At that point in time, he hadn’t even won the event since 2001.

Then at this time last year he traveled north to the Portage Lake Golf Course near Houghton and pulled off his third overall UPGA tourney win — he first won it in 1997 — at the spry, not-quite-old age of 50.

“Last year was quite a shock to me,” the Ishpeming resident said after he did defend his title on Saturday at his home course, Wawonowin Country Club in Champion.

Last year’s win was a relatively comfortable margin of four strokes over the previous year’s winner, Chris Black of the Marquette Golf Club.

Tyler Annala
From Northern Michigan University men’s golf team webpage

But this year, Clements pretty much blew the field away with an 11-stroke victory over runner-up and fellow Wawonowin member Tyler Annala, a 2022 Westwood High School graduate and current member of the Northern Michigan University men’s golf team.

The now 51-year-old Clements shot under par all four rounds for a 13-under-par total of 275.

His opening-round 70 last Wednesday didn’t even put him in the lead, instead leaving him a stroke behind eventual third-place finisher Chris Rhoades of the Marquette Golf Club.

“I felt like I played better than my score indicated on Wednesday,” Clements said. “I just didn’t make a lot of putts.”

That wasn’t the case in Thursday’s second round, when his 66 was the lowest round shot by any of the 68 entrants on any day of the event.

“I putted so well that day,” the eventual winner said. “I missed a short putt on (No.) 2 for a bogey, and that was the only one of those all day.

“I had a few pars after that, then was able to put together some birdies later in the round.”

That gave him a four-stroke lead over Annala and Rhoades, who each opened with a 71 and 69, Annala starting with 71 and Rhoades opening with 69.

By that point, Clements also led eventual fourth-place finisher Scott Prunick of Marquette by seven, Prunick opening with 71-72, and the now four-time champ had at least 10 strokes on the rest of the field.

The final two rounds were played in more challenging conditions, according to Clements — mostly rain that delayed Friday’s third-round start; then windy, cool weather for Saturday’s final round.

His 2-under 70 on Friday and 3-under 69 on Saturday actually opened up more strokes on the rest of the field than his 66 did on Thursday.

“Yeah, there was a little weather on Friday, then I was just trying to avoid a big number on Saturday — actually, I’m always trying to avoid a big number in these tournaments,” Clements said.

Annala finished at 2-under 286 on rounds of 71, 69, 74 and 72, while Rhoades came in at a 2-over 290 with 69-71-75-75.

Twelve players were placed into the championship flight based on their scores after the first two days, a majority of them in that flight being from Marquette County.

Prunick finished fourth at 3-over, 71-72-73-75–291, while Black, a former NMU golfer who is a native of Northern Ireland, was fifth at 8-over, 75-74-74-73–296.

Nick Markell of Pine Grove Golf Club in Iron Mountain was the highest finisher outside Marquette County, finishing sixth at 10-over with 75-75-74-74–298.

Then came Robert Luke of Marquette, seventh at 12-over, 77-73-77-73–300, and Matt Argall, a longtime Gladstone resident who spent his earliest years in the Ishpeming area, coming in eighth at 16-over, 72-74-73-85–304.

In ninth was Nash Soli, a Wawonowin member even while living in Green Bay, Wisconsin, who was 22-over with 73-75-83-79–310.

Coming in 10th was Jordon Mason, a former Negaunee High School golfer and Wawonowin member, at 24-over with 73-77-87-75–312, followed by Tim Kramer of Riverside Golf Club in Menominee in 11th at 25-over with 73-77-81-82–313, and finally in the championship flight, Darren Niemi of Wyandotte Hills in Twin Lakes, 12th at 29-over with 78-71-88-80–317.

Carter Mason, Jordan Mason’s brother and also a past NHS golfer and also a previous golfer at NMU, won the first flight at 15-over with 79-73-78-73–303, one stroke ahead of Joe Strong of the Ontonagon Country Club and Matt Topel of Riverside.

Jack Pond, who was a sophomore in the spring on the Marquette Senior High School boys golf team, won the second flight at 20-over with 79-77-74-78–308.

Jim Pericolosi of Pine Grove won the third flight at 30-over with 81-78-80-79–318, while Phil Pennel of Marquette took the fourth flight, also at 30-over with 87-79-76-76–318.

Collin Gagnon of Sweetgrass Golf Club in Harris took the fifth flight at 45-over with 77-95-83-78–333, while Dan Swanson of Wawonowin won the sixth and final flight with 88-95-94-84–361.

Information compiled by Journal Sports Editor Steve Brownlee. His email address is sbrownlee@miningjournal.net.