Tim Jackson

Tim Jackson of Germantown, Tenn., fought off Mother Nature and the unyielding play of Tommy Brennan to win the 14th U.S. Mid-Amateur Championship, 1 up, at Hazeltine National Golf Club.

After a week of perfect weather conditions, the finalists awoke to a dismal, unattractive morning that would provide the backdrop for what was likely the first birdie-less final in any USGA championship in decades. Brennan (six) made one more bogey than Jackson (five), and that was the difference as pars filled the rest of the scorecard.

Brennan, of Mandeville, La., missed the green with his approach and lost No. 2, but Jackson bogeyed and lost he par-4 sixth when he had to lay up 50 yards short of the green after yanking his drive into the trees. Both players bogeyed the eighth and ninth to even all the numbers at the turn; all square with 3-over 39s.

Jackson's 5-iron at 15 found the left bunker, but a great out to within 2 feet enabled him to save par, an accomplishment he considered imperative. "When I got up and down at 15, that was a big momentum shift for me because he'd gotten it up and down on me a couple of times early in the match and I missed a couple of short putts to win holes."

Brennan had one final shot. On the 18th green he was faced with a 55-foot birdie putt, and if it had found the right speed it would have climbed in over the right edge, but it lipped out and stopped 6 inches away. When Jackson two-putted from 35 feet, making a 3-footer coming back, it was over.

Jackson, a quarterfinalist in the 1994 Amateur only weeks before, who had been extended past the 15th hole only once in five matches before the final, advanced to the final play by eliminating two-time champion Jim Stuart, of Macon, Ga., 2 and 1, and Ed Gibstein, of Matinecock, N.Y., 6 and 5.

The medalist was Tom Kroll of San Marcos, Calif., who led match lay qualifiers with a 36-hole total of 8-under-par 64 at Wayzata Country Club - it was also a course record, tying the mark shared by Tom Lehman - and, following an even-par 72 the next day at Hazeltine, won the medal by two strokes over fellow Californian Craig Steinberg.

The 1994 Mid-Amateur was the inaugural featuring a larger field, 240 players, using two courses on which to determine the 64 match-play participants.

The championship attracted 3,720 entries, the highest in the Mid-Amateur's 14-year history.