Mansfield golfer wins at Escondido

From staff reports

Lewis Stephenson from Mansfield rolled in a 15-foot birdie on the final hole Sunday afternoon to win the 2016 Texas Senior Amateur Championship by two shots over John Pierce from San Antonio. Stephenson was rock solid in the final round with a 2-under-par 69 and posted 4-under 209 for the 54-hole championship at the Escondido Golf & Lake Club. It was his first statewide TGA Championship.

“I literally cannot believe it,” an emotional Stephenson said moments after the victory. A late arrival to tournament golf, the 56-year-old dentist played baseball in college. He started playing competitive golf in his late 30s. “I’ve just worked so hard over time. I know all the guys I’m playing with every time I go out, and I respect and appreciate them. People ask me how you play tournament golf, and I say, ‘You go out and get your brains beat out for about 10 years.’ But I was too stubborn to quit. I can’t believe it all came together.”

It was Stephenson applying the beatings this time around. He grabbed the 36-hole lead after an impressive 2-under 69 in the second round, part of which was played in a quick-arriving storm that brought rain and 25-30 mph wind gusts. He played even-par golf during the squall, while most of the field took their lumps in the form of bogeys and double-bogeys. Stephenson, who finished fifth in the 2015 Texas Senior Amateur, said his resiliency in Saturday’s tough weather conditions was a key to his victory.

“It was such an odd thing,” he said of the storm. “Whenever you come out of it, you think, ‘That could’ve been really bad.’ I just hung in there. That’s what golf is: you can’t complain. The elements are part of it.”