He made one in the opening round, one in the second, and two in the final round for four over the 54 holes of the championship. He offset those with five birdies - two in each of his first two rounds and one early in the round on Thursday.

“I made a ton of pars. I felt like I was 7-, 8- or 9-under,” he said. “I felt like I really did so much better, but the score didn’t reflect how well I thought I did. I think everybody was in that boat.” Larkin said the prevailing wind which blew in the same direction in the first and third rounds but was totally opposite in the middle round, challenged the players and made for very few sub-par rounds each day.

“In my group today, between three guys playing 18 holes, we made one birdie,” he noted. “I birdied the second hole, and that was the only birdie any of us made all day. We were having a hard time getting them in.”

Larkin tied for sixth last year in the Jones Cup Senior as he shot a 3-over total over the three rounds. His top-10 finish in this event, which typically produces one of the strongest fields in senior amateur golf, was part of a solid year for Larkin, who also finished in solo second place at the Lupton Senior and Chanticleer National Senior last year. He also made the match play portion of the U.S. Senior Amateur. This win moves Larkin up to No. 14 in the AmateurGolf.com Senior Rankings.

He said the Chanticleer, coming up later this month in Greenville, S.C., will be his next tournament. This year at the Jones Cup, Larkin was one of six players tied for the lead after the first round as the leaders shot 69 on the opening day. Larkin became the lone leader after round two with his second straight 69 score, which gave him a one-shot cushion going into the closing 18 holes.

Chris Hall, of Acworth, Ga., was second at 1-under, while Jack Hall, a former Jones Cup Senior winner, was two-back at level par.

Jack Larkin Sr.

Jack Hall, currently ranked No. 6 in the AmateurGolf.com Senior Rankings, ended up third at 2-over following his final-round 72. He also tied for sixth last year. Chris Hall, another two-time Georgia Senior Amateur champion, settled for a 76 on Thursday and wound up tied for eighth at 5-over. Larkin said his short game was the key to his victory on the Seaside Course, which features tight run-off areas around the undulating greens.

“My pitching and chipping completely saved me,” he noted. “I missed a bunch of greens, and a bunch were not in the best places to miss them. I really had great touch around the greens and was able to see the shot and let it roll out. I made a bunch of 4-, 5- and 6-footers for par this week.”

Larkin had one last pitch-shot to make on No. 18 hole where he boomed a drive down the fairway but it came to rest on a down-slope which left him a tough approach into the uphill green. He hit a low line-drive shot which landed just over the edge of a fairway bunker and rolled toward the green before coming to rest in light rough off the right side of the green.

He pitched his third shot just past the hole, but left himself with a rather routine two-putt for the bogey he needed to seal the win.

“That was the worst pitch I think I had,” Larkin noted. “It worked out fine, but wasn’t really what I was looking for.”

Larkin held just a one-shot lead late in the round, but he went to No. 18 with a two-stroke advantage over McConnell who finished with a bogey at the last while playing two groups ahead of the Larkin who was in the final pairing.

McConnell, ranked fifth after his runner-up finish, made a bid for the win in the final round after starting the day five shots out of the lead. He made five birdies and a bogey over his first nine holes in the last round, but couldn’t keep the momentum going as he made one birdie on his inward nine before the bogey at the last.

The tournament featured nine of the top-10 players in the senior rankings. Last year’s champion Bob Royak finished T5 this year at 4-over.

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