Ask Tom Schreiner if he’s the best amateur golfer in Chattanooga and you’ll get a look of bewilderment and a modest shrug of the shoulders.

"The best player in Chattanooga?" Schreiner said. "There are too many players in this town with more ability than I have. Maybe I’m in the top 10. But the best? I don’t think I’m the best."

This season, the trophies and accolades Schreiner has piled up would suggest otherwise. It started in July when he won the Men’s Metro. In August, Schreiner won the Brainerd Invitational. On Sunday, he made it three straight Chattanooga area championships when he outlasted Aon Miller, 2 and 1, in the Chattanooga TPC at Council Fire.

Even before Schreiner teed it up in Sunday’s final match, he had already won the Chattanooga Player of the Year Award presented by Pro Golf Superstore and this website. That award is based on points standings, which means the player that wins it has to have compiled a season’s worth of high finishes.

Whether Schreiner is too modest to stick his chest out and claim he’s the best, the trophies don’t lie. In 2003, Tom Schreiner won more golf tournaments than anyone in Chattanooga. If that doesn’t determine the best player, what other measuring stick is there?

"I really don’t feel like the player of the year," Schreiner said. "I’ve had a good year, but when you start talking about the players around here, I don’t know. But the award is exciting."

To win the TPC, Schreiner had to play five rounds in four days, including stroke-play qualifying on Thursday. He qualified for match play as the 12^th seed, but handily won his way to Sunday, where he faced Matt Mathis in the morning semifinals. His 3 and 2 victory, coupled with Patrick Williams’ loss to Miller in the other semifinal, guaranteed Schreiner the Player of the Year award. That gave him a lift for the championship match.

Schreiner jumped on Miller, who had beaten Williams, 2-up in the morning round, early. He birdied No. 1 to go 1-up, won No. 2 with a par after Miller hit his tee shot in the water, and won No. 3 and 4 with pars.

Miller stopped the onslaught with a birdie at No. 5 to get back to 3 down, but Schreiner won the par-5 sixth with a par and went 4-up again.

Miller trimmed the lead to 3-up with a par at No. 8 and went to the back nine trailing by that margin.

Schreiner quickly won No. 10 with a par, but Miller kept hanging around. He won Nos. 13 and 14 with pars, trimming Shreiner’s lead to 2-up.

Miller saved par from left of the green at No. 15, and conceded a three-foot, breaking par putt to Schreiner. Was that overly generous, given the circumstances?

"I’d have been nice about it, but I’d have made him putt it," Scheiner said.

"I’ve played enough golf with Tom to know," Miller said. "He wasn’t going to miss that putt."

Miller won No. 16 with a bogey, but when both players missed the 17^th green left and Miller’s second shot rolled off the right side of the green, Schreiner had the advantage. He pitched to about four feet, and watched as Miller’s par putt slid five feet past the hole. Miller missed his bogey putt, and conceded after that.

Miller, who made 10 birdies in his first two matches and was perhaps the hottest player in the field heading into Sunday, wasn’t disappointed with the outcome. By his own admission, he had been playing poorly until about three weeks ago, when he scrapped a grip change and went back to an older set of Mizuno irons he had replaced a year before.

"I’m pleased," Miller said. "I felt like even before we teed off [for the championship match] that I’d accomplished more for the week than I thought I would. This was a good tournament for me."

It’s been a good season for Schreiner, who attributes his ascension into the upper tier of local amateurs to some intense work on his short game.

"I don’t play a lot of non-competitive golf," Schreiner said. "But I do go out there and putt and chip five days a week. That’s given me a lot of confidence around the greens. I feel like I can get up and down from anywhere."

Sunday’s Matches

Semifinals

Tom Schreiner def. Matt Mathis, 3 and 2

Aon Miller def. Patrick Williams, 2-up

Finals

Schreiner def. Miller, 2 and 1