Stephen Ames celebrated his 60th birthday by posting a four-shot victory at the Mitsubishi Electric Classic for the second year running on Sunday in Duluth, Ga.
A pair of eagles helped the Canadian shoot 5-under 67 in Sunday’s final round. That, coupled with a course-record-tying 64 Saturday, let Ames cruise to a 14-under 202 for the week, four better than Doug Barron (69 Sunday) and England’s Paul Broadhurst (72).
“Yeah, two reasons to celebrate tonight,” Ames said.
Ames opened his round with a birdie before coming to the par-5 sixth hole, where his third shot from the fairway skipped past the hole, then backspun straight into the cup.
His round was quiet until the par-4 13th. Ames’ drive got some great roll onto the green and he watched his ball skate past the cup, narrowly missing a rare hole-in-one at a par-4. He could be heard exclaiming, “Can’t believe I missed that!” before he methodically made a mid-length eagle putt.
“(The sixth hole) was just perfectly up for a number and I hit the shot that I needed to hit,” Ames said. “I mean, going in the hole was obviously a bit of luck, which eventually was a lot of luck that got involved there. The one on 13 was a good drive, I got it all the way to the back end there and then I had a straight uphill putt.”
Broadhurst opened the day with a one-shot advantage over Ames and mixed three birdies with two bogeys on his front nine. But after another birdie at No. 10, a double bogey at the par-4 12th knocked him back to 10 under for the tournament and swung the door open for Ames, who finished with two bogeys and two birdies over his last five holes.
Ames also won the tournament in 2017. Sunday marked his eighth PGA Tour Champions title.
“You’ve got to shape your ball into the greens, you’ve got to hit your drives properly,” Ames said. “And the conditions every year when we come back here, they’re always in great condition, so it’s nice, unlike when we played in the past on the PGA Tour, it was cold and windy and I was like, I don’t think I’m going to come back here anymore. This time of the year it’s beautiful.”
K.J. Choi of South Korea shot a final-round 70 and Steven Alker of New Zealand had a 71 to tie for fourth at 9 under.
–Field Level Media