Austin Green, left, and Jonathan Wilson won the Irem Temple Potentate tournament for the second consecutive year on Sunday.
Ben Mandell | Joe Soprano
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DALLAS – Irem Country Club had a repeat winner once again at the annual Potentate Tournament when the pairing of Jonathan Wilson and Austin Green defeated Chad Debona and Zach Mulhern in the championship round.
Wilson and Green become the second group in four years to win the tournament in back-to-back years after Tyler McGarry and Mariano Medico won it in 2017 and 2018.
“It is pretty tough (to repeat as champions). We had to go well under par in our first match,” Wilson and Green explained. “We also had to go under par in our second match and then play 20 holes in our third match. And then we had to go well under par in the championship. We played four great teams.”
The Potentate Tournament was scored match style, with Wilson and Green jumping out to an early lead by winning the first few holes.
“It’s really big (to take a lead early),” Wilson said. “It makes the rest of the day a lot easier.”
The early deficit proved to be too much for Debona and Mulhernin to overcome as they ultimately lost.
“It is definitely easier to play ahead,” Green said. “But you’re still trying to get birdies on every hole because there are great players in this tournament. If you let them go on a run things can turn very quickly.”
Despite the early lead for the defending champions, Debona and Mulherin were still able to fight and make it a competitive match.
“It was a good match, they were playing hard,” Wilson said. “There was a competitiveness out there, trying to at least match them whenever we could.”
The duo rode the momentum from an exciting semifinal match Sunday morning that saw Wilson and Green take out the top-seeded pair, Chris Jones and Tony Bevevino. The match was so competitive, they needed two extra holes and a stellar putt from Wilson.
“It really was a great match and was a lot of fun,” Wilson said. “I just happened to make one on the second playoff hole. I hit it and said we were going to try and win this here. If not, good for them. It happened to fall and we got to play this afternoon.”
The semifinal victory inflated the the pair heading into their championship match.
“(Wilson’s putt) definitely was huge going into this match,” Green said. “(The momentum) just carried on over.”