Final Round 21 Powers Wade Sahmel to Third Consecutive Win on Texas State Tour

21 May 2006 - Killeen, TX - The Texas Tour continued on Sunday in Killeen, TX on Course #2. After the tough non-traditional course on Saturday in Round Rock, players welcomed a chance to play at what many consider one of the easiest courses on the tour on Sunday.

Jeffrey Smith, shooting a first round 11 under 25, would hold a tenuous opening round lead in Killen with Lee Messinger sitting one stroke back and Wade Sahmel, Cliff Matthews and Al Simpson all tow strokes behind. Nobody was able to go really low in the second round but Sahmels nine-under 27 was good enough to pull even with Smith going into the last round. The only other players in position to win were Messinger and Matthews both sitting 2 strokes behind.

Last year it was Steve Tanton going nuts the last round a Killeen making the first 12 holes to put away the field. This year it would be Sahmel. He opened the round making eight of nine for a 10 on the front to open up a three stroke lead. Sahmel extended his lead by drilling the last six to fire final round 21 that blew away all the contenders and gave him a three round total of 33 under 75 and his third win in a row. The only other surprise was Mike Baldoza shooting a final round 25, which was good enough to pass Messinger, Smith, and Matthews for second place. The charge from Baldoza also gave him the last available World Spot on the Texas Tour and the medal play state spot. Additional spots went to Matthews and Joel Baker in match play competition.

Ken Stanfill Holds on to Win in Killeen

21 May 2006 - Killeen, TX - Tour Player of the Year front-runners Ken Stanfill, Trevor Lewin and Mike Huckaby fired matching 8 under par opening rounds to take the early lead. Dave Blalock trailed by a stroke at 29, with Lloyd Navarro, Jr. and tour rookie John Berger following two more strokes back at 31.

Second round action saw Huckaby take the lead at 58 despite back to back bogies at the end of the round. Blalock held consistent and closed the gap to only a stroke, and Lewin and Stanfill were two strokes off the lead at 60.

With the top four contenders within two strokes, the final round and the tournament victory was up for grabs. Huckaby was the first to falter, and with a bogey on Hole 8 and a ride on the deuce train for the next 10 holes was only able to post a final round 33 for a days total 91. After missing the first hole, Lewin ran together a string of 8 aces to post a front nine 10, but stumbled in the final stretch to post 7 under par for the round to clip Huckaby by two strokes. Blalock was 8 under par for the round coming into Hole 17, where he met total disaster, taking a 12 on the hole and dropping well back in the field. Stanfill kept his cool through the final round, and after a narrow loss in the playoff in Round Rock on Saturday, fired a final round 9 under par to end at 87 for his second win of the 2006 season.

Rookie John Berger, shooting in only the third tournament of his young career, took the low medal qualification spot for the Texas State Championship (Stanfill, Lewin and Huckaby were not contending). Additional qualification spots went to Mickey DeLucca and Alan Sahmel in match play.

Article and scores provided by Lee Messinger and Mike Huckaby.