The Texas State Putting Tour held its 2000 State Championship at the College Station Putt-Putt. Tim Murphree of Dallas, TX continued his match play dominance at the College Station course by adding a State Championship to his 1999 Double Elimination Match Play Runner-Up and the 2000 TPC Championship both held in College Station. Mr. Murphree dominated play throughout his four matches with the closet being a 3 with 2 win over Randall Willett in the finals, even this match was not as close as the score appeared as Tim held a 4 to 5 hole lead for most of the last 18 holes with Randy making it closer at the end. Second place went to long time pro Randall Willett who gave an excellent performance in defeating Lee Messinger, Tom Adair and Rainy Statum to advance to the finals. Hall of Fame member Al Simpson looked to have a chance to play for the title after defeating the two time Texas State Champion Jeffrey Smith followed by 1998 champion Brice Bergesen but ran into Mr. Murphree in the semi-finals. Congratulations to Tim Murphree. Congratulations also go to Jeffrey Smith for taking 2000 Player of the Year honors by setting a new record on the Texas Tour with 7 event wins.

The Amateur division had one of the most exciting and heartbreaking finals match in recent history. Chris Breedlove had a four-hole lead with six to go. Jon Drexler won three of the next four holes to close to 1 down with 2 to go. On the 17^th Jon putted first and over hit his putt, which came off the back rail and back down the slope in front of the hole. Jon then proceeded to make the difficult duce. Chris was now in a position to win the match with an ace. What looked to be a perfect putt 360d the hole and came back down the hill. Chris missed the duce putt making the match even with one to go. The 18^th hole is a long hole with a small slope and two pipes behind the hole. Jon putted first just sliding by the right edge of the hole and going down the slope to the back rail almost directly behind the hole. Jon was able to make his duce. Chris hit another excellent putt that lightly lipped the right edge of the hole and went down the slope to the back rail with an app. 15-degree angle to the hole. Unfortunately Chris missed the duce putt giving Jon the title. Jon Drexler had a stated goal of winning both Player of Year and State Championship at the beginning of the year. After a solid start Jon changed putters and went into an extended slump allowing James Kile to take a large lead in the Player of Year points. Going into the state Jon had to have James lose in his first match and get to the final match to catch him. Jon selected directly into James for both players first match and proceeded to defeat him handily then go on and win state. Congratulations to Jon on his great win and us pro players look forward to putting him in place when he moves up next year.