By Bob Sutton
Special to The Alamance News
Scott Tarcy liked playing in the Alamance County Amateur so much that he returned for a second go-around.
He won the three-day golf tournament, needing a playoff hole to top Wade Boteler of Burlington on Sunday at Mill Creek Golf Club in Mebane.
It marked the most significant victory for Tarcy, a 38-year-old Charlotte man.
“I’ve never won a tournament like this,” he said. “(With) like a hundred golfers and three days.”
Boteler was the tournament’s 2015 champion and he was within range of winning again.
While entry is no longer limited to county residents or in-county employees, many of the usual past entrants were in the 98-golfer field.
It was a three-round test, with Friday’s round at The Challenge Golf Course in Graham and Saturday’s round at The Valley Golf Course in Burlington.
Tarcy (70-73-71) and Boteler (70-73-71) tied at even-par 214.
Third place went to Hillsborough’s Coston Fogleman at 215 (72-75-68) and fourth place went to 2022 River Mill Academy graduate Cameron Lutterloh with 216 (69-75-72). Blair Bowland of Burlington was fifth at 218 (73-75-70).
Defending champion Kyle Austin, who’s the Mill Creek club champion, was tied for 10th at 223 (77-76-70).
Tarcy used birdies on Nos. 16 and 18 to forge the playoff with Boteler. With darkness setting in, the two played the par-4 ninth hole in the playoff. Boteler hit a strong approach shot from a fairway bunker, but couldn’t sink the birdie putt. Tarcy sank his birdie attempt from 8 feet.
“I would really like to make this now and not go play in the dark,” said Tarcy, a self-described entrepreneur in the 3-D printing business.
He has one several one-day Carolinas Golf Association events, so this felt like a bigger deal, he said.
“I play all these (CGA) stuff,” Tarcy said. “I was in contention last year and blew up on this course. Having that knowledge helped this time.”
Boteler, 35, said he has had a good year on the course, but “it was my C-game at best” during this tournament. The two-time reigning club champion at Alamance Country Club works at National OnDemand in Burlington.
Lutterloh and Ariha Faana shot 69s to share the first-round lead. Faana was in the lead until a double-bogey on the last hole Friday. He had 77s on Saturday and Sunday to end at 223.
Multi-time county amateur winner Mike Roshelli of Burlington was eighth at 221 (73-76-72).
Keith McDaniels of Haw River had the low round at The Valley with 1-over 71. He ended up in 15th place at 230 (85-71-74).
The youngest player in the tournament was 16-year-old Gryffin Brehler, an Eastern Alamance junior. He shot 222 (70-80-72) for ninth place, with the last round on his home course.
“Just a good experience,” Brehler said.
Flight winners were Chris Ingram (second flight, 232), Esteban Hicks (third flight, 244) Nick Anderson (fourth flight, 256) and Cameron Holland (fifth flight, 271).
Hicks, a Mebane teenager, had the tournament’s lone hole-in-one, acing the 143-yard 13th hole Sunday.
