Welcome, Wyatt: Incoming Lobo wins Albuquerque City Championship

It turns out home is where the trophy is.

Just two weeks after moving to Albuquerque, Wyatt Provence shot a four-under 68 on Sunday at Los Altos Golf Course to win the championship flight of the Albuquerque City Championship at 13-under par.

The West Texas A&M transfer and incoming New Mexico sophomore entered the final round with a one-stroke lead and briefly relinquished it, only to storm back and birdie four of his final 10 holes for a three-stroke win.

Provence, the reigning NCAA Division II individual champion, said after Friday’s first round that he entered the tournament simply because it was something to do, and not with any ambitions of a housewarming gift to remember.

“Gave myself looks all day, but didn’t make too many of them … I just came out and played pretty good,” he said. “Got it done.”

Incoming UNM freshman and Albuquerque Academy graduate Clark Sonnenberg shot a 65 to tie with Mesa Falleur (68) at 10-under par, good for second place. Aiden Krafft, an incoming junior at Oregon and Cibola High graduate, carded a 69 to tie for fourth with Belen High graduate Grady Cox (71).

Provence was plenty long off the tee but struggled to convert a series of early scoring chances. The Amarillo, Texas native made bogey on the second hole of the day to fall into a tie with Cox at 8-under — until Cox’s bogey and Provence’s birdie putt on No. 5 put him ahead for good.

On No. 10, Provence missed another short birdie putt that would’ve grown his lead to three strokes. He stood over his line well after the miss to try to decipher what went wrong.

“My coach told me that everything pretty much breaks to the river,” he said. “(But) I couldn’t really tell which way it was breaking, and I just played it (to) the right edge and thought it would break left a little bit. And it turned the other way.”

Provence went on to birdie No. 11 and No. 14, save par on No. 15 and shaved off one final stroke on No. 16 to finish with a three-round final score of 203.

And, of course, the city title in a town he just arrived in.

“This is pretty nice — (got) some pro shop credit,” he laughed. “So, yeah.”

Derek Marker claimed the city championship in the senior flight, firing a 6-under 66 to finish at 2-under on the weekend. Michael Hughes carded a 1-under 71 to finish in second at 7-over, Scott Blank finished in third at 8-over and Marc Daniels and Scott Belonge rounded out the top five at 9-under.

In the president’s flight, Brian Chavez’s 1-under 71 ensured a 7-under for the tournament and a four-stroke win over Isaac Chilcote (71). Gregory Larson (76) finished third at 4-over; Dennis Trujillo (69) and David Gutierrez (74) finished fourth and fifth at 8-over and 12-over, respectively.