“I played the front nine pretty strong; 1-under was a very good start. I liked my chances heading into the back,” he added.

On the other hand, Helminen would suffer back to back bogeys on the 2nd and 3rd to dig himself a deeper hole. He would match Schmitz’s birdie on the par-5 5th but made the turn five shots back of Schmitz; never becoming a serious threat again.

Jeff Sorenson of The Minikahda Club briefly made it interesting posting a 2-under on the front nine to make the turn at 4-under for the tournament—four shots back of the lead.

Sorenson’s window of opportunity quickly closed as he bogeyed the par-4 11th and doubled both the 12th and 15th.

He and Helminen finished in a three-way tie for seventh with Brent Snyder of Troy Burne.

With Helminen and Sorenson out of the picture, Schmitz was in cruise control and playing conservative the rest of the way. He provided what was the proverbial dagger with a 10-foot birdie on the par-5 13th.

Schmitz would finish the back nine even-par after a bogey on the par-5 17th.

He will be the first one to tell you that he loves playing this course. Schmitz won the 2011 Mid-Amateur at Dellwood CC and Tanner’s Brook GC.

“It takes driver out of a lot of people’s hands and it kind of evens the field. It’s a ball-striker’s course and you’re not going to have 350-yard bombs with driver; I think I averaged three or four [tee] shots with the driver per round.”

He admitted that this victory meant a lot as a victory in the Golf Champions had eluded him in the past.

“Yeah this is a big one for me. I’ve played in it numerous times and placed second a few times. It’s great to play this well this early in the season. Things are good,” Schmitz said smiling.

Schmitz’s win marks the first time in 12 years that an amateur has won the Golf Champions since Clayton Rask did it in 2005.