M.J. Maguire rallies to win Southern Amateur

OOLTEWAH, Tenn. (July 19, 2014) – Playing steady in wet, windy conditions Saturday at the difficult Honors Course, St. Pete’s M.J. Maguire won the 108th Southern Amateur. He captured the prestigious title by avoiding the various disasters that befell other players when they were atop the finat round leaderboard.

Maguire, a sports management senior at the University of North Florida, closed with a 1-under-par 71 for a 284 total that was three shots clear of the star-studded and star-crossed field. “This is by far the biggest win of my amateur career,” said Maguire, who began playing conservative when so many others were flaming out.

Overnight leader Beau Hossler, the Texas Longhorn star from California, triple bogeyed the first hole, then suffered a quadruple bogey seven on the third hole. His mangled scorecard added up to an unthinkable 46 on the front nine.

After a practice round early in the week, Hossler tweeted his followers thusly: “The Honors Course is HARD!!” Indeed.

Virginia Tech senior Trevor Cone inherited the top spot only to go bogey-bogey-double bogey midway through the back nine. That left Aussie Geoff Drakeford in front, but he suffered the biggest disaster of all when he hit two balls in the hazard on the 16th hole where a 2-shot penalty on his caddy was tacked on for a quintuple bogey eight, allowing Maguire to cruise home to the victory.

As champion, Maguire earns an invitation to play in the PGA Tour Arnold Palmer Invitational next spring in Orlando. “I’ll be there,” he said emphatically.