May 20, 2012 — Baton Rouge, LA — Bossier City’s Larry Poole fired a four-under par 68 on Sunday to best Sulphur’s Carl Lemaire by two shots to win the 2012 Louisiana Golf Association Net Amateur Championship.  Poole, who entered the day three strokes off the lead, is the third consecutive winner from north Louisiana, joining 2011 winner Al Wyche of Plain Dealing and 2010 winner Hal Wright of Shreveport.  He finished at four-under par 140 for 36 holes.  Lemaire bookended rounds of 72 and 70 to finish at two-under par 142.

Rounding out the top five were; 3. William Duncan of Baton Rouge/71-72, 143, 4. Sid Wilde of Ponchatoula/75-69, 144, and 5. First round leader Ronnie Averett of Loranger/69-76, 145.

Flight winners included:  Andrew Mercante of Hammond in the Carnoustie flight; Brent Ocmond of Paulina in the Troon flight; Mark Barnwell of Bogalusa in the Prestwick flight; and Wiley Conn of Mandeville in the St. Andrews flight.

This year’s event was again held at the Robert Trent Jones, Sr., designed Santa Maria Golf Club in Baton Rouge, which played to a par of 72 at 6,600 yards.  Sunday’s play was again conducted in beautiful weather with just a hint of a breeze.  The Santa Maria track again proved to be an extremely popular venue with the Net Amateur competitors. 

The LGA conducts this event to provide a Championship for the higher handicap player with procedures in place to assure that consistency and integrity are benchmarks for the event.  The LGA utilizes the USGA Tournament Score Probability Table to adjust any handicap indexes when a player’s score exceeds normal probability.

In the 10th annual Net Club Team Championship, conducted concurrently with the Net Amateur, Oak Knoll Country Club in Hammond took a three-shot win over the host club team from Santa Maria Golf Club in Baton Rouge.  Oak Knoll CC teammates Noel Gautreaux, Wilson Teston, Gregg Smith, and Sid Wilde combined to shoot a six-over par score of 438 to capture the Net Club Team title.

This year marks the end of a five-year run for this Championship at Santa Maria GC.  Next year’s Championship will be held at the Arnold Palmer-designed Bluffs Country Club in St. Francisville with the LGA returning to that venue for the first time since conducting its Senior Amateur Championship there in 2005.