PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – It was almost a case of out with the old, in with the new, as Advocates Professional Golf Association (APGA) Tour rookie Willy Pumarol held a back-nine lead Friday with triumph in plain sight during his APGA Tour debut. In the end, however, Willie Mack III and his APGA record crafted over 15 years stood the test of time.

As steady as has been seen during the last seven months, the APGA Tour remains Mack III’s tour de force.

Improving on his opening-round 69 Thursday, Mack III tacked on a 2-under-par 68 in Friday’s final round of the Cisco Black History Month Classic at TPC Sawgrass Dye’s Valley Course. It enabled him to edge fellow Orlando resident Pumarol by one stroke and hoist his 18th APGA Tour championship trophy in the second tournament, and first full-field event, of the 2026 APGA Tour season.

Mack III, a Flint, Michigan native, extended his mark as the APGA’s active wins leader, claiming the $8,000 winner’s check from a $25,000 purse and earning 500 points toward the Cisco Cup Series and the APGA’s Jeff Dailey Player of the Year standings.

The APGA’s only three-time winner in 2025, Mack III has won four of the past eight APGA events he has played. He placed runner-up in January’s season-opening APGA Farmers Insurance Invitational at Torrey Pines.

“I won the (APGA) Billy Horschel (Invitational) twice at this course, back-to-back. I came in second here (in 2024) on the Dye Course, and coming out with a victory this year, in the first (full-field) tournament of the year, is always a good start to the season,” Mack III said. “Hopefully I can keep going, keep the momentum going.”

Dye’s Valley Course proved a difficult test for the 54-player field. Mack III and Pumarol were the only players to finish under par. After Thursday’s Round 1, only four golfers scored under par.

Reigning APGA Jeff Dailey Player of the Year Marcus Byrd held a two-stroke lead after firing a first-round 4-under 66. He was followed on the Round 1 leaderboard by three Florida residents – Windermere resident Joey Stills (2-under 68), Mack III and Pumarol, each of whom shot 1-under 69.

Pumarol posted twin rounds of 1-under 69 for an overall score of 2-under-par 138 in making his APGA debut. He is a Dominican Republic citizen who played college golf at Barry University (Florida) from 2008-11 and was a Golf Coaches Association of America Scholar All-American in 2010.

He owns six starts in the PGA TOUR’s Corales Puntacana Championship (he finished T53 in last year’s event) since turning pro in 2011. Most recently, Pumarol played 16 tournaments across the 2024 and 2025 PGA TOUR Americas seasons and two events in the 2023 PGA TOUR Latinoamerica season.

Pumarol entered Friday’s final round three strokes back of Byrd. He made birdies on Nos. 2 and 6 and caught Byrd for a share of the lead at 3-under on the par-4 No. 10, where he made birdie and Byrd recorded bogey. Byrd followed with a bogey on No. 11 and a double bogey 6 on No. 12, dropping him to even-par. Byrd went on to shoot a 77 and place T4 at 3-over 143.

That left Mack III as the only golfer within striking distance of Pumarol. Mack III registered par on his first 11 holes before making a birdie on the par-4 12th hole. The two shared a brief tie for the lead after Pumarol stumbled to a bogey on the 14th hole.

Mack gave that stroke back after making bogey on the 15th hole but he rallied with consecutive birdies on the par-5 16th hole and par-4 17th hole to overtake Pumarol for the solo lead at 3-under. He made that narrow lead stand up.

“I’ve played here numerous times and I’ve almost never hit that fairway,” Mack III said of his birdie on No. 17. “And then I hit a good 8-iron into the wind to about 12 feet, and made that. It was a good birdie. I knew I had to make par or birdie on the last hole to try to get the win.”

Westerville, Ohio, native Troy Taylor II placed third at 1-over 141 (70-71).

Chase Johnson entered this week’s tournament as the defending champion, but a first-round 7-over 77 doomed any chance of the 2023 and 2024 APGA Jeff Dailey Player of the Year repeating. He went on to finish T14 at 6-over 146 (77-69).

Founded in 2010, the Advocates Professional Golf Association is a non-profit organization dedicated to inspiring an inclusive future through the game of golf. The APGA Tour’s third event of its 2026 season is the APGA at TPC San Antonio (Canyons Course) from March 2-4, and the season runs through November with 12 tournaments from coast to coast.