As scant rays of sunshine broke through on what was an otherwise cloudy Sunday at Moose Run's Creek Course, Casey Cusack fired a sweeping hook with his driver and the golf ball bounded into a hazard to the left of the 18th fairway.
The wayward shot, which traveled roughly 300 yards, led to Cusack's only bogey of the final round of the Alaska State Amateur championship, a tournament he led from start to finish.
A throng of spectators in golf carts followed Cusack up the 18th fairway to watch him putt out for his second straight state title with a 1-under par 71 and a 15-under par 273 tournament total. His final round was the lowest round shot Sunday, marking Cusack's fourth round under par and his only round in the 70s.
Cusack, 29, won by 21 strokes -- a tournament record, according to Alaska Golf Association executive director Jeff Barnhart.
Brittany Bomar won the women's championship with as little drama as Cusack won the men's. She carded an 81 for a 309 tournament total, seven shots better than Brianna Nap, who also shot 81 on Sunday. Molly Zumbro shot the low round of the day for the women with an 80, keeping her in fifth place.
Cusack began Sunday's fourth round with a 13-shot lead over three-time champion Greg Sanders. Though he said he felt comfortable with the lead, he also held respect for the course.
"This is the kind of golf course where things can change in a hurry," he said.
The Creek Course, while having generous fairways and large greens, is surrounded by jungle-like foliage that can swallow errant shots and add strokes to the scorecard in a hurry. It's not uncommon to hear competitors talk of how they suffered double-digit blunders.
To avoid any such catastrophe, the long-hitting Cusack played a conservative final round, hitting irons off the tee on the majority of the holes. He still managed to slip in a couple of birdies on the par-3 third hole and the par-5 ninth.
Cusack said his game was sharp all week and his bad shots were never bad enough to get him in any trouble.
Sanders said he didn't feel he had any chance to catch Cusack going into Sunday's round but wished he would have played better than he did. His final-round 79 put him in a tie for second place overall with Baxter, who shot 75 on Sunday for a 294 total.
Alaska State Amateur
Final results
Men's championship flight -- 1) Casey Cusack, 67-66-69-71--273; 2) tie, Greg Sanders, 68-74-73-79--294, Adam Baxter, 72-69-78-75--294; 4) Benji Sumulong, 73-75-69-79--296, 5) Ross Walther, 76-73-73-79--301; 6) Paul Blanche, 77-74-71-81--303; 7) David Hamilton, 72-75-77-80--304; 8) Donald Grasse, 76-76-76-78--306; 9) tie, Beau Forrest, 75-77-80-77--309, Hal Willardson, 83-75-72-79--309; Kyler Johnson, 76-78-82-73--309; 12) Chris Morin, 77-84-75-75---311; 13) Jacob Wright, 82-78-74-82--311; 14) Richard Teders, 79-72-76-90--317; 15) tie, Curtis James, 78-76-76-88--318, Tim Ruf, 79-78-77-84--318; 17) Tom Keane, 79-81-76-84--320; 18) Mark McMahon, 80-74-81-86--321; 19) tie, James Ernst, 77-83-81-81--322, John Schmitz, 82-80-79-81--322; 21) Kevin Tabler, 80-84-82-80--326; 22) Truckee LeMay, 90-73-81-84--328; 23)Matt Desalernos, 79-81-85-84--329; 24) Luke Blum, 78-75-84-93--330; 25) tie, John Storm, 85-88-78-85--336, Peter Hakes, 88-83-80-85--336; 27) Paul Lindhag, 87-83-84-84--338; 28) Rene Alvarez, 87-86-91-89--353; 29) Ryan Gluth, 97-92-91-104--384.
Men's first flight (top 10) -- 1) Nick Karnos 76-83-80-83--322; 2) John Gose 84-81-85-77--327; 3) Mark Schneiter 78-83-82-85--328; 4) James Nunley 81-86-81-86--334; 5) tie, Bill Villareal 78-85-86-88--337, Dennis Stubbs 84-87-77-89--337 and Stephen Barnett 86-79-83-89--337; 8) tie, David Sanders 83-84-85-87--339 and Jeremy Peters 87-80-89-83--339; 10) Mike Azzara 89-83-82-86--340.
Men's second flight (top 10) -- 1) Rick Townsend 86-84-76-81--327; 2) Jorge Andrade 86-82-81-79--328; 3) Michael Houghton 83-83-85-80--331; 4) Sean Snowball 84-81-82-87--334; 5) Trey Miller 89-79-86-85--339; 6) Mark Pennington 94-77-89-81--341; 7) Ferdinand Mendoza 91-85-82-86--344; 8) tie, Bert Verrall 85-83-91-86--344 and Jay Wisthoff 87-85-85-88--345; 10) David Cosgrave 87-85-78-104--354.
Men's third flight (top 10) -- 1) Eric Bender 86-97-99-86--368; 2) tie, Brad Simmons 95-96-93-85--369 and Pat McBride 91-96-89-93--369; 4) Ronald Perry 94-93-96-93--376; 5) Gordon Franke 101-91-91-95--378; 6) Jason Kimmel 94-90-94-101--379; 7) Shawn Lovdahl 103-89-93-96--381; 8) tie, Bill Jack 95-91-92-104--383 and Jesse Lund 101-90-96-95--382; 10) Ralph Mingo 93-94-94-104--385.
Women's championship flight -- 1) Brittany Bomar 74-75-79-81--309; 2) Brianna Nap 77-77-81-81--316; 3) Jamie Berge 77-81-78-81--317; 4) Sarah Moody 74-80-83-81--318; 5) Molly Zumbro 78-79-85-80--322; 6) Collen McBratney 87-84-83-93--347; 7) tie, Pamela Chesla 87-92-88-85--352 and Rose Pelletier 86-89-92-85--352; 9) Susan Gatewood 95-87-92-92--366.
Women's first flight -- 1) Connie Rummel 94-90-96-87--367; 2) Jane Shaw 89-93-92-95--369; 3) Melody Milliken 87-99-97-99--382; 4) Debra Mitchell 95-94-101-94--384; 5) Shelley Smith 91-100-106-102--399; 6) Yolanda Meza 92-106-113-95--406; 7) Lori Townsen 106-99-97-107--409; 8) Tonnette Jackson 106-99-106-101--412; 9) Kitty Smith 107-109-111-104--431.
Find Jeremy Peters online at adn.com/contact/jpeters or call 257-4335.
By JEREMY PETERS
jpeters@adn.com