WATERFORD TWP. >> John Quigley won the 57th Annual Syron Memorial Tournament, lifting the trophy again after finishing first in 2023, with a final round on Sunday of 1-over 73 at Pontiac Country Club.

“It’s always great to play in this tournament,” said Quigley, who ended the tournament at 5-under par overall. “A lot of guys that I like to play with on a regular basis play in this tournament, and it’s good to come out here. It’s great for the competition and the comradery. It’s always a fun little tournament over the holiday weekend.”

“It’s always hard to win a golf tournament. I’ve been fortunate now to win it twice. It never gets easier,” he added.

A Sterling Heights native, Quigley started the day in second place, three shots behind Jerred Barley, but Quigley put pressure on the leader early, eagling the third hole to move to 8-under par at the time, just two shots behind Barley. But scoring was tough all day, and when Barley ran into trouble with back-to-back double bogeys on the fourth and fifth holes, Quigley took over the lead. He would never give it up.

Quigley played a largely steady round, racking up pars as players around him began to fall off the pace. As others struggled, Quigley’s iron play proved decisive as he was able to navigate the trouble most of the leaders seemed to be in much of the day.

By the 13th hole, Quigley’s lead had ballooned to five strokes even though he was even par for the past eight holes. A double bogey on Hole 14 cut his lead down to three shots, but he was able to right the ship quickly, making par on the next two holes to avoid any serious run of trouble.

When the final group reached the 18th hole, Quigley was hitting iron off the final tee, even though it was a par-5, to make sure he didn’t get into trouble on the final hole of the tournament.

“I lay up frequently on 18 and try not to hit it in that creek. Today, I just wanted to make sure I was well back from that creek so that I had an opportunity to just get up there and have a nice look at par, which was going to give me a cushion to win,” Quigley said.Quigley got his par to finish off his three-day stretch as winner despite feeling as if he could have played better.

“I don’t even like to say this out loud, but I didn’t feel I had good control all weekend. I was just kind of managing the game and making the scores,” Quigley said. “One thing that is fun about playing Pontiac is you’ve got to hit shots around the golf course. You’ve got to run the ball under the trees and through the rough. You’ve got to curve it around the trees. It’s what makes this tournament fun. On paper, you think that a really low score is going to win here. But it never seems to. You just have to golf your ball around here.”

Overall, just one player, Michael Busse, was under par for Sunday’s final round. Busse, who shot a 29 on the back nine — tying a course record — to close the second round, stayed hot to open the third round and went on to card a 3-under 69, which got him into a tie for second place with Austin Kreger.

Meanwhile, last year’s champion, Sean Friel, and three-time winner Anthony Sorrentino finished tied for fourth place. Along with Kreger, those players also carded final round scores of 73. Barley would finish sixth, four shots off the pace.

The tournament also included several smaller contests within the round. Bhavi Sohal, who finished tied for 12th overall, won the longest drive contest. Lucas Millimine won the closest to the pin contest, and Noah Dooley won the most improved player.