Chad Wilfong came into the Carolinas Golf Association’s Mid-Am championship with the North Carolina Mid-Am title in his pocket. He left the Columbia Country Club with the CGA version of the championship stuffed into another pocket.

The Charlotte golfer spotted first round leader Josh Branyon, from Honea Path, SC, a 3-shot lead and then put 6-birdies on his second round scorecard, without a bogey, to take a 4-shot lead into the final round.

Branyon and Zach Schwab from Columbia were in the final grouping with the leader. Schwab had a difficult start to his round as he doubled and bogeyed his first two holes to fall further behind.

Wilfong never let Branyon get closer than 2-shots of the lead even as he struggled to settle in for the final round.

“I didn’t feel great over the ball early and didn’t hit it particularly solid over the first six holes,” said Wilfong. “Then all of sudden it started to feel good again and I could hit it where I wanted to off the tee, which is a big relief. The iron shots got more crisp as the round went on and it made me feel a little bit more confident,” he said.

On the back nine, Branyon was able to shave another shot off the lead to get within 2 strokes of Wilfong, but that was as close as the 2-time South Carolina Golf Association Mid-Am champion could get.

Branyon shot a final round 4-under par 68 to Wilfong’s 3-under par 69. The champion finished at 11-under par with a 205 total for the victory.

“Luckily it went the right way after the first six holes instead of the other way,” said the 2021 CGA Mid-Am champion.

After Branyon at 208 and Schwab at 209 Jason Garrett, from Stem, NC was fourth at 210.

Weston Bell from Piedmont and Jeff Boyan from Winston-Salem tied for 5th place. Boyan carded the best round of the tournament posting a 7-under par 65 in the final round to climb into the tie for 5th place.

Complete scores from the CGA https://www.golfgenius.com/pages/2810600