Nick Mason holds on to win Utah Open

FARMINGTON — It seems like any golfer would want as large a lead as possible going into the final round of a big tournament like the Siegfried & Jensen Utah Open.

Not Nick Mason.

The 28-year-old pro from Denver began the day with a five-stroke lead but had to hang on for dear life to edge defending champion Nathan Lashley by one stroke Sunday afternoon at Oakridge Country Club.

"Sleeping on a five-shot lead is not the most fun thing in the world," said Mason. "I knew it wasn't going to be easy. All those guys coming for me had nothing to lose, and I had everything to lose."

Indeed. While Mason shot a final-round 71 for a 12-under-par 204 total, the next five finishers shot 64, 65, 66, 64 and 66 on a near-perfect day at Oakridge.

"To shoot 8-under-par today is just scary," he said of his challengers. "It was unreal to beat those guys."

Mason admitted he was quite nervous coming down the stretch when he barely made a 3-foot par putt at 17 and just missed hitting into the trees at No. 18. But after sinking a short putt at No. 18 to win, he couldn't have been happier.

"It's the coolest thing in the world," he said. "This is the biggest win of my career, by far. This means everything to me."

Mason, who said he was "flirting with disaster" all day, had to hold off his good friend Lashley, who nearly duplicated last year's feat of shooting a final-round 63, but instead shot 64.

Lashley actually made up an eight-stroke deficit and was tied for the lead with two holes remaining. However, he bogeyed the tricky 17th green with a three-putt from 30 feet, which dropped him back to 11-under par.

"I thought that putt would be extremely fast," he said of his 30-footer. Instead, he left the putt four feet short, and his next putt slid by on the right side.

"I wasn't really thinking about winning at the start of the day," said Lashley. "If I could only play the first two rounds like the last round the last two years."

Mason called Sunday "one of the most stressful rounds I've ever played." He missed the fairway on most of his front-nine drives and had to keep getting up and down for par. Mason said he had about a half-dozen putts in the 10- to 12-foot range but made them all.

"You're almost shocked when the ball goes in the hole every time. I shouldn't be making all these putts for par, but I guess all the guys in front of me were making those putts for birdie, so I had to make them."