Hertford, N.C. – Frank Adams III of Laurinburg, N.C. sat in a three-way tie for the lead with three holes to go in Sunday’s final round of the $200,000 Biggs Cadillac Buick GMC Open at 1-over for the day, looking for some form of magic down the stretch in order to pull out career win No. 8 on the eGolf Gateway Tour.

Adams’ magic came in the form of a torrid finish featuring a 10-foot birdie conversion on 16, a chip-in for birdie on 17, and one last birdie on the par-4 18th in front of a crowd of 200 fans for a closing 69, a 17-under 267 total, and the event’s $30,000 first-place prize.

Adams, the tour’s longest-tenured player dating back to the 2003 season, entered Sunday’s final round at host Sound Golf Links at Albemarle Plantation with a three-shot lead over Garland Green of Tazewell, Va. and a four-shot lead over recent college star Cory Whitsett of St. Simons Island, Ga.

Opening rounds of 67-67-64—198 put Adams at 15-under par through three rounds, sitting on the precipice of a breakout win at an event featuring the largest mini-tour purse of 2015.

Early on, the former East Carolina star struggled mightily, flaring his drive to the right on the par-4 first en route to an opening bogey and later three-putting the par-3 sixth to offset a birdie on No. 5 to fall back to 1-over par.

Adams & Mr. Biggs, owner of Biggs Cadillac Buick GMC

“I felt like a pinball in a pinball machine. I couldn’t quite get comfortable. It wasn’t because I was nervous; it was just one of those weeks where everything had gone pretty dang good up to that point,” said Adams. “That was just the first stretch of adversity.”

A 1-over 36 on his opening nine did little to calm the tournament leader, who suddenly lost his cushion after Green birdied Nos. 8 and 9 to turn at 13-under (one back) and Whitsett matched with birdies on Nos. 5 and 8 to sit tied for second.

After the final threesome traded pars on Nos. 10 and 11, Whitsett and Green matched Adams at 14-under par with a pair of two-putt birdies on the par-5 12th after the he failed to get up and down from next to the green.

Stubbornly, no one took control after the three-way tie was formed, with a trifecta of pars from the day’s 8:40 AM pairing on 13, 14 and 15 leaving 14-under atop the leaderboard on the tee of the par-4 16th.

Adams and Green hit their second shots to 10 feet and 12 feet, respectively, while Whitsett found the back fringe after an indifferent second shot scooted through the green to 20 feet.

Whitsett, a four-time “All American” at Alabama and former U.S. Junior Amateur champion, was the first to strike on 16, converting a putt from off the green to vault into the outright lead at 15-under par.

Next up was Green, who rolled in his 12 footer to match, in turn joining Whitsett atop the board at 15-under while Adams lined up his putt.

For the first time in the final round at Albemarle Plantation, Adams was the hunter. The Salisbury, N.C. resident grabbed the tournament lead on the fourth hole of the third round, and never trailed again – until now.

“Well, it’s now or never,” Adams said after his round. “Something has to go in. I felt like I was in quicksand and couldn’t hold a branch to get out of it up until that point. I wasn’t making mistakes, I just wasn’t making birdies.”

With an enthusiastic crowd looking on, Adams converted the 10 foot birdie try to join his playing partners at 15-under par with two holes to play.

“That was huge for me,” he said. “That was a big momentum swing back in my favor.”

On the par-5 17th, Adams found a fairway bunker off the tee and laid up in the right rough, airmailing the green from there with a poor third shot roughly 15 feet over the back fringe.

“I kind of out-thought myself on my third, but fortunately sometimes things like that happen on weeks like this. That’s just part of golf,” said Adams.

With Green just 15 feet from the hole for birdie and Whitsett even closer at 4 feet, Adams shined on a most difficult stage with an impeccable flop shot from 40 feet that landed like a pillow and trickled into the center of the cup.

Garland Green

The unlikely birdie moved the former Pirate standout to 16-under par, one shot clear of his playing partners when Green’s birdie try missed and Whitsett’s did a horseshoe around the hole.

On the short par-4 18th – with Albemarle Sound to the right and a bevy of fans to the left –
Whitsett and Green needed closing birdies to have any shot at an overtime session.

Instead, Whitsett missed the green short and to the right, and Green played safely to the middle of the green, leaving himself 20 feet left and above the front-right hole location.

Adams, after taking a drop in the rough from a post, hit a beautiful sand wedge from 94 yards to 10 feet, putting all of the pressure squarely back on the shoulders of the duo he went toe-to-toe with for the final 36 holes of the tournament.

“I don’t know if it’s a mental thing or what, but this week I had a lot of good numbers,” said Adams when speaking of his wedge to the 72nd green. “That really gets you comfortable out there. I hit that shot right where I was aiming.”

Whitsett, opting to putt from just off the green, left his must-make birdie try a few feet short, in turn leaving Green as the only one with a realistic chance of tying Adams at 16-under par.

“Garland hit a lot of good putts today. I was telling myself the whole time that he was going to make it,” said Adams.

Green’s birdie bid looked perfect for 15 feet, but then just slid past the hole.

Needing just two putts for the win, Adams one-upped even his own expectations in front of the raucous crowd by rolling in one final birdie at the last.

The ensuing fist pump not only represented win No. 8 for the 36-year-old, but represented one phenomenal finish after birdies on 16, 17 and 18 delivered a final-round 69 and the event’s $30,000 first-place prize.

“It’s pretty cool. We don’t have galleries like that very often,” said Adams. “The members here were great all week and really supported us throughout. The last two days were some of the most fun I’ve had playing golf.”

The win pushed Adams’ season-long earnings to $47,735, good for second place on the 2014-15 eGolf Gateway Tour money list, which began with the tour’s west coast series late last year.

Entering the week, the married father of a one-year-old boy had played well in 2015, notching seven top-25s in seven starts, with a T4 at last week’s Willow Creek Open serving as his best finish.

At Willow Creek, Adams blazed out of the final-round gates to seize the outright lead through seven holes, but faded down the stretch as Dykes Harbin of Augusta, Ga. captured career win No. 1.

Nearly 11 years after capturing his first win on tour, Adams looks poised to continue his march up golf’s proverbial ladder. As a conditional member of the Web.com Tour, he’ll spend many Mondays trying to chase dreams in 18-hole qualifiers.

With his win today, that dreaded march looks a bit more colorful.

“It means a lot to get this win. I’m kind of playing with house money a bit more this year than normal, so this frees me up to see how good of a year I can have,” said Adams. “If I can just tighten my game up here or there, I should be able to have some success in those qualifiers. And from there, we’ll just see what happens.”

Whitsett and Green finished tied for second at 15-under 269, earning $13,675 apiece for the week.

For Whitsett, the T2 finish was quite the debut on the tour’s east coast series after a stellar four-year career in Tuscaloosa.

Corey Nagy

The Houston native was a key cog in the Crimson Tide’s back-to-back NCAA National Championship teams in 2013 and 2014, earning SEC Player of the Year honors in the former.

That same year, Whitsett won the prestigious Northeast Amateur, which helped pave his way onto the U.S. Walker Cup and Palmer Cup teams.

Green’s T2 effort tied his career-best on the eGolf Gateway Tour, dating back to identical finishes at last year’s Mimosa Hills Open and the HGH Hotels Classic at Rock Barn in the summer of 2013.

The runner-up was Green’s third top-15 of the year, and eclipsed his previous season-best of a T5, recorded at the Nova Tax Group Open in March.

Josh Esler of Wauconda, Ill. finished in solo-fourth place at 14-under 270, earning $9,000 for the week.

Esler moved into tournament contention on Sunday with five birdies in his first 12 holes to reach 13-under, and a late birdie on 16 to reach 14-under, but pared Nos. 17 and 18 to finish three shots back.

• Thank you to Mr. and Mrs. Biggs, and the entire staff at Biggs Cadillac Buick GMC for their support of this event. Their commitment to bringing the game’s best up-and-coming stars to the Albemarle Sound area is wonderful.

• Thank you to head golf professional Kenny Saunders and his staff for their tireless work in making this event such a success, from contract through completion. Director of grounds and golf course maintenance Mike Horton, along with his fantastic crew, put forth a great venue for the week, with some of the best conditions the tour has seen all year. The entire staff at The Sound Golf Links is commended for their hard work.

• Last, but certainly not least, a very special thank you to the members and residents of Albemarle Plantation for opening their doors to our players and staff, and making the event feel like a home game for everyone. Their work in volunteering was phenomenal, and the gracious nature with which they cheered on the players gave the event a PGA-TOUR-like atmosphere.

• The tour will be off the next two weeks before returning to action on June 17-19 for the eighth annual Spring Creek Classic, to be contested at Spring Creek Golf Club in Gordonsville, Va.