Higton hustles to second Fresno City Am golf title 18 years after he won his first

Jason Higton closed with a 6-under 66 Monday to win the 91st Fresno City Amateur Golf Championship by a stroke at Riverside Golf Course.

Higton, who starred at Bullard High and University of the Pacific, was the 2000 City Am champion. After a brief run at a pro career, he came back home and is selling real estate.

And playing good golf. He coupled Monday’s best round with an opening 70-72 for an 8-under 208 total.

Four players tied at 209: four-time champion Danny Paniccia (72-70-67) who also came on strong Monday; and three who made a run Sunday – Israel Garcia (73-65-71), Michael Cliff (73-64-72) and Blake Bourelle (70-65-74).

It was two strokes back to 211 and a tie for sixth between Alex Sylvan (70-72-69) and Anthony Jason (69-68-74).

First-round leader Michael Pugh (65-74-73–212) was eighth. And three tied for ninth at 214: Scott Travers (73-72-69), Paul Smith (76-67-71) and Ian Oehlschlaeger (70-72-72).

The full field of 156 was cut to 45 (top 40 plus ties) for Monday’s final round.

Other City Am champions were crowned last weekend including Arielle Swan (women, 73-73 to beat an 18-player field), Paniccia (73-70 in Masters), Greg Loosigian (79-74 in Seniors) and Rob Adolph (78-73 in Super Seniors). The handicap flights were won by Daniel Evans (1st Flight) and Manuel Herrera (2nd Flight).

This story was originally published May 28, 2018 at 2:40 PM with the headline "Higton hustles to second Fresno City Am golf title 18 years after he won his first."