By MARK CARTNER 

The 42nd edition of the North Carolina Amateur Championship played out with a decidedly local flavor at Forsyth Country Club in Winston-Salem June 13-16.

Walnut Cove’s Derek Brown won the 72-hole tournament in methodical fashion, shooting a 2-under par 69 in the final round and posting an 11-under total of 273 on the 6,519-yard, par-71 course. Two more locals, Chad Wilfong of Thomasville and Jason Harris of Clemmons, tied for second at 8-under 276.

Brown’s 273 total was just one stroke higher than the 72-hole record in the N.C. Amateur.

“This is my biggest win,” said the 20-year-old Brown, who in two years on the UNC-Wilmington golf team has won two collegiate tournaments.

Wilfong, a rising senior on the Wake Forest golf team and the 2001 N.C. Amateur champ, defended his title admirably. He shared the 54-hole lead with Brown at 9-under par, but simply couldn’t match Brown’s nearly flawless play over the final 18 holes.

Harris, who just completed his sophomore season at East Carolina, started the final round four shots behind the leaders and made a late charge with birdies on four of the final five holes to shoot a 69 and join Wilfong in second place.

The first place trophy however, seemed destined to wind up in the hands of Brown, who displayed more consistency than anyone else did throughout the four-day event.

Brown finished the championship as the only player to break par in all four rounds on the beguiling, Donald Ross-designed layout that was softened by rain the first two days and sun-splashed and wind-swept during the final two. 

He did it with scores of 67, 67, 70 and 69 – and a closer look reveals how complete Brown’s game was. For the week, he was four-under par on the par-3s, three-under on the par-4s, and four-under on the par-5s. Only once, the front nine in the third round, did Brown shoot a side over par, and that occurred when he bogeyed the ninth hole to go out at 1-over par.

Brown was particularly impressive holding on to the lead during the final 13 holes where he said his strategy was simply to hit fairways and greens and let the birdies come naturally.

Brown grabbed the lead for good on the par-5 fifth hole when he birdied and Wilfong parred, and on the next hole, Brown displayed his toughness by sinking an 18-foot putt to save par.

When Brown placed his 7-iron approach to 15 feet on the par-4 ninth and sank the putt, he held a two-stroke lead over a struggling Wilfong.

“I couldn’t get it close enough to have any good looks at birdie and my speed on the greens was terrible,” said Wilfong of the putting woes that contributed to his final round 73.  “They had to tuck the pins because that’s the only defense this course has and with the winds picking up on the weekend it was very tough.”

The critical moment of the final round occurred on the par-4, 12th, a hole that Brown labeled the turning point of the back nine.  With Brown staked to a two-stroke lead, Wilfong hit what he thought was a perfect wedge approach.  The ball landed only eight feet past the cup, but bounded well beyond, leaving him with a slippery, downhill 40-footer.  Brown, whose tee shot had come to rest in a pitch mark in the fairway, hit his approach fat and dumped his ball short of a bunker, short of the green.

From there, Brown got up and down for par, while Wilfong three-putted for bogey.

“My second putt hit a spike mark, but I still thought it had the right speed to go in,” said Wilfong. “He picked up a shot when at worst we should have left that hole with the same score.”

The two matched scores on Nos. 13 and 14 and then on the par 5, 15th (the only par-5 on the back side) Brown all but shut the door on Wilfong.  “I had a three shot lead going into 15,”  Brown said, “and I told myself if I could birdie and then par in, I had a pretty good chance.”

Both players went at the green in two with mid-iron approaches. Wilfong found right side of the green, 50 feet away from the cup on the left.  Brown, however dumped his ball in the front left bunker with only a few yards and a downslope between his ball and the pin.

Undaunted, Brown deftly plopped his golf ball onto the green where it quickly stopped three feet from the hole.  “I really wasn’t worried about it,” Brown said.  “I had a good lie in the bunker and figured it would stop pretty quick.”

Brown tapped in for birdie and when Wilfong two-putted for the same score, the outcome was all but sealed – although for good measure Brown hit his approach to final hole to within four feet and birdied to extend his winning margin to four.

Despite Brown’s stellar play, the shot of the tournament undoubtedly went to Winston-Salem’s Chris Logan. Logan, who finished runner-up in the 2001 N.C. Amateur and led this year’s event through 36 holes, aced the par-3 14th in the final round with an 8-iron from 165 yards.