Morganton, N.C. – On Tuesday afternoon at Mimosa Hills Country Club, for the first time in his four-year professional golf career, Kevin McLister of Charlotte, N.C. pictured himself winning an event on the eGolf Gateway Tour. Specifically, the third annual Mimosa Hills Open.

The former University of Delaware golfer made good on his own premonition, posting rounds of 66-62-66-66—260 (20-under) for his first career tour title and the event’s $13,500 first-place prize.

McLister entered Saturday’s final round at the 1929 Donald Ross-designed course at 16-under par and in possession of a one-shot lead over Daniel Claytor of Rocky Mount, N.C.

With a stacked leaderboard and nine players within four shots of the lead, McLister ideally set out to run and hide from the field on a venue yielding far more red figures than average.

Instead, the 26-year-old struggled, posting just one birdie and one bogey over his first 12 holes to sit at a pedestrian even par on the round and 16-under for the week, trailing Lanto Griffin of Blacksburg, Va. and Michael Cromie of Cary, N.C. by one after the charging duo turned in 5-under 30 and 4-under 31, respectively.

Kevin McLister

As luck would have it, ignorance was pure bliss for McLister, who kept his head down and his eye on the eventual prize throughout the day.

“My plan going into the day was that I would look at a leaderboard if I wanted to, but as the day went on I decided I didn’t want to look,” he said. “I’m a very reactive person, so I didn’t even watch a single shot my playing partners hit.”

After bogeying the par-4 11th to fall one back of Griffin and Cromie, McLister had a harsh talk with himself on No. 12, trying to spark a birdie run – or maybe even some general interest in the round.

“On 12 green, I told myself, ‘This is boring,’” he said. “I was hitting it to 30 feet on every hole, and making absolutely nothing. It was just boring golf. I knew I had to do something.”

On the par-3 13th, McLister delivered, lacing a 6-iron from 207 yards to (you guessed it) 30 feet in the center of the green, and converting the lengthy putt for a birdie to vault to 17-under par, back in a tie for the lead.

“I hit it right on my spot on 13, right in the middle of the green,” he said. “I’ve had this game plan of playing high-percentage golf this week, and I told myself not to fire at the pin. I did it all week and it put me into this spot.”

McLister seized control of the lead on the uphill, par-5 14th with a 6-iron second shot to 20 feet and an unlikely eagle putt, which found the bottom of the hole after breaking nearly 4 feet across a classic Donald Ross putting surface.

“I kind of knew after that putt that I would finish well,” said McLister. “I just had that feeling.”

The back-nine charge continued on the par-4 15th, when a wedge from 75 yards landed 2 feet short of the pin and rolled out to 11 feet.

“Over that putt I was just telling myself to keep your foot on the gas,” said McLister, who converted the putt to reach 20-under par. “All week, minus-20 was the number in my head. That was the number I wanted to get to.”

After Griffin stalled on the back nine with an even-par 35, Cromie stood alone as McLister’s most likely foe down the stretch, with birdies on 14, 15 and 16 pushing the former Georgia Bulldog to 19-under par – just one shot back in the day’s penultimate threesome.

McLister pared Nos. 16 and 17 to remain at 20-under before asking his father Mike, who was on the final-round bag, how they stood.

“I thought I was up by three on No. 18 tee, but my dad said it was just one,” said McLister, who missed Cromie’s name was scanning the leaderboard on 17 for the first time all day. “At that point I figured out that Michael was the guy in the purple shirt in front of me.”

Needing to convert a 60-foot birdie bomb at the last to match McLister at 20-under par, Cromie instead three-putted as the tournament leader watched from the 18th fairway.

From the right rough, McLister hit his second shot short of the green before pitching up to 6 feet beneath the hole.

With two putts for the win, the Leesburg, Va. native used just one, casually rolling in one last par putt for a final-round 66 and the first win of his eGolf Gateway Tour career.

“I’ve been playing well this year. I haven’t played great out here, but I’ve really had some good signs in Web.com Monday qualifiers and my local U.S. Open qualifying,” said McLister, who notched his first top-10 in over a year at last week’s Spring Creek Classic. “I just knew it was a matter of time before I went off in one of these, and it just happened to be this week.”

Michael Cromie

For McLister, the win validates years of hard work and effort after a decision to turn pro following a solid career as one of the Blue Hens’ all-time best performers.

His Tuesday imagery came on the heels of a pair of practice rounds that put forth a 16-under-par total, but more importantly, kept him in the right frame of mind for a game that demands it.

“I just want to keep playing. I’m excited to play – it’s fun. I’m hitting the shot that I want to hit now as opposed to trying to conform to a certain way of playing golf,” he said. “I want to shape the ball, I want to hit it far, I want to create shots. I’m allowing myself to do that now.”

Cromie, in his first full year on tour, finished alone in second place at 18-under 262. He earned $8,500 for the career-best effort.

The former UGA standout struggled early in 2015 with four missed cuts to open the year, but has since made four of five cuts to get his game back on track.

Cromie cemented his legacy in Carolinas’ amateur golf lore last summer when he won the prestigious North & South Amateur at Pinehurst No. 8, in turn becoming the first player in history to win both the junior and amateur versions of the well-known event.

In the championship match, Cromie twice delivered unlikely hole-outs for eagle – once from 75 yards and again from 155 yards – on his way to defeating Corey Connors for the title.

Lanto Griffin

Griffin, Claytor and Rick Lamb of South Bend, Ind. finished in a three-way tie for third at 17-under 263. They each earned $5,091.

For Claytor, the T3 tied a career-best effort on the eGolf Gateway Tour, set at last year’s Mimosa Hills Open, where he finished three shots back of winner T.J. Howe.

The former Barton College golfer and current assistant coach was the tournament’s 18- and 36-hole leader after rounds of 60-66—126 (14-under), and actually held a four shot lead through 13 holes on day three before a double-bogey on 14 unraveled his week.

Chase Parker of Augusta, Ga. and Taylor Dickson of Gastonia, N.C. finished tied for sixth at 16-under par. Both players earned $3,625.

• The eGolf Gateway Tour would like to thank Mimosa Hills head golf professional Jimmy Piercy, pro emeritus Dan Dobson, and their staff for their efforts in coordinating this third-year event and assisting the tour on multiple fronts. A special thanks goes to golf course superintendent Dan Winters and his crew for their tireless efforts in presenting such a well-manicured course this week. Last but certainly not least, the tour would like to thank the members of Mimosa Hills for allowing us to use their club, and for their efforts in volunteering.

• The tour will be off next week before returning to action with the 11th annual Imperial Headwear Southern Open, to be contested at The Club at Irish Creek in Kannapolis, N.C. on July 8-11, 2015.