Oh, so close

The News
SUTHERLANDS RIVER - Oh, what might have been.
That's what Brian Affleck thought about all day Sunday, after the Nova Scotia Men's Amateur golf championship at Lingan, in?Cape Breton.
Affleck started the tournament with a six-under 66 on the Par 72 layout, and had the lead all to himself.
He remained in the Top 5 all week and finished with a solo fifth, but he had his chances.
"I'm still thinking, about it," said Affleck on Monday.
"It'll be a few more days before I can swallow it. It was in the palm of my hand with four holes to play."
On Saturday, trailing by three with a round to play, Affleck got to 1-under at the turn and was right in the thick of things, then vaulted into a tie for first on the tenth with an eagle; hitting a lob wedge to eight feet on the 470-yard par five.
"When I made that putt, I was like, 'I'm tied for the lead, I can do this'," He recalled.
He gave that right back on the short par-4 11th when a poor tee shot led to a double bogey, his lone double in four days.
Affleck promptly had back-to-back birdies, and again held a share of the lead. "I told myself, 'I'm back in it'."
But the long-hitting lefty three-putted for bogey on 15, three-putted for par on the par-5 16th, had another three-putt bogey on 17 and bogeyed the final hole.
"The putter let me down, when it's most important," he admitted. "I tried to force birdies and made bogeys."
Affleck was -11 on the par 5s during the tournament, and was -1 on the par 3s. Yet he was +9 on the par 4s (+5 on Saturday alone), which proved to be his undoing.
"Most of my three putts (all week) were on the par fours, and that's what killed me."
He finished with a 73 on the day, 3-under for the tournament, four behind Hartlan Point's Sean Hurley and Ashburn's David Williamson, who won in a playoff.
Affleck, who will enter his sophomore season this fall at Potomac State College in West Virginia, has been invited to play at the East Coast Barrett tournament next month in St. Andrew's, N.B.
That event is considered the second biggest amateur golf tournament in Canada, attracting golfers from around the world.
Right now, however, he's disappointed he couldn't finish the job at the Nova Scotia Amateur.
"I'm still kicking myself, but you can only learn from experience. Next time I'm in that position I'll know what to do."
His fifth-place result makes him an alternate on the provincial Willingdon Cup team.
Notes... Pictou County native Graham MacIntyre of Ashburn Golf Club celebrated the 40th anniversary of his first Amateur title last week.
MacIntyre is a four-time Nova Scotia Amateur champion (three of them won when he was a member at Abercrombie) and won his first at Lingan Golf Club in 1968.
He finished 13th on the weekend. The most recent Pictou County resident to win the N.S. Amateur was John T. MacLeod, who won at Abercrombie in 1986, his second provincial championship. His first came in 1971, when MacLeod was a junior-aged competitor.