May 14—ALPHARETTA — Nate Gahman of Albany has captured his second-straight Georgia Mid-Amateur Championship after a one-hole playoff! The 42nd playing of the 54-hole competition took place May 12-14 at The Golf Club of Georgia (Lakeside).

Gahman (70-71-71) began the final round tied for the lead with Brett Barron of Brookhaven (72-69-74) and Austin Weathington of Brookhaven (72-69-78) at 3-under-par. Gahman, who recently partnered with Chase McLain of Leesburg to win the Georgia Four-Ball Championship, began the day slow sitting at 1-over-par after his first eight holes.

But a two-putt birdie on the par-5 9th gave him some positive momentum heading to the back nine. After opening with a bogey on the par-4 10th, Gahman sat two shots back of William Blumberg of Atlanta (72-70-71) who sat at 4-under-par through 11 holes.

Gahman turned it back on knocking in back-to-back birdies on holes No. 11-12 to get back to 4-under and into a tie for the lead with Blumberg and eventually Stephen Behr of Atlanta (74-68-70).

After Blumberg and Behr both made bogey on the difficult par-3 17th in the group ahead to fall back to 3-under-par, Gahman was back on top of the leaderboard heading into No. 17. A safe play to the middle of the green helped Gahman secure his par.

In the group ahead, Behr knocked his approach on the par-5 18th to the middle left portion and two-putted his way to a birdie to finish at 4-under-par and waited for Gahman to finish.

Gahman knocked his second just over the green but was unable to get up-and-down, and Gahman and Behr headed back to the 18th tee for the first playoff hole.

Behr found the right rough with his drive which forced a layup for the Golf Club of Georgia member, while Gahman had an opportunity to go for the green in two. Gahman went for it and just came up short from knocking his ball into a greenside bunker, but was left with a similar chip shot to the one he had in regulation.

Behr gave himself a decent look at birdie short of the hole but was unable to connect, which left the door open for Gahman from 10-12 feet. The Albany resident came up clutch and rolled in the birdie to capture his second-straight Georgia Mid-Amateur title becoming the first to do so since Georgia Golf Hall of Famer Jeff Knox (2008-2009).

For Gahman, the victory follows up his win from last year at Coosa Country Club. Gahman was also the only player to finish under-par in each of the three rounds.

Behr and Blumberg rounded out the top three in the championship, while Keith Guest of Athens (74-75-65) fired the low round of the championship in the final round at 7-under-par 65 to finish in a tie for fourth with David Denham of Athens (70-72-72).