Michael Morrison had to work on the back nine Sunday to earn his fifth Signal Mountain Invitational championship.

Morrison was at 10 under, with a five-stroke lead, heading into the final round at Signal Mountain Golf & Country Club, but most of that advantage disappeared on the front nine. He bogeyed the final four holes and made the turn with just a two-stroke lead over Paul Apyan and Steve White.

But Morrison never panicked, answering every challenge with a bogey-free back nine to finish with a 1-over 72 and earn a two-stroke win over Apyan and White, who tied for second at 7 under. Stephan Jaeger finished fourth at 3 under.

“You always want to see how you handle being in a pressure situation like that ... and I was actually really proud of the way I played on the back nine,” said Morrison, who won by eight strokes in 2007.

Of the four players in the final group, Morrison was the only one not to break par Sunday. White had the low round of the day with a 67, Apyan shot 69 and Jaeger, a senior at Baylor School who has signed with the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, closed with a 70.

“It was a lot of fun being out there,” said Apyan, who plays at Southern Miss. “We were all grinding and we all came up with a lot of good shots.”

Following his run of bogeys on the front nine, Morrison stopped the slide on the par-4 10th, just as the wind picked up and a light rain began to fall. White and Apyan came up short of the green with their second shots from inside 100 yards and Morrison took advantage of the opening, pitching to about 3 feet and making an easy birdie to move to 8 under.

“That pitch shot on No. 10 really calmed me down,” Morrison said. “I just told myself to trust my game and to hit quality shots the rest of the day and I’ll be fine.”

On the 15th, a 354-yard par-4, Apyan drove the ball pin-high just to the right of the green and made a birdie to join White at 6 under, two back of Morrison. White chunked his second shot on No. 15, hit a difficult pitch to the back of the green and managed to sink a 40-footer to save par.

“I just tried to read it, and I happened to get it right,” said White, a Dalton native who played at Clemson in the early 1990s and now lives in Jackson Hole, Wyo.

Apyan got to 7 under with a long birdie putt on No. 16, but Morrison responded moments later with a birdie from about 11 feet to move to 9 under. White joined Apyan at 7 under on the par-3 17th by hitting his tee shot inside 3 feet of the cup.

Morrison’s victory capped a win-win-win weekend for current and former Georgia Bulldogs. The Georgia men’s team dominated the NCAA East Regional at Council Fire Golf Club, winning by 21 strokes, and Morrison’s former teammate, Ryuji Imada, earned his first PGA Tour win at the AT&T Classic in Duluth, Ga., beating Kenny Perry in a playoff.

Imada and Morrison were on Georgia’s 1999 national championship team.