Cole Thornton enjoys calm end to late duel for City Championship title

Cole Thornton tapped in a short putt on the final hole, a calm windup to a wild stretch battle for the title in the Midlands Chevy Dealers Columbia City Golf Championship on Saturday at the Country Club of Lexington.

Thornton’s par putt capped his final 67 for a three-round total of 9-under-par 207, one shot better than Jordan Sease, his former teammate at Lexington High, and two clear of Robert Dargan, the State Mid-Amateur champion.

“Cole played great and deserved to win,” said Dargan, who held the lead after each of the first two rounds. “I played with him the last two days, and once he started making putts ...”

Dargan, who closed with a 72, left the “making putts” thought dangling. After he said he “made everything” in a first-round 65, he struggled on the greens and required 35 putts in each of the final two days.

The trio, playing together in the final pairing, went to the 13^th tee tied at 8-under for the tournament. A dreadful lie in a fairway bunker on 13 and a three-putt on 17 cost Dargan. Sease, who shot 3-under 69 Saturday, paid the price for errant tee balls on the par-5 15^th and the par-3 17^th.

Meanwhile, Thornton made birdies on 13 and 15, the latter opening a two-shot cushion and providing the margin for error, a poor chip, that led to bogey on 17.

Other division winners included Nicholas Beiers (juniors), who finished fourth overall at 213; Rich Houghton (seniors), Bob Stringer (super seniors) and Burke Cromer (professional). The tournament committee presented the David Bennett Service to Golf award to Chris Miller and the South Carolina Junior Golf Association, and the Scott Hannon Memorial Sportsmanship Award to the family of Parks Hutto, a junior golf who passed away with heart disease in June.

Dargan took a two-stroke lead over Sease and a three-shot advantage over Thornton into the final round.

Three straight birdies (5-7) moved Thornton close, and he chipped in for birdie on No. 10, offsetting a bogey on 9.

“He made a really good putt on 8 to save par, too,” Dargan said.

“The putter got me going,” said Thornton, a former member at Lexington who took the lead for good with his birdie on 13. “I didn’t hit the ball that well, but I did make some putts.”

Dargan bogeyed the 13^th after his tee shot stopped against the lip of the fairway bunker.

“I didn’t know if I could even get the ball out,” he said.

Both he and Thornton birdied the par-5 15^th, but Sease made only par after driving into the trees and chipping out. That left Thornton with a two-shot lead with three to play.

Sease got a shot back by driving the green on the 319-yard, par-4 16^th and two-putting, and all three bogeyed the par-3 17^th.

“Left is dead on that hole, and that’s what I did,” said Sease, the 2012 City runner-up who played professionally briefly before regaining his amateur status and is working on his master’s degree at Clemson. “My par putt (from the fringe) ... I thought I had made it. That one hurt.”

Dargan’s tee shot on the 17^th hit the fringe and stopped well short of the pin.

“Another couple of feet and the ball rolls out,” he said. “That made a big difference.”

With a one-shot lead, Thornton played the par-5 18^th conservatively. Sease’s tee shot found the rough, and, he said, “I had a terrible lie. I can usually get on that green in two.”

Instead he pitched his third shot 25 feet short and his putt to tie slipped past the hole.

That left Thornton with two putts from 8 feet for the title, and he put a calm ending on an exciting finish.

This story was originally published July 18, 2015 at 9:52 PM with the headline "Cole Thornton enjoys calm end to late duel for City Championship title."