Goodyear, AZ---South Mountain Community College claimed it's second NJCAA Division II men's golf championship Friday, and the first title under 3^rd-year coach Jake Harrington who graduated from SMCC while playing golf for the Cougars in 2002 where they finished 5^th in the nation as a team at ironically the same golf course that would give him his first NJCAA title as a head coach.

The Cougars would open the tournament with a share of the lead after shooting 1-over par 289, with Darton College who won the National Championship in 2005, 2006, and 2007. Local rival Mesa Community College would end the day at 291 just 2 shots back of the lead. Davis Garner lead the Cougars in the opening round by posting a 1-under total of 71 while his fellow Sophomores, Trent Ka'ahanui and Branden Barron would post even par rounds of 72, and Freshman Nick Umholtz would card a round of 2-over 74.

In the second round Mesa Community College took the field by storm posting a 10-under round of 278 in the morning wave. The Cougars would fight the wind that came in the afternoon wave to post a 2-under par round of 286 which would put the Cougars 6 shots back of the Thunderbirds and Darton would post 292 to be 6 shots back of SMCC in 3^rd place. Garner would continue to lead the Cougars with another under par round of 70 while Umholtz, Barron, and Burgess would card rounds of 72 to round out the team total.

Trailing Mesa at the halfway point was familiar territory for the Cougars as they trailed Mesa by 13 shots at the halfway point of Regional's just two weeks earlier, before rallying back to win the Region Championship by 13 shots. Coach Harrington when asked if he was worried about the team's position after round two responded, "I actually think it is a great spot for us to be in. We have played against Mesa all year and we know what they are capable of and I think with Mesa coming out as strong as they did in the second round they actually demoralized a large portion of the field behind us. I just reminded my guys about what we did in regional's and told them that we cannot win the tournament in the first two days but our goal was to put ourselves in a position to make a move and win the tournament going into the weekend and we have put ourselves in that position."

In the third round, the Cougars who were paired with Mesa and Darton would make their move by posting another round of 2-under par 286 and jumping out to a 4 shot lead over Mesa Community College who posted a round of 296, a 6 shot lead on Darton who posted a round of 288, and a 24 shot lead on defending champions John A. Logan College. Davis Garner would continue his leadership role for the Cougars by posting his 3^rd consecutive under par round by shooting 3-under 69, Umholtz and Barron would card even par rounds of 72 for the second straight day, and Ka'ahanui shot 73.

Palm Valley would grit its teeth with a combination of wind and tough pin positions in the final round as South Mountain, Mesa, and Darton, would fight through the worst of conditions being in the leader group. The defending national champions John A. Logan, with great closing power in 4^th place, would do their best to fight back into contention in an earlier wave of teams carding a final round of 291. However, the low round of the day would not be enough to catch South Mountain Community College who had built a 24 shot lead over John A. Logan entering the final round. The Cougars would shoot a round of 305, which would be the best round of the leader group and give the Cougars their second national championship in school history and first under third year coach and former South Mountain Community College alumnus Jake Harrington. Garner would remain the low individual for the Cougars and finish as the National Runner-Up after rattling the flagstick on his final chip at 18, which would have put him in a tie with Marcelo Roza at 4-under par for Medalist honors.

The Cougars would leave Palm Valley with four All-Americans, having Davis Garner and Branden Barron finishing as 1^st Team All-American's, Trent Ka'ahanui finishing as a 2^nd Team All-American, and Nick Umholtz finishing as an Honorable Mention All-American.

"Winning the National Championship has been a dream of mine ever since I started coaching three years ago for South Mountain. It was a long summer for me after we finished in 3^rd place at nationals last year after we had a 1-shot lead going into the final round. I believe I had the team too fired up going into the final round at nationals last year so I did the opposite this year and just told the team to go out there and enjoy the moment, because if we play the course one shot at a time and don't worry about anybody else nobody can beat us!"