Siena grad Downey claims title on home course

Troy

Don't look for a celebratory dance from the winner of the 76th Troy Invitational golf tournament. This one was decided at the scoring table.

After a helter-skelter final round Sunday at Country Club of Troy, the final threesome trudged to the pro shop to turn in their cards and allow a computer to decipher a champ.

And the winner was Jack Downey, a recent Siena graduate and a member of the home course, whose 54-hole score of 8-over-par 221 was one shot better than each of his playing partners: former Troy member Taylor Bellemare of Hoosick Falls, and St. Peter's College golf coach Nick Dilio of Hopewell Junction.

"We were all close," said Downey, 22, who finished third last year. "The leaderboard, we were all keeping an eye on it, but when we got to 17 tee, none of us had an idea of who was where and what needed to happen. I tried to make some pars coming in and hope for the best when we signed our cards."

Much harder playing conditions caused part of the chaos. There were gusting winds, firm and fast greens, and the usual Sunday pin placements.

The average score of 79.8 Sunday was 1.6 higher than the second round.

Then there was Dilio, who kept things interesting throughout in his final round of 8-over 79. He had a quadruple bogey on the par-3 12th (losing his tee shot into the woods), an eagle-2 on the 14th and triple bogey on 16.

"I had 71 yards," Dilio said of his eagle. "The greens are pretty firm. I was trying to land somewhere around 60, which is a lob wedge. Get it up in the air, try and land it soft. I flew it a little bit further than I wanted to, but it looked good the whole way. It took two or three hops and went right in. I had a rough hole two holes before, so that gave me a second life and put me right back in the tournament."

"That was cool,"...