Frustration set in pretty early at the 1994 Southern Amateur at Lake Nona Golf Club in Orlando for both tournament officials and players as typical central Florida summer weather in the form of thunder, lightning and rain descended on Wednesday. Due to a bizarre turn of events, first day play was washed out and rescheduled for Friday, with Thursday's round planned to go according to schedule. At the time this decision was made probably close to three quarters of the field had completed play, but according to SGA policy regarding rainout, no alternative was available except to cancel the day.

Thursday was not without its problems, but we were able to "save" the day and allow Justin Roof's 65 to be counted, even though we didn't get all players finished when play was stopped late in the day. It was at this time that tournament officials realized that they were faced with a 54 hole tournament instead of 72 and that the cut would be made on Friday morning after completion of the first 18 holes.

Roof, from Conway, South Carolina, held on to medalist honors with his splendid 65, but was followed closely by other great scores such as Paul Tesori, St. Augustine, Florida, 66 and six players at 67: Kris Cox of San Antonio, Texas, Adam Thomas of Baxley, Georgia, two players from Australia, Gavin Vearing and Gary Simpson, University of Florida golf coach Buddy Alexander, and Deron Zinnecker of Hutto, Texas.

After the cut on Friday morning, the field was regrouped and sent back out off both #1 and #10 tees. Justin Roof again proved himself up to the task as he posted a three under 69 to complete 36 holes at ten under 134. Adam Thomas and Gary Simpson both found themselves in the unbelievable position of having turned in two under 70's and losing ground to the leader. The best second day scores belonged to Michael Henderson from North Carolina and Georgian Hank Kim, both of whom carved out four under 68's on the tough Lake Nona track.

Saturday morning dawned bright and clear and we were finally able to start and finish a round on schedule. All eyes were on Justin Roof, who had played so incredibly good the first two days, and the other guys in the last group, while everyone was listening to action in the last two groups as scores were being called back to the scoreboard by referees assigned to those groups. So, unbeknownst to practically all was the quiet work of local Orlando golfer Trey Sones, who finished with a closing round of 65, matching Roof's record opening round, and setting the pace for the rest of the field to try and duplicate at 9 under par 207. No one got particularly close.

Thirty-six hole leader Roof had major problems and fought his way in with a closing 79, finishing six shots back. Daniel Stone, Paul Fitzgibbon, and Paul Tesori all had good third rounds, scoring 68, 69 & 71 respectively, but Tesori and Fitzgibbon wound up two shots behind Sones, while Stone was three shots back at 210. Also at 210 was Adam Thomas, who finished with a 73.

Eric Bogar, Houston

Brian Newton, Richardson