McALLEN – There’s something about Champion Lakes Golf Course, and especially the McAllen Amateur Golf Championship, that brings out the best in Luke Antonelli and Miguel Del Angel.
And, for the first time, the two were paired in the final group Sunday. Antonelli held off a furious charge from Del Angel and captured his third championship trophy in the past four events, finishing second last year to Del Angel who won the tournament on the final hole.
Antonelli, from San Antonio, fired a blistering 7-under-par 65 to finish his two-day total with a 71-65 136. Del Angel, from Mission, was seeking his sixth championship and finished in the top two for the 10th time. Del Angel shot a 4-under-par 68 for a 73-68-141.
Del Angel went on a run with birdies on Nos. 6, 7, 8 and 10 to pull within one stroke of Antonelli at the turn.
“It was something watching him rattling off birdies like that,” said Antonelli, who won the event in 2019 and 2021 (there was no event in 2020 due to the pandemic). “He’s a great player and I just had to keep making good swing. I know I can’t fo anything about what he’s doing but I felt as long as I kept making good swings, I’d be okay.”
Antonelli registered big putts on Nos. 12 and 15 to take control of the tournament lead and then knocked in a 45-foot birdie putt on No. 17 that put an exclamation point on his title run.
“Every shot counts out here and most of us don’t get to do this very often so it’s a lot of fun,” Del Angel said. “I was very impressed (with Antonelli). He’s a great player.
“After the birdie on 10, I thought, ‘OK, game on. Let’s go.’ Then I made a dumb bogey on 11 and he birdied it, so there was a two-shot swing. I birdied 14 and thought I might still have a chance but he had so many birdie putts and made ton of them. He deserved to be the champion this year and my hat’s off to him.”
Luis Chavez finished alone in third with a two-day 147 score. McLean Beckwith and Albert Ochoa, who was tied for the lead with Antonelli to start Sunday’s round, finished tied for fourth with 149s and Jose Luis Samar scored a 150 for sixth place.
There were 42 golfers in the championship flight and five total flights.