Ladin Fires a Final 78, Falls Back : Senior golf: Two shots off the lead, he blows up and finishes in a tie for sixth in State Amateur.

As Paul Ladin drew back his putter on his penultimate putt in the third State Senior Amateur Championship, his hat blew off and tumbled across the 18th green.

At least his ball got closer to the hole than did the hat, someone in the gallery cracked.

Not a particularly humorous remark at the time, since Ladin’s score had blown sky high, too.

Ladin, who started the day only two shots off the lead, fired a disappointing final-round 78 at Poppy Hills Golf Course Friday and finished in a five-way tie for sixth place.

Ladin, the defending champion, was never really in the running. His game was never off and running, either.

“Aw, I was terrible,” said Ladin, 61. “I never got anything going.”

Which meant he was going, going, gone.

Jim McMurtrey of Danville won with a final-round 72 to finish at 218, three shots ahead of Ed Rieu of Bermuda Dunes. Ladin finished at 226.

Ladin, who finished fifth in the event’s inaugural year, needed to make a big move on the leaders over the back nine. Instead, he moved backward through the field.

“I tried to press it,” Ladin said. “But that don’t work well here.”

The beginning of the end came on the 14th hole, a 392-yard par four.

Ladin took out his driver, given to him by golfing and fishing buddy George Archer. It was time to fish or cut bait, so Ladin tried to cut the corner.

Instead, he hit the ball into a stand of trees and was forced to take a one-shot penalty for an unplayable lie. He finished with a double bogey on the hole and dropped five shots behind Rieu, his playing partner, and seven behind McMurtrey.

Ladin shot 40 on the back nine and spent most of the round trying to salvage par, which isn’t exactly the best way to gain ground. Rieu, for example, had six birdies on Friday alone.

“It’s like a dog chasing cars,” Ladin said of his scrambling round. “Sooner or later, you get run over.”

His luck ran bad early. Ladin, who owns an auto dealership in Thousand Oaks, three-putted the first hole for bogey. It was a week of missed opportunities. He managed just two birdies in 54 holes, none in the final round.

He three-putted the 13th hole for bogey moments before his errant tee shot at No. 14 ended any chance at victory. “The putting’s just not there,’ he said. “I didn’t find (my stroke) until it was too late.”

The only good news for Ladin, who lives in Westlake Village, was that he finished in the top seven, earning an automatic exemption for next year.

McMurtrey, who led from wire to wire, outlasted Rieu, who closed to within a shot on the back nine.

McMurtrey, playing one foursome behind Ladin and Rieu, pulled off the shot of the day on the par-three 15th. Rieu, 55, had just birdied the hole to move to within one shot, and McMurtrey’s tee shot found a greenside bunker.

With the ball above his feet on a side-hill lie, McMurtrey, 61, hit the flagstick and nearly holed the shot from 50 feet to save par and his one-stroke lead.

Rieu made a triple bogey on the par-three 17th--he skulled a bunker shot into the Del Monte Forest--to end the drama.

Jerome Chirpich, 57, of Granada Hills shot 77 and finished 21st at 232.

Camarillo’s Chuck Wagner, 60, shot 86 and finished 28th at 241--last among those who made the 54-hole cut.