas an made birdies at 11, 12, and 13 to open up what appeared to be a commanding lead at -14.  To get to that position, he birdied the par five 11th, hit an iron shot to 18 inches on the par three 12th and consumated his run by driving the green on the short par four 13th and two putting for birdie. After making a par three on the 14th, he faced four holes with a comfortable lead.  But, what a minute. Not so fast.  After hitting the green in regulation on 15 he four putted for double bogey.  That made it more interesting for his last three holes.  Sometimes protecting a lead is a hard thing to do.

Noonan continued his progress and managed one under par on the back nine to shoot 67 and get into the clubhouse at -9 after a birdie on 17.  He captured the low mid-am honors and is shown her on the right accepting that honor from Beth Cleckler, Director of Golf at Morris Williams.

That left Northington with a three shot lead with three holes to play. 

On 16, blessed with the strength and confidence of youth, he drove over the trees on the left leaving only a shot iron to the green.  He was clear of the difficulty on the left even though his line off the tee was left of his playing partners who were troubled with the left trees..  Northington played his second shot onto the green and two putted for par.

Then on 17 tee, he hit his tee shot to left to the bottom of the hill, avoiding disaster that lurked on the right side rough. From this position he was able to play a second shot up the hill to the right of the green.  Here is the swing sequence that produced the slightly left and long tee shot. Click on it to enlarge the frames then use the back button to return to the story.

After playing his second shot about about halfway up the green but to the right,  fe was faced with a shot over the bunker.  Considering his position on the leaderboard, he played a conservative flop shot past the pin to put him in position to two putt for par, which he did.

Then on 18 after a massive tee shot into the fairway Northington played an 86 yard shot short of the pin and two putted for par.    He is shown her celebrating with his caddy, Mr. Rosson, whom he credited with keeping him cool under pressure and helping him with reading the greens.

In what has to be considered one of the more impressive performances of the championship, Peach Reynolds shot 11 under par for three rounds, including a 66 at Morris Williams in the first round, a 69 at Lions and a 68 at Roy Kizer.  The 68 was the low round of the day at Kizer.  However.  the good putting he displayed during that stretch left him on the front nine and he finished at -3 for the tournament to capture the low senior category by several shots.  He finished 8th overall.  Not bad considering those who beat him were all younger than his children.  Congratulations to Peach Reynolds.

Austin Almond won the low Junior honors and finished at one over par for the tournament.  He is below accepting the award from Beth Cleckler. 

One of the great things about Austin area golf is the strength of it's junior golf programs.  Mid-Amateur players and senior players where heard to comment during the course of the competition something along the lines of "who is that guy?"  This applied to Austin Almond and 15 year old Trevor Brown. Almond was -4 headed into the final round and Brown was at five under par after two rounds. Austinites are spoiled by the strength of junior programs in the area and do not realize that it is not that way in all places. 

As a comment on the strength of Austin's Junior programs, Mike Allen and Paul Moore played together during the first two rounds.  Moore, who won the Spring Mid-Amateur Championship and Allen had something in common.  They both shared a background relating to Beaumont Texas.  Allen played college golf there and Moore is from that area, where he learned to play golf.  Moore commented on the state of the golfing environment in Beaumont and said it is in decline, partly because they have stopped supporting the junior programs in that area.  So, hats off to those of you who continue to develop the youth of the game in Austin. It's a good thing for many reasons.

Oh, and by the way, we have a new competitive course record at Morris Williams.  Tyler Elbrecht, a recent graduate from Anderson High School who is a sophomore at  the University of Lousiana at Monroe, waltzed around MoWille in 63 strokes.  Say what?  That's right, I'm talking about nine under par, smoking hot 63.  To all those who might have struggled with the pin positions think about a 63 and 67 being posted.  Congratulations to Tyler Elbrecht and good luck in the future.  Elbrecht finished 8th overall. 

Finally, thanks to all the city staff who made the championship run so smoothly.  The courses were in good condition, the pace of play was excellent, the courses were set up fairly and we were blessed with good weather in spite of the heat.