APGA Tour caps 2025 season as Willie Mack III secures 17th APGA Tour victory at Farmers Fall Series Finale and wins the Farmers InsuranceFall Series
TUSTIN, California (November 13, 2025) – The Advocates Professional Golf Association
(APGA) Tour closed the curtain this week on its 2025 season at the Farmers Fall Series Finale,
setting the stage for yet another curtain call for one of the APGA’s legends and most decorated
champions.
Willie Mack III closed out his 15 th season on the APGA Tour with a sizzling 9-under-par 63
Thursday at Tustin Ranch Golf Club, besting longtime rival and friend Aaron Grimes through
their final-round flurry of birdies to win his 17 th career APGA title – the most among active APGA
golfers.
“It kind of means I’ve been out here a long time,” Mack III said. “There’s some great players out
here. Anytime I can get a ‘W’ out here, it definitely boosts your confidence. When I first started
out here, it was me, Tim O’Neal ... there were some great players, but it was more top-heavy
back then. Now, pretty much anybody can win if they get hot. The depth of the fields nowadays
is pretty good.”
The Flint, Michigan native and Orlando, Florida resident closed the 2025 APGA season in
impressive fashion, recording a 36-hole score of 12-under 132 to win by a stroke over Compton,
California native Grimes (11-under 133), a 10-year APGA veteran who debuted on the tour in
2016.
Mack III was the APGA’s only three-time winner in 2025, accomplishing that feat over the last
six APGA events he competed in. He received 700 points toward the APGA’s Jeff Dailey
Standings and a $10,500 prize from the Farmers Fall Series Finale’s $35,000 purse.
Mack III was also named the overall champion of the APGA Farmers Insurance© Fall Series
based on his cumulative performance and APGA Jeff Dailey points accumulated in three 36-
hole competitions that comprised the series – the APGA at TPC Las Vegas (September 23-24),
the APGA Daugherty Foundation Championship (October 1-2) and this week’s Farmers Fall
Series Finale.
“This is my first time actually playing any of the Fall Series events.” Mack III said. “I know all the
Farmers people come out and support this one. Just having them behind me and supporting
me, it’s pretty special to win the Fall Series.”
Mack III also won the APGA at TPC Las Vegas and he earned a $7,000 bonus for winning the
Farmers Insurance Fall Series. APGA rookie Jonathan Yoshihiro, of nearby Yorba Linda and a
product of Cal State Fullerton, and Jaime Lopez Rivarola collected bonuses of $5,000 and
$3,000, respectively, for finishing second and third in the series.
The torrid stretch of play that got Mack III back on track began in teaming with fellow Orlando
resident Luis Gagne to win the APGA Two-Man Classic at TPC Louisiana at the end of July.
From there began the positive waves of momentum that Mack III hopes will help carry him into
competing at the second stage of PGA TOUR Q-School during the first week of December.
“To be able to get my game back the last couple of months has been pretty special, especially
going into Q-School,” Mack III said. “I’d been struggling the first part of the season. Confidence
was kind of low. Just playing bad.
“It’s been a struggle the whole year, honestly, but I kept grinding and glad it worked out. Trying
to fiddle around with clubs too much, so I stopped that. It’s the same set, even from last year. I
was messing around with the loft and lies, trying to get more spin and doing stuff I probably
shouldn’t have been doing. I’m sticking with what I have right now.”
Mack III overcame a three-stroke deficit entering Thursday’s final round. Mack III and Grimes
jumped into a co-lead at 7-under at the turn. Both penciled in birdies over half of their final round
(nine birdies) on their Round 2 scorecards.
Mack III posted three consecutive birdies on holes 3-5 and torched Tustin Ranch GC for six
birdies in seven holes from Nos. 9-15. Not to be outdone, Grimes posted four birdies on the
front nine - on Nos. 1, 2, 6 and 9. The latter birdie started a run of five birdies in six holes,
lasting through the 14 th .
Said Mack III: “We have live scoring so I was checking my phone, kind of, the whole day.
Yesterday (Wednesday), the back nine, I shot 5-under so I had some pretty good momentum
coming into today. It’s my first time here so I was trying to get used to the greens and how they
were rolling. I kind of found something with my putting so hopefully I can keep that going the
next couple weeks, going into Q-School.
“I’m glad to see him (Aaron) play well. We’re like best friends. I’m glad he could come in second.
Knowing him, I know he’s mad, but there’s going to be some good banter going back and forth
with both of us. Just pleased that I could get the ‘W.’”
The only difference between Mack III and Grimes, who was in search of his first APGA victory
about an hour’s drive from where he grew up, on Thursday was that Mack III played bogey-free
while Grimes suffered bogeys on Nos. 4 and 17. The bogey on No. 17 – a missed five-foot putt
uphill that turned left of the cup – stayed with Grimes after his tournament concluded.
Said Grimes: “You always want to end the year on a strong note. One back from Willie, I think
that’s good enough. He’s a good player, and if I’m around his vicinity on the golf course, I think
that’s good. Willie’s one of my best friends. We talk every day. I’m happy for Willie. I knew he
was going to put up a number. I was just trying to keep up with him. Bogey-free would have
been fine. I had two three-putts, which definitely cost me.
“I really wanted to win it. It would have been huge. I needed a win at this point. I knew I had this
one as my last tournament of the year and I really wanted to win. This is what I needed, some
competition, and it definitely got me back motivated to keep things going. I’m still trying to
scratch my first win out here but I’m getting closer and closer.”
Wyatt Worthington II, of Reynoldsburg, Ohio, started fast out of the gate in the final round with
birdies on Nos. 2, 4 and 5 to briefly move into the lead at 7-under. He wound up in a tie for fifth
at 7-under 137.
Five of the seven Southern California natives in the 41-man field finished in the top 14 on the
leaderboard. Troy Kuramarohit, of Canoga Park, the 2024 Farmers Fall Series Finale champion,
posted a 6-under 66 on Thursday to place in a tie for fifth place at 7-under 137.
Yoshihiro tied for eighth at 6-under 138. San Diegan Ryan Ellerbrock tied for 11th at 4-under
140, and Santa Clarita resident Jonathan Kang finished T14 at 3-under 141.
Joe Hooks set the pace in Wednesday’s first round amidst a packed leaderboard with a bogey-
free 6-under 66. The Scottsdale, Arizona resident who made his PGA TOUR debut in his
hometown of Detroit at the 2025 Rocket Classic recorded four birdies immediately after making
the turn – on holes 10 and 11 and 14 and 15.
Among a group of four golfers who shot 5-under 67 and trailed Hooks by one shot were Kang
(five of his seven birdies came on the back nine) and 2025 APGA Tour winners Luis Gagne and
John-Baptiste Hakizimana.
Another foursome sat two strokes behind Hooks after Round 1 at 4-under, including Grimes –
he made birdies on his first two holes and Nos. 10, 13 and 15 – and 2024 tournament runner-up
and 2024 Farmers Insurance Fall Series champion Troy Taylor II.
