Joe Deraney avenged a playoff loss a year ago in the John T. Lupton Memorial, emerging victorious after a back-nine shootout Sunday at the Honors Course in Ooltewah, Tennessee.
Playing in the third-to-last group and five off the pace set by Chris Wheeler after 36 holes, Deraney eagled the 17th hole – his fifth under-par score on his last 10 holes – and posted a 5-under-par 67 with other challengers still on the course.
Foremost among them, Tucker Jenkins birdied four of the last five holes in a late dash to join Deraney at 5-under 211 and force a playoff. Deraney, of Belden, Mississippi, won the title, his third at the Lupton, with a par on the first playoff hole.
Deraney also won the Lupton in 2016 and 2021. He lost to Hayes Brown last year in a playoff.
Mitchell Ford played steady golf all week with three under-par scores for a 4-under 212 and third place.
Wheeler posted only five pars in a rollercoaster final round, signing for a 3-over 75, which landed him in a tie for fourth with reinstated amateur Steven Fox, the 2012 U.S. Amateur champion.
Mike Combs of Roswell, Georgia, fired a 4-under 68 to come from behind and capture the Senior Division at 2-under 214, clipping second-round leader Dan Sullivan by a shot.
Combs’ final round surge came after back-to-back 1-over scores in the first two rounds. At 146 through 36 holes, Combs stood four strokes behind Sullivan. Combs’ final round included an early bogey on the third hole, followed by five scattered birdies.
Sullivan and Doug Hanzel were in position to win before late stumbles. Sullivan made bogeys on Nos. 15 and 17, and Hanzel, a three-time winner at the Honors Course, bogeyed Nos. 15 and 16 for a share of third place with Jack Hall, Jack Larkin and Mike McCoy.
For Gene Elliott, the finish was even worse. At 3-under through 15 holes and holding a one-shot lead, the former U.S. Senior Amateur champion made bogey at the 17th and then tripled the 18th. Those four dropped shots left him in seventh place.
The Lupton drew possibly its strongest senior field because the Pete Dye-designed Honors Course will host the U.S. Senior Amateur in late August. Thirteen of the 48 players in the field already were exempt for the USGA championship.
RESULTS
Jim Nugent