For the second year in a row, the Sonoran Amateur at Starr Pass Golf Club in Tucson, Ariz., needed a playoff to determine a winner.
Jimmy Dales won in a playoff in 2024, and this year it was Winston Wang of Coto de Caza, Calif., that survived and secured the win with a par on the first playoff hole, No. 18.
Wang shot a final-round 2-under 70 to finish at 9-under to force a playoff with Canada’s Maxim Mckenzie of Canada.
Both players birdied No. 18 in regulation to move the final total to 9-under. Mckenzie hit his approach to a tap-in, and Wang had to convert a 7-foot birdie to force the playoff.
Both players were just past the green in the playoff. Wang had a tap-in par, but Mckenzie missed a short putt that would have forced a second hole. Wang and Mckenzie ended up being four shots clear of Ajay Morris of Avondale, Ariz., who shot a final round 2-under 70 to finish at 5-under.
Second-round leader Adam Miller of Phoenix, Ariz., shot a final round 4-over 76 to finish in a five-way tie for fourth place.
Weather was ideal all week for the golfers, as cool desert mornings quickly released into warm and perfect days at Starr Pass, located in the middle of the Sonoran Desert.
Starr Pass, the long-time home of the Tucson Open, is most famous as the site for Phil Mickelson’s first PGA Tour victory in 1991 when he was a junior at Arizona State. The golf course is well on its way to restoring its former luster as a top tournament site in the US Southwest.
The Troon Saguaro Amateur Series, founded in 2017, is a world-ranked amateur tournament series that will host ten tournaments in the 2024-25 season. This is the fourth year of the Sonoran Amateur, the first of which has been held at Starr Pass Golf Club in Tucson.
The Sonoran Amateur is the penultimate event in the 2024-25 Series year.
The Sonoran Amateur contributed to this report