Justin Kaplan wins Texas Mid-Amateur Match Play
2015 Texas Mid-Am Match Play champ
Justin Kaplan (TGA photo)
HOUSTON, Texas (July 26, 2015) — Justin Kaplan, from Houston, won the Texas Mid-Amateur Match Play Championship on Sunday at Lakeside CC with an impressive 3 & 1 victory against Arlington’s Ted Waldrip in the Championship Match.
Kaplan was never down during Sunday’s Championship Match. Justin went up early but eventually gave away his 2-up lead. He regained control of the match with back-to-back birdies on holes 12 and 13. The match ended 3 & 1 on the 17th hole with a par putt concession from Waldrip.
Justin had a simple mind set coming into the championship. “My whole mentality for the week was to ‘grind it out’. I didn’t play as well as I wanted to but I hit the shots that I needed to hit. Ted is a great player and you need to be able to grind it out against him. He made some clutch par putts on the back nine.” Justin works at the Houston office of Chicago Title Commercial, a commercial real estate firm.
Waldrip didn’t have one last upset in him for the final match of the Championship. “I just couldn’t get it close enough to the hole today. It’s really hard to win a match when you only make one birdie.” Waldrip is a senior staff electrical engineer for Lockheed Martin.
Both players have earned exemptions into this year’s Texas Mid-Amateur Championship. This year’s championship will be contested at Royal Oaks Country Club in Dallas.
View results for Texas Mid-Am Match Play
ABOUT THE Texas Mid-Am Match Play
Eligibility: Entries are open to male amateur golfers
with a GHIN handicap index of 5.4 or less, and who
are 25 years of age or older as of the first round of
the Championship.
Format/Field Size: Scheduled for 18 holes of stroke
play qualifying on Thursday. The low 32 players
advance to match play beginning on Friday. Round of
32 and 16 played on Friday, Quarter and Semifinal
matches played on Saturday, and Final match on
Sunday morning. The field is limited to 84 players.
View Complete Tournament Information