DALTON, Ga.—Brandon Cissom was beginning to wonder what it would take to win a tournament on the Chattanooga area amateur golf circuit.

Already this season, he’d lost in a playoff (Brainerd) and finished fifth at Signal Mountain despite opening rounds of 67-69. In previous years, there was another playoff defeat and a couple of other top-five finishes.

After Sunday, Cissom has to wonder no more. He’s finally found the formula: Shoot 62 in the first round and hang on.

That’s how the North Georgia Invitational played out for Cissom at the Dalton Golf and Country Club: In Saturday’s first round he shot the best competitive round of his life, a 10-under-par 62, and he followed with a 72 on Sunday for a 134 total and a four-shot lead over good friend and frequent playing partner Matt Robertson (69-69—138).

The two mid-amateurs, both of whom played college golf at Lee, held off a talented array of collegians: Vanderbilt’s Will Snipes finished a stroke behind Robertson in third place, followed by Hudson Keener (140) and UTC’s Benjamin Weilponi (141).

“Finally,” said Cissom, whose lead was trimmed to a single shot on the back nine after consecutive bogeys at No. 13 and 14 and Robertson’s hot start to the back nine: he birdied the first three holes to get to 8-under for the tournament. “I was beginning to think would I never win one of these things.”

Cissom might have pulled out the victory on his own, but he had a bit of help from the weather. Robertson, who also made three birdies on the front nine, was blistering on the back nine and Cissom, who played in the group behind his friend, knew what was happening. But then came an hour rain delay, and then, minutes after Dalton head professional Lowell Fritz allowed play to resume, another storm pelted the course and halted play for an additional 25 minutes.

“That first rain delay was OK,” Robertson said. “That second one was the one that got me. It basically put me on ice.”

Still, Robertson had his chances. He stood on the 16^th tee just a shot behind Cissom, but he bogeyed the par-3. A three-putt bogey on No. 18 doomed his chances.

Meanwhile, after his own rain-delay induced struggles, Cissom knocked his approach to within five feet at No. 17, but missed his birdie putt, then finished with a flair and a birdie at No. 18 for the four-shot final margin.

After the round, Cissom talked about how difficult it is to follow a low round. But he was still proud of that 62, which included 10 birdies and an eagle.

Robertson, who played with Cissom on Saturday, was in awe—after his opening 69, he trailed his friend by seven strokes. What’s a brother got to do?

“He’s got that in him,” Robertson said. “He’s always had that in him. He’s so long [off the tee], that when he gets a wedge in his hand … he’s pretty good with his wedges.”

“That was fun,” Cissom said. “I didn’t make a putt over 20 feet, and actually I don’t think I had a putt over 20 feet. Just a lot of eight-to-ten footers and the putts were going in. I’d had rounds like that before, where I was six under through 10 or 11 and then finished out with a bunch of pars.

“This time I tried to stay aggressive.”