Lee Messinger Ends Two Year Drought

7 August 2005 - Arlington (Division), TX - The Texas Putting Tour continued its Arlington, Texas weekend at the Division number two course. The first round saw Lee Messinger and Mike Baldoza both shoot 7 under 29s to take the opening round lead by one stroke over Joel Baker and Mike Chisum. The second round proved the toughest round of the day as no player was able to break thirty. Lee Messinger managed the only 30 in the round and took a two stroke lead over Mike and Joel going to the last round. A great last round of 10 under 26, the best round on the day by three strokes, gave Lee a six stroke win with Joel Baker finishing in second. State spots went to Mike Baldoza, Mike Chisum and Kenny Beck.

After two rounds in the amateur division it looked like a two man battle between Donald Halpain and Dave Blalock. Dave held a one stroke lead over Donald at 11 under 61 and no other player was within four strokes of Dave. A last round collapse by both Dave and Donald opened the door for another player to take the win. Both David Chisum and Steve Willmann played well enough in the last round to overtake the leaders but David had started the last round to far back and it was Steve who caught the two leaders. The win was Steves third in a row and moved him into commanding lead in the player of year competition. Donald Halpain took the automatic state spot and additional spots went to Bertz Ferguson and Rob Martin in match play competition.

Scores and Article provided by Lee Messinger and Wade Sahmel.