WIESBADEN-DOTZHEIM, Germany — Nursing a one-stroke lead on the final hole of the DODDS-Europe high school golf championships, Ramstein junior Craig Herron didn’t much care for the position of his ball after his third shot on Rheinblick’s 480-yard, par-5 18th.

Herron, who had just hit out of a fairway bunker, was looking at a 65-foot downhill putt to the lower tier of a green that was tricky in every way possible.

“When I hit it up there, I thought I was in trouble,” Herron said. “It was more stress than I wanted to deal with.”

First-round leader Gavon Byrd of Ramstein was on the green in three, his ball 12 feet from the cup. A birdie from him and a par from Herron would tie the match and force a playoff.

It became moot when Herron’s putt started slowly and picked up speed as it broke left toward the hole. The ball struck the far side of the cup dead-center, hopped up four inches or so and dropped into the hole. The improbable birdie completed a round of 91 for a two-day, 36-hole total of 179 and a two-stroke victory.

The putt ended a furious duel with Byrd, who had surrendered seven strokes to Herron on the front nine but regained all but one of them by the time the two teed off on No. 15.

“Gavon was making some really good putts,” said Herron, who took a quadruple-bogey 8 on No. 14 that left them tied for the lead.

“I went into match-play mode — grind it out and hit percentage shots to keep the pressure on Gavon.”

The strategy produced the lead when Herron parred the 142-yard, par-3 No. 16 and Byrd made bogey. Both players parred the 17th before Herron’s birdie on 18 clinched the title.

The race was just as close in the girls event, which used Stableford scoring. First-day leader Gabbi Dellick of Aviano surrendered the lead to Ramstein freshman Elizabeth Ward before rallying with a par-4 on No. 16 to Ward’s double-bogey. The two-point swing proved decisive when the leaders halved 17 and 18 with pars.

“She was killing me on the front nine,” Dellick, a junior, said of Ward, who scored 15 points going out to 12 for Dellick. “I was just trying to catch up.”

She did, mostly by winning a mental battle.

“I tried to keep calm,” she said, “so I didn’t do anything stupid.”

Dellick won with a two-day total of 55 Stableford points. Ward was second with 53, and Kaiserslautern’s Barbara Burriss, with a tournament-best 32 points Friday, finished third with 48.

Ramstein, which swept the team titles, missed a 1-2-3 boys finish when top-seeded Kevin Langford, in third place after the first round, shot 106 on Friday. Battling Rheinblick’s tough terrain and tight out-of-bounds, Langford removed himself from contention Friday with a disastrous front-nine sequence of triple-bogey, quadruple-bogey and double-bogey which preceded an 11 on the par-3 No. 4. Lakenheath’s Carlton Casso, sixth after the first day, finished in third place.

While Langford might not agree, Herron, who wore plus-fours, a Scotland rugby jersey and a flat cap in honor of his Scottish grandmother, said he relishes playing Rheinblick’s hilltop layout.

“I love this course,” he said. “It’s the only course we play where if you play conservatively and think, you’ll be all right. But if you use your driver off every tee box, it’ll eat you up.”

DODDS-Europe golf championships

WIESBADEN-DOTZHEIM, Germany — Final scores Friday in the two-day, 36-hole DODDS-Europe golf championships on the par-72 Rheinblick Golf Course. Girls play 5,631-yard layout; boys 6,239-yard course. DODDS Stableford scoring system awards 1 point for double bogey, 2 for bogey, 3 for par, 4 for birdie and 6 for eagle or ace:

Boys

Team scoring (combined Stableford points of up to 4 players)@Ramstein 277, Lakenheath 210, Patch 173, Kaiserslautern 107, Heidelberg 97, Rota 84, Baumholder 70, Vilseck 42.

Championship Flight

(Medal play)

Craig Herron (Ramstein) 88-91 179

Gavon Byrd (Ram) 87-94 181

Carlton Casso (Lakenheath) 96-88 184

Jon Collett (Ram) 95-93 188

Kai Pope (Laken) 95-96 191

Kevin Langford (Ram) 89-106 195

Jeremy Gurr (Kaiserslautern) 101-95 196

Ben Meyer (Ram) 103-93 196

Nik Ripperda (Rota) 100-98 198

Ryan Brady (Patch) 102-107 209

Mike Semon (Ram) 99-114 213

Christian Jarrard (Patch) 99-118 217

A Flight

(Stableford scoring)

Zach Carroll (Lake) 22-31 53

Kyle Bookout (Kais) 25-26 51

Hunter Wilson (Ram) 24-23 47

Stephan Braden (Ramstein) 21-24 45

John Klinner (Heidelberg) 20-25 45

Nathan Wojcik (Baum) 23-21 44

Derek Sanchez (Ram) 24-18 42

Jordan Linder (Ram) 14-27 41

Brandon Rizkallan (Heid) 20-16 36

Jason Roberts (Vilseck) 17-17 34

Chris McGill (Patch) 14-18 32

Garret Ventrice (Ram) 17-13 30

Allen Genido (Rota) 17-13 30

Carey Buchwald (Ram) 15-14 29

Tyson Campbell (Lake) 12-15 27

Zach Williams (Baumholder) 13-13 26

Adam Ellertson (Lake) 11-6 17

Tyler Woodrow (Lake) 8-9 17

David Britt (Heid) 6-10 16

Dominique Smith (Vil) 5-3 8

Longest drive — Wojcik

Closest to the pin — Brady

Girls

(Stableford scoring)

Team scoring (combined Stableford points of up to 4 players; minimum of two required)@Ramstein 92, Kaiserslautern 56, Heidelberg 37, Vilseck 28, Patch 25, Aviano incomplete.

Gabbi Dellick (Aviano) 26-29 55

Elizabeth Ward (Ramstein) 24-29 53

Barbara Burriss (Kaiserslautern) 16-32 48

Marissa Engelbaum (Ram) 13-12 25

Lara Habel (Patch) 13-11 24

Sarah Fowler (Heidelberg) 14-7 21

Stevi Hood (Vilseck) 10-11 21

Melissa Guelle (Heid) 5-11 16

Patsy Young (Ram) 4-10 14

Vikki Leavitt (Kais) 4-4 8

Anna Carriker (Vil) 6-1 7

Keri Zamiar (Patch) 1-0 1

Longest drive — Hood

Closest to the pin — Burriss

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