Okatie, SC – Gusty final-round winds and a 24-hour temperature drop of nearly 30 degrees did little to slow down 54-hole leader Chris Naegel of Chesterfield, MO at the eGolf Tour’s Oldfield Open. The 29-year-old put on a clinic in Saturday’s closing round with four birdies and an eagle at the par-5 11th en route to a 4-under 68 and the $25,000 first-place prize.

The Oldfield Open was the second of 24 scheduled events on the 2012 eGolf Tour schedule, and was contested this week at both Oldfield Country Club and Chechessee Creek Club in Okatie, SC. Competitors played one round on each course over the first 36 holes, while the final 36 holes were conducted solely at Oldfield.

Naegel, a former Missouri Baptist University golfer, held a share of the tournament’s 36-hole lead and sole possession of the 54-hole lead following opening rounds of 66-70-69 at the demanding Greg Norman-designed Oldfield Country Club course.

With a 9:30 AM final-round tee time, Naegel stepped out of his car and was greeted by temperatures in the mid-40s and wind gusts up to 25 mph, just 24 hours removed from a high temperature of 78 degrees in the South Carolina Lowcountry.

“I was pretty surprised when I got to the course this morning,” said Naegel. “You don’t think of weather like that when you think of the South, but being from the Midwest, I felt like it kind of gave me an advantage. I spent the winter practicing in some bad weather back home in St. Louis.”

While the arduous conditions took their toll on the vast majority of players in the field, Naegel seemed to play his Saturday round in a bubble.

Early birdies at Nos. 1, 4 and 8 moved Naegel to 12-under for the round and one shot clear of playing partner Will Collins of Salisbury, NC, who also birdied three of his first eight holes.

On Oldfield’s closing nine, Naegel took control of the tournament on Nos. 10 through 13. A par on the par-4 10th gave way to an eagle at the par-5 11th, and when Naegel birdied the drive-able par-4 12th, he had stretched his lead to two over Collins (who posted bogey-birdie-eagle over that same stretch).

“That was actually a pretty fun stretch, with the eagles and birdies,” Naegel said. “It was there that it kind of became a two-man race.”

At the par-3 13th, Collins pulled his tee shot into the water fronting the left part of the green, and played his way into a title-crushing double-bogey at the difficult one-shotter. A par by Naegel took the two to the 14th, with Naegel now stretching his lead to four shots. When Collins posted a follow-up bogey at 14, Naegel’s lead was five and the tournament seemed all but solidified.

Matching bogeys at the par-3 16th kept Naegel five clear of Collins, but just four clear of Gator Todd of Florence, AL, who had crept up the leaderboard to post a final-round 68 and a clubhouse total of 10-under 276.

“I made about a 20-foot bogey putt at 16, which kept me four ahead,” said Naegel. “The difference between a four-shot lead and a three-shot lead with two holes to play is huge, so that was a big putt for me.”

Pars at the docile par-4 17th took Naegel and Collins to the double-dogleg par-5 closing hole, where the former found the back fringe with three shots.

“That was really the first time all day that I exhaled,” said Naegel. “I just wanted to find the green and keep it out of the water. Once I saw it hit land, I relaxed a little bit.”

With a multitude of putts to play with, courtesy of his four-shot lead, Naegel three-putted the 72nd green for a closing bogey, a final-round 68, a four-day total of 13-under 273, and his first professional title.

“Wow, it feels great. Just to know that I can set my own schedule for the rest of the year, between playing out here and Monday qualifiers, it’s awesome,” and elated Naegel said after the round. “It really means a lot. Hopefully it’s a sign of good things to come this year.”

For Collins, short birdie misses at both 17 and 18 kept him in solo third at 9-under 277. The former University of Virginia golfer, playing his first year of professional golf, earned $10,390 for his efforts in just his second pro start.

Runner-up honors went to Todd, who matched Naegel’s 68 with one of his own as the two tied for the day’s low score amidst the difficult wind, in turn posting the only two rounds in the 60s on Saturday. The runner-up finish was far and away the best finish of Todd’s eGolf Tour career, and came with a check for $14,100.

Todd, the son of former University of Alabama and New York Jets quarterback Richard Todd, is in his third full season on the eGolf Tour and is coming off of a 2011 campaign in which he was arguably the tour’s most improved player. In 2010, Todd competed in 10 eGolf Tour events, making just one cut – a T15 at the Cowans Ford Open; however, the former Alabama golfer bounced back admirably in 2011 with 11 made cuts in 15 starts and seven top-25 finishes, including five in his last seven events on the year.

The diehard Alabama football fan took yet another step forward in his pro career last December, when he finished T120 at PGA TOUR Q-School finals to earn conditional status on the 2012 Nationwide Tour.

Finishing in solo-fourth place with rounds of 66-71-71-71—279 was George Bryan IV of Chapin, SC. The former University of South Carolina “All American” was 1-under through 13 holes of his final round before ending in roller coaster fashion with a bogey-birdie-double bogey-birdie-birdie finish over his closing five holes. The fourth-place finish, the best of Bryan’s eGolf Tour career, came with a check for $8,421.

Tying for fifth at 6-under 280 were Chesson Hadley of Raleigh, NC and Paul Cormack of nearby Bluffton, SC.

Cormack, a native of Scotland but longtime resident of Bluffton, was the welcome surprise of the tournament. Entering the week, Cormack had made just 3 of 26 cuts on the eGolf Tour since the start of the 2008 season, but posted rounds of 70-68-70-72—280 to grab his first top-10. Both Cormack and Hadley earned $6,749 for their play.

• A special thanks goes to Oldfield Country Club Director of Golf Jon Hundley, Chechessee Creek Club General Manager Franklin Newell, and their respective staffs for coordinating this event and hosting the tour and our players for the week. Thank you to Oldfield Head Golf Course Superintendent Brian Roller, Chechessee Creek Head Golf Course Superintendent Bill Kennedy, and their crews for their work on both courses this week. Both venues were in fantastic shape from tee to green. Last but not least, thank you to the members of Oldfield and Chechessee Creek for allowing the tour to use your golf courses for the week.

• The tour will take the next two weeks off before returning to action for the Pine Needles Classic on March 14-17, 2012. The 72-hole event will be contested at both the Pine Needles Resort (Southern Pines, NC) and Seven Lakes Country Club (Seven Lakes, NC).