Most of the field was playing for second on Sunday at the Anniston Country Club as Garrett Burgess secured his substantial lead and won his second straight Wilfred Galbraith ACC Invitational championship.

Burgess wanted to start out strong and try to cruise to victory, he said, after putting together a five-stroke lead after Saturday's second round.

He did just that, and ended up winning the event by nine strokes over second-place finisher Jeremy McGatha.

"It feels good, I was 2 under par through nine so I did what I had to do to stay in control," Burgess said. "I did everything I had to do to keep (the lead) at seven or eight shots."

Burgess was solid all weekend and had his first even-par round Sunday to clinch the tournament. He shot 1-under on Friday and shot a 4-under Saturday.

"All three days I hit it good and played my game," Burgess said. "I played down to the course, I understood where you had to be and certain places you had to be and I didn't have one three-putt for the whole weekend."

Staying away from three-putts was a common factor in finishing at the top of the leaderboard on the fast greens at Anniston Country Club.

Runner-up McGatha finished 4-over. He got through the 54 tournament holes with only one three-putt.

"It feels good (to finish second) because I really did not play well," McGatha said. "I really was not on my game. Just to fight around and get up and down and make some putts to finish second, it feels good."

McGatha's finish was still enough to hold off Burgess for the points lead in the Best of the Best standings. Burgess sits in second place.

Matt Rogers was the player closest to Burgess coming into the final day, but a rough front nine dropped him out of contention and he dropped to fourth.

"I didn't play good at all, Garrett did." Rogers said. "Today I just played bad, I just wasn't feeling it. It just wasn't there. Wish I played better (Sunday) but for the way I played … fourth is better than nothing."

Jaylon Ellison was the leader after the opening round of the tournament, but struggled on Day Two. His final round 73 was still good enough to secure third.

"I had second in my eyes but just didn't capitalize," Ellison said. "But Jeremy is a good player and for Garrett to play as well as he did for three days, it's impressive."

With the win, Burgess also broke a tie with McGatha for the most career wins in the Best of the Best series with his fifth. McGatha has four career victories.

Burgess has now won at least one series event in each of the three years of the Best of the Best series, joining McGatha and Ott Chandler as the only golfers to do so.

Sunday's championship flight had three levels. Burgess, Gary Wigington and Cypress Hathorn won championship flights A, B and C respectively.

Of the five lower flights, Ron McClellan, Dan Griffin, Eric Douglas, Matt Hunter and Tony Strickland each won.

The next Best of the Best tournament will take place on the first weekend of August at Pine Hill.