SAVANNAH, GA (December 1, 2016) -- Doug Stiles closed the Senior Oglethorpe Invitational with a 1-under 70 to finish 3-under and as the one-stroke winner of the Senior Oglethorpe Invitational. Stiles completed play at Wilmington Island Club just in front of defending champion Chris Hall.
Hall, who won a four-man playoff last year, rebounded from a 1-over 72 round on Wednesday with a 3-under 68 before ultimately falling one-stroke out of a playoff.
Rusty Strawn (-1) began the day in second place but settled for third while Alan Hampton (+6), Bryan Hancock (+6) and Steve Reid (+6) shared fifth.
ROUND ONE RECAP
With one round in the books Doug Stiles is leading the Senior Oglethorpe Invitational by a pair of shots. Stiles opened with a 2-under 69 at Wilmington Island Club and he will lead even-par Rusty Strawn heading into play on Thursday.
Stiles, who shot sides of 35-34, has put together a solid 2016 campaign recording four top-20 AmateurGolf.com Senior Ranking finishes. His best finish came at the Jones Cup Senior were he ended up in a tie for 10th.
Strawn moved into second place with two completely different nines. On the opening side he shot a 3-under 32 while on the back it was a 3-over 39.
Defending champion Chris Hall (35-37--72) is in third place, Alan Hampton (34-39--73) is fourth while Bryan Hancock (37-37--74) and Frank Costanzo (36-38--74) are tied for fifth.
Doug Stiles wins Senior Oglethorpe in wire-to-wire fashion
Defending champion Chris Hall finished in second place at 2-under