Paul Trittler leads wire-to-wire to win 2014 Southwest Professional Championship at Troon North 

SWSPGA President, Don Rea with Champion Paul Trittler

Paul Trittler (Grayhawk Golf Club) shot a final round even par 72 and finished at 10-under par to win the Southwest Professional Championship at Troon North by three shots.

Trittler carded rounds of 65-69 the first two days to build a five shot lead coming into the final day, and while he didn’t have a spectacular third round, his lead was big enough to hold off a strong group of competitors looking to make a charge on the final day.

Trittler opened with five straight pars before a bogey at the par-4 fifth hole dropped him back to 9-under – the bogey was only his second throughout the entire 54-hole tournament.  He rebounded with a birdie on the par-4 eighth and made the turn at 10-under, and recorded pars on the final 10 holes to hold onto his lead and earn the win.

A group of five players all made a run to challenge the leaderboard, but couldn’t make up enough ground to catch Trittler.

For the second straight day, Marty Jertson (PING Golf) turned in the low round of the day, carding a 5-under 67 to finish T2 at 7-under par.  It was an impressive runner-up finish after he shot a 3-over 75 in the first round and was 10 shots back of first-round leaders Trittler and Nigel Spence.

Also finishing T2 with Jertson were Bobby Pancratz (Scottsdale National Golf Club), Chris Dompier (Skyline Country Club), Jon Stanley (John Jacobs Golf School) and Brandon Evans (Westbrook Village).  While these five players came up short of a victory , they still advanced (along with Trittler) to the 48th PGA Professional National Championship, which will be held June 28 – July 1, 2015, at Philadelphia Cricket Club.

Rounding out the Top-10 were Dennis Downs (Granite Falls Golf Club), who finished seventh at 6-under; Luke Hemelstrand (Desert Mountain) in eighth at 5-under; Tad Holloway (Laughlin Ranch) in ninth at 4-under par and Michael Hopper (Lookout Mountain Golf Club) tenth at 3-under.

Also known as the PNC, this three-day tournament featured the best club professionals in the SWSPGA throughout the state of Arizona and Southern Nevada, and is the first level to gain entry into the 2015 PGA Championship.