MARQUETTE — Last year, it was understandable that a member of Wawonowin Country Club might win the Upper Peninsula Golf Association annual championship tournament.

That was because the tournament was held at that Ely Township course.

And maybe it wouldn’t even be surprising if Wawonowin got to crow about another win this year at the Gladstone Golf Club, considering the event’s two-time defending champion was Wawonowin’s Mark Clements.

But what happened instead on Sunday was a Wawonowin domination at the top of the standings, with three players from the club finishing in the top four of the standings at this 111th version of the UPGA championship.

Clements, 52, didn’t get his three-peat, instead finishing third after fellow Wawonowin member Carter Mason, exactly half his age at 26, won on the second playoff hole after tying in regulation with Bryson Mercier of Wild Pines Golf Club of Hermansville.

While Mason and Mercier shot four-round — really 3 1/2-round — totals of 250, Clements was next, six back. Filling in the Wawonowin group at the top of the standings was Tyler Annala, tied for fourth one stroke back of Clements.

Half of Saturday’s third round was washed out, with only front-nine scores counting, according to the Wawonowin Facebook website.

Mason rolled up steady rounds of 73, 73, 33 and 71 for his 250, while Mercier came back well after an opening 77 with 72, 32 and 69 for his 250.

Clements was in contention, totaling 73, 75, 36 and 72 for 256, while Annala had 78, 70, 35, 74 for 257. Also shooting 257 was Chad Tirschel of Pine Grove Country Club in Iron Mountain, his rounds being 70, 74, 37 and 76.

Tirschel and Joe Quinn of the home Gladstone club were tied after the first round with 70. Tirschel tried to take a stranglehold on the lead after two rounds with 144, second being Mason with 146 and third Quinn with 147. Clements and Annala were next with 148, while Mercier, Brian Smith of the Oaks at Kincheloe, Nate Rousseau of Gladstone and Joe Strong of the Ontonagon Golf Club were all at 149.

The rest of the dozen players who made the cut for the championship flight each shot 150 — Boden Moore of the Marquette Golf Club, Larry Bratonia of Gladstone and Brian Robinette of Terrace Bluff Golf Club of Gladstone.

Moore finished the event with rounds of 76, 74, 38 and 73.

Four golfers from Marquette were also just a few strokes behind that top dozen in the championship flight and played in the first flight.

Scott Prunick was the closest at 151 as he finished tied for sixth in the flight with a final total of 265.

Sevvy Swanson had the best finish of the Marquette quartet, totaling 153 for his first 36 holes and a 262 total to come in tied for third in the first flight, five strokes behind flight winner Marino Pisani of Portage Lake Golf Course in Houghton.

The other Marquette first-flighters were Chris Rhoades, who tied Prunick for sixth with 265, and Rick Rhoades, who was eighth with 266.

Three more Marquette golfers and one from Wawonowin played in the second flight — Easton Aho and John Wuennenberg, both of Marquette, were part of a three-way tie for fourth at 272, Joe Luke of Marquette was eighth with 274 and Ryan Tunteri of Wawonowin 11th with 281.

With former Marquette Senior High School golfer Tyler Bergwall winning the third flight with 269, three current Marquette County golfers also competed in that flight — Lincoln Sager of Marquette was fifth with 279, Nash Soli of Wawonowin sixth with 281 and Austin Soli of Wawonowin tied for ninth with 289.

Back in the championship flight, while Clements has four of these championships — he also won it in 1997, 2001 and 2023, the last at Portage Lake — Mason won this title for the first time.

Mason, a 2017 graduate of Negaunee High School and 2021 graduate of Northern Michigan University, had starred on the golf team at each of those schools.

And he’d made a run at this title before. He was third in the championship flight in 2020, sixth in that top flight in 2023, and won the first flight last year and in 2018.

Annala starred as a golfer at Westwood High School, where he graduated in 2022, and he will be a senior on the NMU men’s golf team this school year.

Despite totaling a 2-under-par total last year, he finished a distant second in the championship flight when Clements blew the field away for an 11-stroke victory, while Annala also won the first flight in 2023 after competing in the second flight for several years before that.

One other interesting sidelight is that Mason’s victory this year keeps the UPGA champion in Marquette County for the fourth straight year. Clements won the past two and former NMU golfer Chris Black of Marquette won in 2022.

Despite that dominance, the only other Marquette County-based golfers to win the UPGA title since Clements’ 2001 triumph was Dan Ellis of Wawonowin taking it in 2008 and 2011.

Story contents based on an examination of the UPGA website, upga.org. Journal Sports Editor Steve Brownlee’s email address is sbrownlee@miningjournal.net.