Tarpon Springs, Florida-Mark Brooks of Fort Worth and the University of Texas added to his prestige as one of our leading amateur golfers with his victory in the Southern Amateur Championship. This was his second major title of the summer as he had just won the Texas State Amateur Championship a month earlier.

The 20-year-old, who will be a Junior at the University of Texas this fall, scrambled home with a final round 76 that was good enough to put his name on the Southern Golf Association Championship Trophy that already list golfers of some prominence like Hubert Green, Lanny Watkins, Ben Crenshaw and Bill Rogers.

Brooks returned scores of 70-69-74-76-289, 5 over par on Innisbrook's great but demanding Copperhead course, and was the winner by a margin of three strokes over Jack Veghte, Clearwater, Florida and Tommy Moore, New Orleans, Louisiana. Veghte had rounds of 74-71-73-74-292 and Moore's rounds were 74-72-74-72-292

This was the second straight year that Yeghte has finished as runner-up in the Southern Amateur, having also been tied for 2nd at Houston in 1980. Tommy Moore, an 18-year-old from New Orleans, who tied for the runner-up spot, has just finished his freshman year at Oklahoma State University and has an excellent record as a Junior golfer. It is anticipated that he will continue to make his presence known in amateur golf circles.

Finishing in 4th place was Fred Ridley of Tampa, Florida with a four round total of 293. Ridley, who is a past U. S. Amateur Champion, had rounds of 72-77-72-72. Fifth place was shared by three players with scores of 295; Wallace Adams, Jr., Glenwood, Georgia; Bill Holstead, Wichita Falls, Texas, and Chip Holcombe, Ft. Walton Beach, Florida.

Rounding out the top ten finishers, actually the top eleven, were four players tied for 8th place at 296. These were Jay Townsend, Tequesta, Florida; Danny Mijovic, Ft. Worth, Texas; Bill Hadden, Hamden, Connecticut and Miami Beach, Florida, and Stuart Smith, Nashville, Tenn.

Brooks was either tied for the lead or in sole command throughout the entire tournament. After a first round 70, he shared the lead with Gene Sauers of Savannah, Georgia, and Robert Sauerberg of Lakeland, Florida. At the end of the second round Brooks had taken charge and was 3 strokes ahead of Holcombe and 4 strokes ahead of Holstead. He continued to lead after 54 holes of play with Holstead still in a challenging position 3 shots back while Smith and Hadden had moved closer to the leader and were both 4 shots behind.

The expected shootout between Brooks and his fellow Texan, Holstead, did not materialize in the final round. Holstead got off to a poor start with a double bogey on the initial hole, and he was unable to recover and ended up in a tie for 5th place.

Now Veghte enters the picture. At the end of the front nine of the final round he had narrowed Brooks' lead to a thin one stroke margin. However, Brooks rallied to a steady even par back nine while Veghte could do no better than 7 pars and 2 bogeys. Thus Brooks finished with the same 3 stroke lead which he held at the beginning of play for the final round.

This great Copperhead Course at Innisbrook is truly a magnificent test of golf and the playing conditions were superb. There is no question why it is rated by golf experts and golf panels as one of the outstanding golf courses in the United States. The assistance given by Jay Overton, Vice President for Golf Operations, and his most competent staff contributed immeasurably to the great success of this 75th Southern Golf Association Championship.

As usual in major golf events, it seems to be in vogue for at least one controversy to be instigated during the course of play and it is usually by an outsider who is generally ignorant of the true facts. In this instance it was an unwarranted and completely erroneous report by a member of the press in his description of the mowing of the greens after the second round of play. Evidently, someone failed to tell Stuart Smith of Nashville about this, or he did not read the newspaper article, because he proceeded to shoot a 4 under par 67 during the third round, and this was the low round recorded during the entire tournament.

In addition to being the winner of the Championship, Brooks was also the medalist and his 36 hole total of 70-69-139 was 3 under par.

The Bob Jones Trophy was won by Florida, with a 36 hole team score of 578, based on the performance of Chip Holcombe, Ft. Walton Beach (142); Jack Veghte, Clearwater (145); Kevin Janiga, Lake Placid (145) and John Keller, Pompano Beach (146).