SCOTTSBORO, Ala. – Seventy-two holes and 283 swings of the golf club just wasn’t quite enough to decide who would be the NJCAA DII Men’s Golf National Champion this year. The final round ended in a three-way tie for first place as Rend Lake College’s David Griffin, Darton College’s Jin Chung and Potomac State’s Brian Affleck took to the tee box for a winner-take-all playoff.

Griffin parred both holes, knocking out Affleck on the first and Chung on the second, to become Rend Lake’s first-ever men’s national golf champion.

“It’s an amazing feeling to be able to spit again,” he joked just minutes before receiving his medalist trophy. “I couldn’t build up any spit in my mouth for about 10 minutes.”

“It was fun to watch,” a speechless RLC Head Coach Dave Smith said.

Griffin came out of the gates with an astounding 66 in the first round Tuesday and held on to the lead through Wednesday with a 70 to follow up. He fell behind Affleck by two strokes with a 76 Thursday and forced the playoff with a 71 on Friday (283 total at -5). He said holding on to the lead was a feeling he wasn’t used to. The first-round 66 is the best he has ever shot on a golf course – tournament or not.

The PING All-American and NJCAA All-Region 24 golfer from Effingham, Ill., qualified for the national tournament by placing third at the Region 24 Tournament earlier this month. The playoff reminded him of the Region 24 Tournament, he said.

“I stuck it close there and I just tried to do the same thing. I tried to get the same feel as I did at Regions.”

“It’s an incredible feeling,” his father, Lee, said of watching his son win the national championship. “It was a nerve-racking week but it’s been worth it. He made it exciting.”

“He played well all spring and I thought there was a good chance he would be an All-American here,” Smith said. “But to come out and win the whole thing – that’s incredible.”

Even after playing well this spring and earning medalist honors at multiple tournaments this season, Griffin felt the best was yet to come and gambled on his future. With a list of recruiters calling, he put them all on hold and rolled his dice to see what his performance on the national stage could mean for the Leroy David Griffin stock. Needless to say, the value has gone up.

He is the 2009 RLC Male Scholar Athlete of the Year and is a shoe-in for NJCAA Academic All-American with a cumulative 3.94 GPA on a 4.0 scale. He has also received an honorable mention for the Scholar Athlete Award from the National Alliance of Two-Year College Athletic Administrators, or NATYCAA.

Ryan Keller, a sophomore from Nashville, Ill., and Jared Harp, a freshman from Benton, Ill., also represented RLC at the national championships. Harp finished 27th with a 298 (76-73-74-75) and Keller finished in a tie for 33rd with a 301 (75-76-75-75). The Warriors came one shot short of qualifying as a team at the Region 24 Tournament. That one stroke came in an unprecedented team playoff with Parkland College. The RLC trio of Griffin, Keller and Harp at nationals qualified as individuals at the regional. Smith said, with a brand new team coming in next year, RLC’s first team title could be on the horizon.

“Who knows?” he said.