By Stan Caldwell
stanmansportsfan.com
In the end, Mother Nature proved the best player at the Magnolia Amateur golf tournament.
Heavy rain associated with Tropical Storm Barry forced tournament officials to cancel the tournament’s final round of play Sunday at Hattiesburg Country Club.
As a result, Texas Tech’s Andy Lopez, the leader after both the first and second rounds, was declared the champion, with a four-stroke victory over Trey Tobias of North Carolina-Charlotte.
Lopez, from Plano, Texas, finished with a 36-hole total of 9-under-par 133 after rounds of 66 on Friday and 67 Saturday.
“I tried not to think about the fact that it might be cut to 36 holes,” said Lopez of his approach to Saturday’s second round. “I just tried to go out and play my game, knowing there could be 18 holes the next day, and play as well as I could on Saturday.
“I feel good. I’m on a little hot streak right now. I played a (Southern Miss) qualifier last week and qualified, so I wanted to keep the good play going.”
After the bad weather held off through the first two days of the tournament, heavy rain began in the pre-dawn hours Sunday morning and persisted until the mid-morning decision to cancel the round and send everyone home.
HCC professional Carter Callaway said the course simply took on too much water to be easily prepared for play, and that was assuming the rain stopped, which it never did.
“We delayed the start time two hours,” said Callaway. “Basically, with the amount of rain we had, it would have taken us another two hours of dry weather to get the course playable, but it continues to rain, and the forecast calls for more rain later on.
“I hate it, but there comes a point where you just have to give up.”
Everyone involved with the tournament knew before the first ball was struck on Friday that Barry was looming, and the threat of bad weather hung over both rounds.
“I was scared we weren’t even going to finish 18 holes,” said Callaway. “So, to get 36 holes in with no delays is a win for us. It’s an official tournament after 36 holes, so I’m excited about that.”
Lopez wasn’t the only player who carried off a trophy. Jonathan Bale, a 31-year-old Welshman based out of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, tied with Southern Miss men’s golf coach Eddie Brescher as champion in the Mid-Amateur Division with a score of 4-under 138.
The University of Houston won the College Team Competition at 4-under par 280, as fifth-place finisher Logan Young (3-under 139) and Andrew Gibson (1-under 141) combined for the low pair from the same team. Ole Miss and Arkansas tied for second at 1-under 283.
“It was unfortunate that we didn’t get to play the final round,” said tournament director Justin Cockrell. “But I’m not discouraged. We had a great field, despite the threat from the weather, and everyone saw some great golf. We’re already looking forward to next year.”
