The North Olympic Peninsula’s best high school golfer can now lay claim as the top amateur player in Clallam County.

Sequim’s Jack Shea posted a final-round 5-under-par 67 and rallied from three strokes back with six holes to play to edge Sid Krumpe by one stroke for the Clallam County Amateur Championship on July 10.

The championship came down to one final putt, as Krumpe had a long putt for birdie and a tie on the 18th green.

“He almost made that 40- or 50-footer,” Shea said.

“It was on a great line and it ended up sneaking past by about a millimeter. My heart was pumping on that one.”

Shea, the back-to-back All-Peninsula boys golf MVP, finished the 54-hole stroke play tournament at 9-under-par 207.

“It was a lot of fun,” Shea said of winning the tournament on his home course, The Cedars at Dungeness. “I played some pretty decent golf for me and I’m glad I was able to win here. I get a pretty solid trophy.”

Shea said he would celebrate the win his with family.

He’s the son of Cedars GM and director of golf Bill Shea.

“We’ve got a barbecue going, so nothing too crazy,” Shea said.

He shot rounds of 72 at Peninsula Golf Course in Port Angeles on July 8 and posted a score of 4-under par 68 at SunLand Golf & Country Club in Sequim on July 9.

Shea entered the final round trailing Krumpe, a member of Cedars’ maintenance crew, by one stroke, and was two back at the turn after a bogey on the ninth hole.

Krumpe’s lead grew to three shots after he birdied the 12th hole.

“After that I knew that I had to make a move if I wanted to win,” Shea said.

Shea did just that, birdying three of the next four holes to take the lead.

“The 13th hole is a short par-4, so I knew chances of him making a birdie were good. I went into attack mode a little bit and hit my driver to about 30 yards from the pin.”

Shea chipped to about seven feet and drained his birdie putt.

“I was fortunate to make that one,” Shea said.

Krumpe, meanwhile, had a good look at a birdie putt but settled for par.

Shea’s length off the tee helped him birdie the par-5 14th and pull within a stroke of the lead.

“I hit a pretty good drive down the right and Sid had to lay up, he was a little further back with his drive. So I went for it and got about pin high off to the left and chipped on for a tap-in birdie.”

Shea continued the birdie spree on the par-4 15th, a hole he called “one of the toughest on the course.”

“I hit a really good drive about 90 yards from the pin then got to 10 feet on my approach shot. That left me with a downhill slider, a difficult putt, but I was able to knock it in.”

Krumpe bogeyed that hole after three-putting.

Both players made par on the 16th hole.

Shea added to his lead with another birdie on the par-3 17th hole.

“The distance was about 160 yards downhill with a pretty tough pin location,” Shea said. “There was nowhere you could have a straight putt.”

Shea hit his tee shot stiff to within 7 feet and managed to send home another tough putt.

“I think if I were to hit 10 putts from that spot I’d probably make two of them and be really happy about that,” Shea said.

Krumpe was just off line with his own birdie attempt on 17.

“I head to the 18th tee and I pull out my 3-wood thinking that was the safest play,” Shea said. “But I pulled my drive to the left, pretty close to the hazard and he pipes one down the middle.”

With the two-stroke lead in hand, Shea decided to aim at the right side of the green and play for bogey.

“I got it up next to the green, chipped on to about 6 feet away, and my par putt lipped out on the low side,” Shea said.

But a tap-in bogey did the trick for the recent Sequim High School graduate who will play at Montana State University-Billings this fall.

“It was so much fun to watch those guys play,” Cedars head pro Garrett Smithson said. “We were in a gallery and following them around the course. Jack’s a stud and I think he’ll do big things at the next level.”

Michael Carman is a reporter with the Olympic Peninsula News Group, which is composed of Sound Publishing newspapers Peninsula Daily News, Sequim Gazette and Forks Forum. He can be contacted at 360-417-3525 or at mcarman@peninsuladailynews.com.