Posted Online: Posted online: August 27, 2007 12:12 AM

Posted Online: Posted online: August 27, 2007 12:12 AM
Print publication date: 08/27/2007

Soucinek wins Tour Championship, but Peters Player of Year

By Tom Johnston, tjohnston@qconline.com

Jennifer Peters sat behind the 18th green at Pinnacle Country Club with daughter Maura waiting for husband Ben to finish his final round of the National City Bank Amateur Tour's Tour Championship on Sunday evening.

Maura, 3, was urging on daddy to make his putt.

Jennifer, who was on hand for Ben's Quad City Am victory, cringed as Ben three-putted the final hole, thinking she had brought him bad luck in the event sponsored by The Dispatch/Argus/Leader.

As it turned out, though, the orange shirt Maura picked out for dad to wear was lucky enough to offset the sour double-bogey finish. Ben shot a final-round 73 to finish in third place in the final 36-hole event and hold off Brian Soucinek by 62.5 points for NCBAm Tour Player of the Year honors.

Soucinek took advantage of his work on the greens to card a sizzling 4-under 68 and win the final stroke-play event of the NCBAm Tour season, but it wasn't enough to catch Peters and make it three straight Player of the Year honors.

Dean Cavanaugh finished second in his second straight start, carding a 2-under 70 to post a 141, three shots behind Soucinek.

For Peters, it was sweet capping his "comeback" season after essentially a two-year hiatus from competitive golf that followed Maura's arrival.

"It is satisfying," said the 34-year-old St. Ambrose University grad. "To be able to come back after not playing very often and be competitive, to give myself opportunities to win and perform in those situations, is actually more gratifying than winning the tournaments."

Peters logged three weekly event titles this season. Soucinek had two.

"It feels good, I played a pretty solid summer of golf -- at least in these events," said Peters. "It's a shame to finish the way I did."

He got away with it by playing well enough up to that point with three birdies and just two bogeys on the still soggy Milan layout that played tough. Soucinek rolled in six birdies to offset two bogeys. It left him with mixed emotions winning the tourney but not completing the three-peat despite a solid summer of golf.

"I wouldn't be competitive if I didn't want to win Player of the Year every year and if I wasn't disappointed I didn't win it," said Soucinek. "But Ben Peters is a great player and more importantly is a good guy; he's one of those guys it's hard to get fired up to beat. I'm happy for him. I wish I was Player of the Year, but there's nothing to be ashamed of losing out to someone of his caliber."

-- Brewster, Dalziel top seniors: Bill Brewster's eagle on the par-4 5th hole spurred him to one of just three scores in the 70s in the final round of the 14-player senior division. Brewster's day's-best even-par 72 gave him a two-day 145 total, three better than Dan Dalziel. However, Dalziel walked away with Player of the Year honors after Mike Long ran out of gas after a long work week on the road and finished tied for ninth in the weekend event. Dalziel, who scored 800 points for his runner-up finish, beat Long by just 25 points in the POY race.