NATCHEZ — The 2011 Beau Pré Club Championship was not defending champion Jordan Farmer’s tournament to lose.

It was his to win and he made sure no one would challenge that fact.

The only thing a couple of hiccups on holes No. 14 and No. 16 did was keep Farmer from shooting in the 60s.

He wound up shooting a 2-under-par 70 on a hot Sunday afternoon at Beau Pré County Club for a two-day score of 3-under-par 141 to give him back-to-back championships and his third since 2006.

“I got it going real good early. I had it at 4-under-par through 13. I played really good through 13,” Farmer said. “Then I started hitting it to the center of the greens instead of at the pins. I three-putted two of the next three holes.”

Which resulted in bogeys on 14 and 16 and a final score of 70, instead of 68.

“I eliminated a lot of the mistakes from (Saturday). I putted real well except for the two three-putts. I just tried to finish up strong. It was fun this weekend. But it was hot,” Farmer said.

Farmer said it was important to him to defend his title from last year, but that he hadn’t been on the course much in the last few months. His family recently purchased, remodeled and opened The Sandbar Restaurant in Vidalia and his time has been with the fried catfish, not the golf balls, he said.

Lee Jones came from the back of the pack in the championship flight to finish in second place. Jones was the only other player to shoot under par on Sunday as his round of 2-under-par 70 gave him a two-day total of 1-over-par 145.

Jones started his round with a bogey on No. 1 and a birdie on No. 2. But he wasn’t able to make up any ground on Farmer with just two birdies the rest of his round.

“I hit it good. I just didn’t hit it good enough,” Jones said. “I just didn’t make enough putts. All in all, I’m happy with the way I played. I had a great time and (Beau Pré club pro) Tom (Bryant) put on a good tournament.”

Stephen Hollingsworth and Alcorn State golf coach Tom Matthews ended up in a tie for third place. Both players shot even-par 72 to finish at 2-over-par 146.

Matthews had two birdies and two bogeys. One of those bogeys was because his ball moved when he was getting ready to sink an eight-inch putt on No. 6. He had to take a penalty and a disappointing bogey.

“I played about as good as I could play today,” Matthews said. “I played OK. I had some makeable putts I didn’t make.”

Hollingsworth ended up with three birdies and three bogeys in his final round.

“I hit every green on the front and shot 1-over. I had a bogey on 9,” Hollingsworth said. “I couldn’t putt the ball well. Whoever putted well would win and Jordan did.”

Bryant said the two-day tournament went really well and that the turnout was the biggest it has been in several years.

“The course is in great shape. We had it set up to be tough, but fair. We had more membership support this year, which is good. It was awesome,” Bryant said. “We had 56 sign up. We started with 54. Last year we had 36. Members are doing a great job supporting what we’re doing.”