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hard work had paid off

for Napoli, because he

made the holes he
needed to make twice,

he closed with a 10,

shooting the lowest
round in the tournament

– 21. Napoli aced 15
holes in a row, which was

subdued in comparison

to his feat of shooting an 18 and making 19 in a row in 1979. However,
this time he had more folks watching him play his final hole of the

round than he would ever had imagined. He also now had a 4-stroke

lead with one round to play. Interestingly, when Napoli shot his perfect
round of 18 in May of 1979, he felt like there would be more 18s, and

that a bigger accomplishment would be winning the National

Championship – now he was just one round away from his bigger
accomplishment. Although the final round of a National Championship

is never easy, Napoli could not have been in a better pairing position.

He could see if any players were making a move to close out his lead.
Even though he never looked at the leaderboards – he could sense that

his lead was secure. He closed with an impressive 26 to win by 7
rd
strokes. It is the 3 largest margin of winning. Lee Weldy won the
1961 National Championship by 9 strokes, Daryl Freeman won the 1973

National Championship by 8 strokes, Tony Varnadore won the 2009
National Championship by 8 strokes and Alan Quinnelly won the 1985

National Championship by 7 strokes. However, John Napoli is the only
non-National Professional Putter to win the National Championship. He

registered as a Regional Pro for the 1999 tour.