Hatley wins Washington mid-amateur

BREWSTER, Wash. — Reid Hatley of Hayden Lake shot rounds of 64-68 to win the seventh Washington State Men’s Mid-Amateur Championship sponsored by the Washington State Golf Association, held at Gamble Sands on Wednesday.

Cory Mehl of Seattle finished three shots back in second. Mehl and Hatley were paired together in today’s final group. After opening today’s play with birdies on the first three holes, Hatley seemed to have the championship well in hand, sitting a comfortable seven strokes ahead of Mehl. But in the middle of the round, Mehl birdied six of nine holes, and standing on the 17th tee Hatley’s lead had dwindled to two. Both players then bogeyed the par-4 17th, and Hatley sealed the victory by hitting a 3-wood on his second shot to 15 feet on the par-5 18th, and two-putted for birdie.

“This feels pretty good,” Hatley said. “I’ve come close to winning one of these the past few years, so I finally got this win under my belt. I got off to a hot start this year. I just tried to play my game, I didn’t look at anybody else’s scores until the 18th tee today. Yesterday was a lot easier than today; the wind picked up today, and the hole locations made it difficult to get it close. It took a little bit of course knowledge today, and I tried to put my ball in good spots on the greens. Sometimes it worked and sometimes it didn’t.”

Reid finished third in last year’s championship, and second in 2014.