Asheville golfer Pat Thompson ends dry spell with Senior Am win at Dataw

Though Pat Thompson has been one of the nation's top senior amateurs for some time now, his portfolio included a perplexing void when it came to winning a state or regional crown.

Tuesday finally brought that dry spell to an end, with a little assist from a well-placed tree branch.

Thompson captured the 54th Carolinas Senior Amateur at Dataw Island Golf Club, using a fortuitous carom at No. 14 to preserve a bogey-free back nine and pull away for a two-shot victory over hard-charging Rick Cloninger.

"I've won other tournaments, but this is probably the biggest win I've had," said Thompson, of Asheville, N.C., whose previous high point came in winning the North-South Amateur two years ago.

Thompson closed with a 2-under-par 70 on Tuesday, standing as the only entrant to break par all three days at Dataw Island's Cotton Dike course. Playing in the day's next-to-last group, he finally wrested control in a three-hole stretch in which he salvaged par at No. 14 and birdied No. 16 while rivals Russ Perry and James Pearson encountered trouble.

"The golf gods were with me," said Thompson, who finished three days at 5-under 211.

Tied for the lead when he got to No. 14, Thompson watched his drive flirt with sailing out of bounds -- only to glance off a branch and drop into the rough.

Still not out of danger, he punched a 5-wood that rolled up onto the green and two-putted from about 60 feet to save par.

"That was probably the biggest hole of the tournament," Thompson said. "That could have been a double (bogey), and all of a sudden I'm in a heap of trouble."

Cloninger scorched the Cotton Dike with a 66 that turned out to be four shots better than anyone else recorded on Tuesday. However, an eight-shot deficit to begin the day proved just too much to overcome. The Fort Mill golfer had to settle for his second consecutive runner-up finish, following back-to-back wins in 2012-13.

"A lot of things came together," Cloninger said. "I went out today and said if I could shoot 65, that would be close. I just didn't make a couple of putts."

Pearson (Charlotte) and Perry (Winston-Salem, N.C.) both held at least a share of the lead along the back nine but fell off the pace almost simultaneously. While Perry double-bogeyed from a greenside bunker at No. 15, Pearson's tee shot at the par-3 16th plugged in the bank of a pond.

"Indecision in this game will kill you every time," said Perry, saying he should have stuck with his original plan at No. 15 and not attempted a high approach from the rough.

"I was going to hit a little low punch, let it run up onto the green and run down to the hole," he said. "That was the shot, and I screwed that up. And it cost me big time."

Pearson (71) and Perry (75) wound up tied for third, four shots behind behind the winner alongside Charlotte's Gary Brown (70) and Walter Todd (71) of Laurens.

It's been a strong year for Thompson, who won the Lowcountry Senior Invitational in the spring and qualified for the U.S. Senior Open in Sacramento, Calif. He came to Dataw Island off a runner-up finish at the Canadian Senior Amateur, lifting him to 18th in Golfweek's senior amateur rankings.

Next up: the USGA Senior Amateur next week in Egg Harbor, N.J.

"No question I'm going there with a lot of confidence," Thompson said. "I feel like I'm playing (as good as) everybody. And to be honest with you, this (Carolinas) group is so good, if you can beat these guys, you can play with anybody."

Cloninger also has a return engagement at the USGA Senior Amateur, where he reached last year's match-play semifinals before succumbing to eventual champion Patrick Tallent.

Follow reporter Jeff Shain on Twitter at twitter.com/jeffshain.

This story was originally published September 15, 2015 at 9:25 PM with the headline "Asheville golfer Pat Thompson ends dry spell with Senior Am win at Dataw ."