You know you might have things going your way when you catch a break on the very first hole of a tournament.

Jeff Bell and Julian Taylor teamed up to play in the annual Southern Oaks Holiday Open at the course near Easley and Taylor caught a break on the first green.

“My ball was behind one of the other player’s ball marker,” said Taylor. “He asked if I wanted him to move it, but I told him it would not affect my putt, so he left it in place,” he recalled.

Taylor lined up his putt, but it drifted a little off line as it approached the ball marker. Instead of skirting it, Taylor’s ball hit it.

Most times when this sort of thing happens it kicks the ball off line and away from the hole. This time it was different.

“The ball hit his marker and went in the hole for a birdie,” said Taylor.

It would be the first of 20-birdies and an eagle that Taylor and Bell would use to win the tournament by 8-shots.

Playing the Texas two-man format the two didn’t make a bogey in the 2-day event and didn’t have many difficult holes.

“We covered for each other pretty well in both rounds,” said Bell. “We both played pretty well and it was fun to keep making birdies,” he said.

The winning team carried a 5-shot lead into the final round.

The team of Joey and Cole Patterson where in second place, but like the rest of the field could not close on the leaders.

To finish off the wire to wire victory Taylor used the teams drive and then his 5-iron and a 20 foot putt for an eagle on number 18 to wrap up the win.

“We may have caught a little bit of a break because we’re old enough to play the senior tees and we made the best of it,” said Taylor.

The team captured the overall title with the 2-day total of 122.

There was a 2-way tie for second place as the Pattersons shot a second round 64 to go with their opening round 66 for a 130 total.

A final round 62 was carded by the the team of Rusty Stegall and Todd Garrett to finish at 130 and tie the Pattersons.

Fourth place went to Bill Sanders and Phil Hewlett at 131.

Flight winners included, First Flight – Stegall and Garrett, Second Flight – Bobby Tripp and Fran Campbell, Third Flight – Dale Nelson and Randy Thompson, Fourth Flight – Bob Simmons and Dick Larke.