WATERLOO - In the midst of what would become the most dominant performance in the Iowa Amateur Championship's 49-year history of stroke play, Ben Herrera walked to the 18th tee box at Sunnyside Country Club with a score to settle.

Like a scratch on a Lamborghini, bogeys on the 18th hole left a minor blemish on Herrera's scorecard as stormed through the first two days of competition 12-under-par.

With the outcome of the tournament all but settled, someone asked Herrera midway through Wednesday's final round if he was going to figure out No. 18.

"I think I can par it today," Herrera responded.

"What about a birdie?" the spectator countered.

Not wanting to back down from a challenge Herrera replied, "I think I can birdie it."

After dropping a lengthy birdie putt on the 17th hole, the Iowa State senior-to-be belted a tee shot that trickled into the rough. He pulled out a sand wedge and knocked his 128-yard approach shot three feet shy of the 18th pin. Herrera tapped in and finished with a first-place, 14-under-par score of 202 (64-68-70).

"I'm just glad it's over," Herrera said after extending a six-stroke opening round lead into a 10-shot rout. "It felt like today I was out there for two days."

"I was really focused all day and I was a little tentative at times, but this just means the world to me. Stuff like this is why you put in all those countless hours of practice and I'm just really fortunate and happy that I won."

With his birdie on 18, Herrera to surpassed Greg Tebbutt's 72-hole effort of 13-under-par for the lowest score in an Amateur Championship. He also bested Gene Elliott's 54-hole record of 11-under par set in 2000.

The Cyclone standout's 10-stroke margin of victory over runner-up Mike McCoy was the largest since Jack Webb won by eight strokes when the tournament went from match play to stroke play in 1960.

"It's pretty cool," Herrera said, addressing the records. "But I just wanted to win. If I shot 80 today and won, I would have been just as happy as I am now."

McCoy, a four-time Iowa Amateur champion, played in the group ahead of Herrera throughout the entire three-day competition. After shooting even-par 72 on Monday he finished with sub-par scores of 69 and 71, but Herrera couldn't be caught.

"Every time I turned around he was hitting a great shot," McCoy said. "I took a lot of positives away from the week and I played some nice golf in places out there."

University of Northern Iowa senior-to-be Tyler Johnson was paired with Herrera for Wednesday's final round. At 4-under-par, he entered the day eight strokes off the lead and finished tied for seventh at even-par 216.

"I wanted to be a little bit more aggressive, but I think it cost me today," Johnson said. "It's tough trying to come back from eight strokes, but it was basically a battle for second."

For Herrera, winning his first Iowa Amateur Championship this summer had added urgency. He plans to join the professional ranks following his senior year of golf at Iowa State.

"This is probably going to be my last state am," he said. "I knew that going into this year. When you achieve your goals, it feels really good. This was definitely one of my goals this year - to win this."

Elliott - who played with Herrera through the first two days of competition and saw him develop as a youth at Glen Oaks Country Club in West Des Moines - sees plenty of potential in the Cyclones' No. 1 golfer.

"If he can keep hitting it like he's hitting it, and rolling it, there's no telling what he can do," Elliott said.

Youth serves George well

University of Iowa sophomore-to-be Bradley George may consider himself lucky he's under the age of 21. The tradition of buying everyone a round of drinks after a hole-in-one could have gotten costly for George this week.

George aced the 187-yard 13th hole with a 6-iron Wednesday for his second hole-in-one in as many days. On Tuesday, George recorded his first career hole-in-one with an 8-iron on the par 3, eighth hole.

"I was kind of thinking to myself, 'when am I finally going to get it,'" George said of the hole-in-ones. "Then boom, that happens yesterday and I told my mom, 'well what are the chances it happens again?' Then boom, it happens on 13 (today). It's kind of crazy."

1. Ben Herrera 64-68-70 - 202

2. Mike McCoy 72-69-71 - 212

3. Chris Brant 74-71-69 - 214

T4. Gene Elliott 73-72-70 - 215

T4. Jake Weeber 73-71-71 - 215

T4. Ben Peters 70-72-73 - 215

T7. Adam Seitz 70-75-71 - 216

T7. Tyler Johnson 71-69-76 - 216

T7. Dustin Drenth 71-72-73 - 216

T10. Nathan Leary 75-72-70 - 217

T10. Tom Lathrop 72-74-71 - 217

12. 218 - Jeff Panek

13. 219 - Josh Manske, Robb Pomerantz, Nathan McCoy, Jon Brown

17. 220 - Cody Schweinefus, Justin Weber, Mike Oimoen

21. 221 - Tom Christensen, Ron Peterson

23. 222 - Cory Braunschweig, Michael Wuertz

25. 223 - Brian Verduyn, Brent Goodenow

27. 224 - Kyle Bermel, JD Anderson, Sam Zoske, Mason Linn

31. 225 - Kirby Pettitt, Michael Schuchmann, Terry Cook, Jim Butler

35. 226 - Bill Manske, Matt Sargent, Justin Leas, Zach Steffen

39. 227 - Marc Gladson, Todd Sapp, Troy Hoffman, Blake Waller, Bret Taylor, Scott Morgensen

45. 228 - Andrew Peter, Rob Lynch, Curtis Holck, Michael Wetrich, David Studer

50. 229 - Aaron Stevens, Jonathan Haedt, Mike Ketcham, John Thompson

54. 230 - Joe Palmer

55. 231 - Nate Dunn, Matt Mickelson, Dan Dalziel

58. 232 - Nate Steege, Jonathan Rogers, Brett Deneve, Jonathan Tink, Sam Aossey, Jared Doerfler, Tom Staack

65. 233 - Aaron Smith, Frank Schmidt

67. 234 - Gary Jacobson, Neil Doak

69. 235 - Alex Jarnagin, Eric Anfinson

71. 240 - Carl Johnson