Steve Tanton Defeats Messinger in Playoff Victory in Waco

16 June 2007 - Waco, TX - Rain would again be a factor for the Texas Tour event. Heavy rain from Dallas to San Antonio was on the radar early Saturday morning. Fortunately, by the time players started showing up for practice the rain had stopped. While it threatened the rest of the day no more rain fell in Waco. While no rain fell the course would remain very wet most of the day only beginning to dry out during the last round of the event.

Lee Messinger would take the lead in the first round with an 8 under 28. The only other player in the field to break 30 in the first round would be Bryan Boyd with a 29. The rest of the field was at either 31 or 32. Bryan and Lee would swap scores cores in the second round resulting in a tie for the lead at 17 under 57. Steve Tanton moved closer to the lead with a second round 28 to sit two strokes behind at 59.

As the course started to dry out Steve Tanton would handle the adjustment the best. A four on the tricky 6th though, would almost cost him. Bryan had fallen off the pace early in the round with an 18 on the front nine but Lee held his game together until the last five holes. Steve, playing just in front of Lee, would make four of the last five to give himself outside shot of getting in a playoff. Lee just needed to be one under through that stretch to hold Steve off. Lee made the first hole in the stretch but was unable get another ace. Coming to the tricky 18th hole he was still in position to win with a par though. He was unable to get that done as his first putt ended up in a poor location and his tough deuce putt slipped just by the edge of the hole.

Steve would hold a slim lead through the first part of the match but Lee would push back on holes 9 through 14 to take a one stroke lead. A bad bogey by Lee on the 15th hole would give Steve the lead back which he held on to over the last three holes. Both Steve and Lee would earn state spots along with Jeffrey Smith and Gary Reed in match play

Article and scores provided by Adam Sahmel, Gary Reed and Lee Messinger..

Steve Willmann Survives for the Win in Waco, TX

16 June 2007 - Waco, TX - Rain would again be a factor for the Texas Tour event. Heavy rain from Dallas to San Antonio was on the radar early Saturday morning. Fortunately, by the time players started showing up for practice the rain had stopped. While it threatened the rest of the day no more rain fell in Waco. While no rain fell the course would remain very wet most of the day only beginning to dry out during the last round of the event.

In the amateur division the changing conditions would cause lots of fluctuations in the scoring throughout the tournament. Steve Willmann would start off strong with a 6 under 30, the lowest sore on the day, to hold a one stroke lead over Dwain Willett and John Berger. Steve looked like he was going to run away with the tournament in the second round starting off with a 6 under 12 on the front nine, the best front nine in both divisions, but a terrible back nine of 20 brought the rest of the field back into contention.

Going into the last round Steve would still hold a lead of one stroke over John Berger with Ken Stanfill and Dwain Willett three strokes back. Steve would struggle in the last round but none of the players in contention were able to take advantage as the drying conditions took their toll on most of the field. In the end Steve would shoot a 13 under 95 to win by two strokes over John Berger and Allen Thomas. Steve also received the first medal play spot. The other spots went to Dwain Willett and John Berger in match play. John had earlier lost to Allen Thomas in an 18 hole playoff for the other available medal spot.

Article and scores provided by Adam Sahmel, Gary Reed and Lee Messinger..