Mark Mance, who plays out of the Olympic Club in San Francisco, and Don Dubois of Newport Beach captured the 42nd Trans-Mississippi Junior-Senior Championship by one stroke over Brian Lovett of St. Louis and Mike McCoy of Norwalk, Iowa, on the Canyon Course at Ventana Canyon Gol Course in at Loews Ventana Canyon Resort in Tucson, Ariz.
Mance, of Whitefish, Mont., and Dubois (pictured) posted a score of 72-68-65—205, 11-under-par, while Lovett and McCoy finished at 69-67-70—206.
“My partner played spectacular,” Mance told Amateurgolf.com. “He shot 67 on his own ball (in the final round). I was there to drive the cart and make a few pars here and there. To be perfectly honest with you, he played great.
“Third day, we kept talking. You start making some putts and you’re going to shoot low. He made a bunch of putts, but he played great. He didn’t really miss a shot until 11, drove it left out of play and I made a par.”
DuBois made birdies on the 10th and 16th holes to give them the lead before Mance clanked his 30-foot birdie putt off the flagstick on the last hole.
However, Mance nailed the seven-foot comebacker to nail down the victory.
“I usually pull the flag out, but for some reason I kept it in,” Mance said. “If the flag had been out, it might’ve gone in.”
John Jaramillo of Fair Oaks and Mark Engellener of Rocklin shot 73-69-66—208 to tie for third with Trip Kuehne and Mike Lohner of Southlake, Texas, who finished at 70-70-68—208, and Vince van Brunt and Greg Greenbaum of Atlanta, who wound up at 67-70-71—208.
Hunter Nelson of Houston and Tim Arnault of Roswell, Ga., were sixth at 72-69-70—211, while Don Gafner of Sunnyvale, Texas, and Kyle Hudelson of Edmond, Okla., totaled 72-70-71—213 to tie for seventh with Ryan O’Rear and Jay Pumphrey of Georgetown, Texas, who finished at 70-70-73—213.
Ralph Ellis and Zack Norrell of Amarillo, Texas, were ninth at 75-72-68—215, while defending champions Chad Spencer and Jimmy Burke of Houston shot 77-71-68—216 to tie for 10th with Keith Kinsel of La Canada and Greg Lumsden of Scottsdale, Ariz., who came in at 72-69-75—216.
For complete results, visit https://www.golfgenius.com/pages/7911423797641623151
