KILGORE — Tyler’s Bryan Baker is known as Mini because of his slight 5-foot-9 frame that only carries 140 pounds. But he pounds the tee ball, hits pinpoint iron shots and possesses a tidy short game around the greens.

“He’s the best player in East Texas,” fellow competitor Adam Renfroe said without hesitation.

The former Whitehouse and University of Texas at Arlington golfer utilized those skills to win his second straight Energy Weldfab Meadowbrook Invitational on a hot Sunday afternoon on a nine-hole Meadowbrook course that has now hosted an individual competition for 78 years.

But it wasn’t easy. Sometimes the best player has to win while not playing his best golf and that was the case for Baker Sunday as he shot a 1-over 73, but managed to win by one shot over Dean Brown of Jacksonville and Travis Chrietzberg of Longview.

“It was a bit of a struggle,” Baker said. “I didn’t really have my best game and the course was playing tough but I was able to keep from having any bad holes while making birdies on the holes you need to birdie.”

Closing fast on Baker and frontrunner Brown was Chrietzberg who fired a 66 in the final round. His score was four shots better than the next best round on a day when scoring was tough due to challenging pin positions.

Baker’s winning total of 212 was the highest winning score since 2007 when Tyler’s Reggie Howell won with a 214 total.

“The course was playing tough because the rough was thick and the greens were good but tended to putt slower than you thought they would,” Baker said. “It feels great to win a tournament two years in a row but last year seemed easier because I think I was hitting the ball better.”

Meadowbrook is certainly not long at just under 6,600 yards in length but it requires precise tee shots to avoid the rough and overhanging trees to set up laser-like iron shots to the tiny greens. After cruising for 45 holes, a back nine collapse by Baker’s good friend Brown opened the door for the win. Brown is a solid player who inexplicably lost his game with a 42 coming home after going out in 4-under 32.

“I hated to see it because we are good friends and are even partners this coming week at best ball tournament in Canton,” Baker said. “But it was just one thing after another for him and I just tried to keep plugging and playing my own game.”

Chrietzberg said he made an adjustment to his swing for the final round and got the results he was hoping for all week.

“I realized I had been swiping the ball and not really hitting down through it,” Chrietzberg said. “I decided to put more weight on my left side and started hitting the ball the way I wanted to hit it. And I made the key par putts I needed to make to keep the round going.”

A product of Pine Tree High School and Southern Arkansas University, the 25-year-old Chrietzberg plays out of Pinecrest Country Club and hopes to qualify for the Texas State Open next week and then play the Adams Tour in 2016.

“I take a lot of confidence from this because it was such a good ball striking round,” Chrietzberg said. “I knew I had to do something but it really surprised me to see how far I came with the good round.”

Baker said things got a little tighter at the finish than he realized. He was playing with Brown in the final group but was unaware that Chrietzberg had finished so strongly.

Finishing fourth was Tyler’s James Glenn, who had a 70 on Sunday for a 1-under 215 total. Rounding out the top five were B.J. Waters of Tyler with a 217, while last year’s runner-up Andrew Coonce of Fort Worth was sixth, another stroke back.