NATCHEZ — When the team of Clay Arnold and Jackson Bryant finished its round and turned in its scorecard Sunday afternoon, the final pairing of two-man teams still had three holes remaining.

Not many people would have thought that even a round of 10-under-par 62 and a two-day total of 125 would have stood with the teams of Bruce Thompson and Scottie Southall, the first-round leaders, and Chris Kelley and Kurt Russ, who were still in the hunt.

However, Thompson and Southall couldn’t get things going while Kelley and Russ ran out of holes, leaving Arnold and Bryant as the winners of the championship flight of the 2007 Wharlest Jackson Elks Lodge Invitational at Beau Pré Country Club.

“We made all our putts. For a 16-year-old, Jackson Bryant shows a lot of heart out there,” Arnold said. “He stands over hits putts and stands with confidence.”

The team of Bryant and Arnold had 10 birdies in its round, yet they had to wait about 45 minutes to see what the final two teams ended up doing, and perhaps were surprised that neither of the other two teams caught them.

“We hit the ball a little bit better today,” Bryant said. “The mulligans we used for birdie putts all went in. Clay made a 20, 25-footer on No. 1 for birdie. That got us started on the right foot.”

Perhaps the biggest surprise in the championship flight belonged to the team of Bobby Meason and Al Guido, which shot an 11-under-par 61 and finished second in a scorecard playoff with a two-day total of 126.

“We played with (Tommy) Geoghegan and Doc (Jeff) Anderson. That was fun to play with,” Meason said. “We had 11 birdies. We just kinda scattered them around. We started making birdies and kept making them.”

“We made a lot of putts,” Guido said. “And both of us played just as good. It wasn’t one man over the other.”

Despite having consecutive rounds of 9-under-par 63 for a two-day score of 126, Kelley and Russ had to settle for third place.

“We just didn’t have the breaks we had yesterday,” Kelley said. “We had trouble on 12. That’s what cost us. We used three mulligans to make a birdie. Those mulligans would’ve come in handy for the remaining holes. The people that put this on put in a lot of hard work to make this a great tournament.”

Although the turnout for this year’s Wharlest Jackson Elks Lodge Invitational wasn’t as good as it was last year, tournament coordinator Tom Matthews said it continues to get better.

“Last year we made about $2,500. We had eight kids last year,” Matthews said. “We’re going to move the tournament back a week next year. We like to thank the people and members at Beau Pré.”

In the first flight, first and second, third and fourth, and fifth and sixth place had to be settled on a scorecard playoff.

Woody Allen and Kevin Smith won the first flight after shooting a 9-under 63 to finish at 131. Bill Byrne and Chee Chee Barnes also had a 9-under 63 to finish at 131, but they wound up in second place.

“We played real well today. We just didn’t make any long putts,” Allen said. “We left a couple of easy birdies out there and we made one long putt.”

“We just made some putts today. We finished strong with four straight birdies,” Byrne said. “Enjoyed the weekend.”

Terry Overland and Kevin Watkins won the second flight after a round of 7-under 65 to finish at 135.

“We putted good. We had eight birdies (and one bogey),” Watkins said. “We hit a lot of shots close to put us in position to make the putts.”