Good thing Patrick Cover was untouchable for two days of the Southern Amateur. Championship Saturday wasn’t his best round, but it was good enough.

The three-day leader shook off a pair of late bogeys and withstood a late push from S.M. Lee to win the 112th Southern Amateur Championship on Saturday afternoon at The Club at Olde Stone.

Cover won with a 12-under par 276 on the 72-hole challenge, but fired his worst round of the tournament with a 2-over Saturday. A five-stroke lead entering the final round gave him a small cushion, but Lee and Eric Ansett pressed all day to draw up an exciting finish.

“I didn’t play nearly as well as I did the last three days,” Cover said. “I really had to grind, but I did a really good job grinding all day and making a couple of good par putts that kept me in it. Ultimately, I was happy with how I kept the round alive.”

Lee and Ansett kept Cover within striking distance all day after the trio teed off at 10 a.m. Lee pulled within two strokes on No. 12 when he matched a par with Cover’s bogey. Cover fell back with two straight bogeys on Nos. 15 and 16, but Ansett and Lee also bogeyed the 16th to protect the leader’s two-shot advantage.

Pars for Lee and Cover on No. 17 meant Lee would need an eagle and Cover would have to bogey to set up a playoff. Lee placed his second shot just a few feet from the pin and knocked in an easy eagle while Cover preserved the lead with a par for the win.

Lee, a rising junior at Dalton State in Georgia, finished runner-up at 11-under while Ansett, a Spokane, Wash., native who just finished at Lipscomb University in Nashville, finished third at 10-under. Owensboro native and Vanderbilt junior John Augenstein finished tied for fourth at 9-under.

“I knew I was playing for second,” Lee said. “If I did something on 17 and 18, maybe, but I just tried my best out there. (As far as) amateur tournaments, this one is pretty high and it’s good to have this finish on my resume this week.”

The win for Cover highlights an impressive summer as a recent UNC-Wilmington graduate. He won the North Carolina Open last month and qualified recently for his second straight U.S. Amateur. Cover said he’ll keep his amateur status before attempting to turn pro just so he can play the tournament at Pebble Beach next month where a win or runner-up finish gives him an exemption for the 2019 U.S. Open and Master’s tournament.

Cover raced out to the top of the leaderboard by shooting the first two rounds in the 60s, including a course-record 63 on Thursday that featured a 28 on the back nine. His two-stroke lead at the cut stretched to a four-shot edge due to his efficient management of a windy course in the third round.

Lee and Ansett challenged him Saturday, but Cover went to work and held his lead to the finish.

“This was sweet,” Cover said. “This is the biggest win of my life and definitely felt really good to get it done. Winning the North Carolina Open was a nice way to start the summer, but this was a much bigger tournament. There’s some of the world’s best amateurs here and it was a really fun day out there and I was just happy to get it done.”

Bowling Green native Justin Perry was named the low-amateur champion with a score of 1-under for the tournament and tied for 22nd. Western Kentucky redshirt senior Billy Tom Sargent started the tournament with a 4-under par 68 in the first round, then shot over par the next three days to finish at even 288 to tie for 30th.