Middleburg High senior golfer Chase Carroll blitzed the final nine holes of his second round of play at the FHSAA Class 2A championship tournament at the Mission Inn Resort in Howie in the Hills and then...

Waited and Waited and Waited... before being put into a sudden death overtime playoff with Ponte Vedra High senior Brock Blais that ended after five holes with Carroll missing a state title by a five foot putt.

“The ball circled the hole and spit out,” said Carroll, who was on his fourth trip to the Class 2A championship tournament. “When I made the tying putt on 18, I thought, it just makes the story better. Then we went into overtime.”

The miss ended a dramatic and exciting finish to the Class 2A title; by the tiebreaker to Blais, as Carroll was reliving the equally dramatic overtime finish that big brother Cody Carroll successfully negotiated for his Class 2A title in 2016.

“I started out in the middle of the pairings pack because I was not in the top three after the first round,” said Carroll, who finished with a par 72 on the hilly course. “I got done about an hour before the lead golfers came in, but made up a ton of strokes with two eagles and four birdies to knock down about eight strokes and finish one stroke under par, 143.”

In the final tally, Carroll, who has chased big brother Cody Carroll, now finishing up four college years of golf at the University of North Florida where Chase will follow suit in the fall, sat and watched the leaderboard only to see that Ponte Vedra High senior Brock Blais scorched the first round with a three under par 69 then struggled through the early holes of the second round to let Carroll sneak into contention. Blais would only hit one birdie in his first nine on day two then get set backs with three bogies in the final nine to put Carroll up by one going into the 18th hole.

“I didn’t look at the leaderboard when I got to the final nine, but figured I was pretty far back,” said Carroll. “I just thought I got nothing to lose, but to give it my all. It was my last chance.”

Blais who was the final golfer at the initial tee off at about 10 a.m. had Carroll, who teed off at 9 a.m., in the clubhouse with crossed fingers.

“When he got to the 18th hole, I was one up,” said Carroll. “He had a great drive, but missed the green on his approach, but then hit an insane chip shot to tie the score.”

In the playoff holes, which started in a three-hole loop (18, 1, 17) until one golfer created a stroke lead to determine the winner.

“In the overtime, both golfers went par, bogie, par, par and then he hit birdie and my five foot missed lipped out of the cup and he won,” said Carroll.”I was talking to Cody after I finished my round and he said, no matter what happens, you gave it a hell of a run.”