Historical Write-Ups 2000

"I really felt like it was given to me," Jeffery Bopp said after being handed the championship trophy of the 44th T-O Junior.

And Brandon Mullins would agree. The 18-year-old Grandbury golfer had a one-shot lead heading to the next-to-last hole of the tournament but hit his tee shot out of bounds to the left, made double bogey on 17 and gift-wrapped the title for Bopp.

"There's not much to say. I didn't come through when I was supposed to," Mullins said. "There was a lot of pressure on me at 17, and I hit it on the toe. I got tense and let up on it."

Par on the final two holes was good enough for the 17-year-old Katy golfer. Bopp and Mullins finished 1-2 in the tournament despite the fact that both shot five-over-par 76s on the final day. Twenty six of the 40 golfers who teed it up at Wichita Falls Country Club for the last round played better or as well as the top two.

Bopp finished the tournament at 2-under 284 to beat Mullins by one shot. The kid from Katy said he didn't think he had a chance to won after making double-bogey 7 on the par-5 10th hole. "Half of the time, I was playing so bad, I didn't know where I stood with the leaders," said Bopp, who also three-putted for bogey on the par-3 11th. "I really didn't feel like I was going to win it after 10 and certainly not after 11. I figured I would have to do something really spectacular to pull it off."

Two other golfers, Logan Richter of San Antonio and Casey Carnes of New Braunfels, finished two shots off the lead.

The race for the girls championship flight championship was equally as good. Brooke Tull of Georgetown, Jackie Ey of San Antonio and Mary Fernandez of Henderson, Nev., all put up a fight on the final day at WFCC, but Lisa Tyler of Lighthouse Point, Fla., answered every challenge. Tyler had three birdies on the back nine, at 10, 12, and 18, to shoot a one-under 71 on Friday and win by five strokes. Her four-day total was 291. Fernandez had 74 on the final day and finished at 296. Tull had 73 and Ey had 74 as both finished six shots behind the champion.