LEAGUE CITY, TX (March 28, 2010)--When Randy Lance arrived in League City to play his practice round, he was greeted with winds gusting in excess of over 30 miles per hour and could only muster an 88 for 18 holes. He must have learned a lot from that round as the The Woodlands’ resident faced similar conditions on Sunday with a much different result. Lance managed to fight off the high winds to finish with a 4-over par 76 to take a two stroke victory over Katy’s David Pocknall at the South Mid-Amateur title at Magnolia Creek Golf Club. This was Lance’s second championship in regional play with his first being in 2006 at this same event when it was played at Woodforest Golf Club.
Given the conditions, Lance got off to a great start making three bogeys and two birdies on the front nine which gave him what would appear to be a comfortable five stroke lead at the turn over his next closest opponent, David Pocknall. But Pocknall was not about to go down without a fight as he proceeded to play the next seven holes at 1-under par where Lance could only play the same stretch of holes a 2-over par, cutting his lead to only one stroke with two holes to play (straight into the gusting head-winds). As both players made their way to the 165 yard par 3, 17th the winds seemed to gust even heavier.
Pocknall, seeing a chance to capture his third straight title was unable to hit the green leaving his tee shot well short and to the right of the green leaving him a very difficult chip shot over the greenside bunker with very little of green to work with. Lance was next to play, and with a 5-iron in hand, proceeded to hit a shot solid enough to cut through the wind landing it hole high just 15 feet from the hole. Pocknall was unable to get up and down from below the green making a bogey as Lance two putted for his par giving him a two shot lead going into the final hole. Both players were able to find the fairway off of the tee, however leaving them two different shots.
Lance took a 4 iron from the left side of the fairway and left his next shot short in the greenside bunker. Pocknall, knowing he would need a big shot to catch Lance, proceeded to hit driver off the deck which left him hole high just off of the green with a legitimate chance to make birdie which would force Lance to get up and down to avoid a playoff. Lance was able to use the wind as backstop and hit a beautiful bunker shot to within six feet of the hole. Pocknall was unable to convert his birdie chance as both players wound up tapping in for bogey giving Lance the two stroke victory.
Coming in third, tied for the low round of the day at 74 was Houston’s Bob Kearney with first round leader, Mike Booker finishing in fourth.
South Mid-Amateur Championship
Magnolia Creek GL - England-Scotland
Texas
Randy Lance, The Woodlands - 70-72-76--218
David Pocknall, Katy - 72-72-76--220
Bob Kearney, Houston - 76-73-74--223
Mike Booker, The Woodlands - 69-78-77--224
Adam Alford, Spring - 74-76-75--225
Pat Youngs, League City - 73-78-75--226
John Dowdall, Houston - 77-72-77--226
Jeff New, The Woodlands - 73-75-78--226
Scott Smith, Houston - 77-76-74--227
Craig Rumora, Houston - 72-73-82--227
Giles Kibbe, Beaumont - 73-79-77--229
Kyle Flodder, Katy - 73-80-76--229
Kip Guidry, Missouri City - 78-77-75--230
Chris Brauner, Austin - 71-82-77--230
Javier Delgadillo, Del Rio - 79-74-77--230
Jacob Bowen, New Braunfels - 77-75-78--230
Paul Meredith, Houston - 76-73-81--230
Harrison Cuevas, Houston - 76-74-81--231
Steven Smith, Sealy - 73-75-83--231
Gregory Nordstrom, Houston - 75-73-83--231
Jimmy Burke, Houston - 75-80-77--232
Ed Sanchez, San Antonio - 76-79-77--232
John Pierce, San Antonio - 81-77-75--233
Blanton Hansen, League City - 75-80-78--233
Trent Booher, Sugar Land - 79-76-78--233
Jared Vela, Pasadena - 74-77-82--233
Tom McGinn, Houston - 78-76-80--234
Charles Williams, Houston - 79-78-78--235
Dennis Cahill, Houston - 81-79-75--235
David Bean, Houston - 83-77-77--237
Jason Baker, New Braunfels - 74-80-83--237
Kelly Starnes, San Antonio - 79-74-84--237
Charlie Jabbia, Beaumont - 76-71-90--237
Stephen Wade, Cypress - 80-80-78--238
Curtis Fincher, League City - 78-80-81--239
Jed Shreve, Houtson - 80-77-82--239
Alan Fama, Houston - 79-78-82--239
Clay Garner, Houston - 76-79-84--239
Tim Thompson, Houston - 79-77-84--240
Ricky Babineaux, Pearland - 74-81-85--240
Tim John Sacheck, The Woodlands - 82-79-79--240
Thomas Cruickshank, Livingston - 80-79-83--242
Lou Pelz, Houston - 83-76-83--242
Richard LaPierre, San Antonio - 81-81-80--242
Eric Alam, Houston - 85-77-80--242
Paul Berman, Houston - 79-83-80--242
Andy Williams, College Station - 79-79-85--243
Tom Cochrane, Driftwood - 82-80-81--243
David Hoff, Houston - 79-83-82--244
Eric Cool, Houston - 84-74-87--245
Aldo Novi, The Woodlands - 86-76-83--245
Lamar Roemer, Houston - 81-79-86--246
David Wylie, Houston - 80-80-86--246
John Beatty, Montgomery - 78-84-84--246
Troy Cormier, Beaumont - 81-82-83--246
Jason Pool, Marble Falls - 80-78-89--247
Buzz Baker, Richmond - 80-79-88--247
Joe Stephenson, San Antonio - 74-85-89--248
Jonathan Shipley, Katy - 77-83-88--248
Roland Haemmerli, Humble - 83-82-83--248
Bill Wiley, Bryan - 79-84-86--249
Servando Gonzalez, Del Rio - 82-84-84--250
Jonathan Woods, The Woodlands - 86-86-81--253
Aaron Holton, Beaumont - 80-83-92--255
Justin Griffin, Houston - 80-90-85--255
Paul Fonte, League City - 81-90-84--255
Zac Day, San Antonio - 88-84-85--257
James Terry, Katy - 84-85-89--258
David Pyle, Houston - 83-86-89--258
Kent Watts, Pearland - 86-84-90--260
John David Alanis, Corpus Christi - 85-88-87--260
Jeffrey Brown, Austin - 88-85-89--262
Wayne Hollingsworth, Richmond - 87-88-87--262
Alfonso Campa, San Antonio - 89-88-86--263
Michael Hieber, Austin - 86-93-91--270
James Nebout, League City - 80-90-NC--NC
Rob Raymond, Kingwood - 78-92-WD--WD
Juan Salcedo, The Woodlands - 73-WD--WD
Trevor Hyde, Kerrville - 75-WD--WD
John Gleitman, San Antonio - 85-NS--NS
Vince Jabbia, Beaumont - NC
Clay Hightower, Houston - NS
Terrence Miskell, New Braunfels - WD
Dennis Bosworth, Bellaire - WD
Barry Edick, Houston - WD
David Leiss, Houston - WD
Titus Harris - WD