Story by Elizabeth Kricfalusi, for amateurgolf.com

Carlos Corona started the day with a 3-stroke lead and continued his winning ways to take the Alameda Commuters championship at 12-under, 4 strokes ahead of 17-year-old Ryan Thomas and two-time defending champion Rick Reinsberg.

Corona, a senior at Holy Names University, played a near-perfect round under sunny skies on the par-71 Earl Fry course at the Chuck Corica Golf Complex. “For the most part, I just tried to put myself in the right spot,” said Corona who got off to a good start with birdies on the first two holes. Corona’s only mistake came on the par-3 15th hole where, six strokes up, he chunked his five-iron and plopped his ball into the lake that stretches between tee and green. “I didn’t let it get to me, and my caddie kept my head in there,” he said. “I made a double, but I came back and made that strong birdie at 17.”

On the 365-yard par-4 18th, Corona’s ball landed near the edge of the first bunker on the left-hand side of the fairway. He had an extremely awkward stance, but his 9-iron got him safely on the green with about 40 feet to the hole. His first putt fell short by a only a couple of feet, but his second was slightly off line, stopping about 15 inches on the other side. He made that putt easily to end the day as the Commuters champion.

Thomas, who shot a 72 in the third round, also started off the day well making a birdie putt on the first hole. He talked about his mindset going into today’s round. “I went to bed last night and said ‘I’m in position,’ and I just wanted to go out and prove that the first couple of rounds weren’t a fluke, ‘cause I didn’t play so well on Saturday.”

On the 15th hole, where Corona made his double, Thomas came close to narrowing the gap to three strokes when he hit a solid drive that landed slightly behind the green about 15 feet from the hole. His chip stopped on the lip but unfortunately didn’t mimic Tiger Woods’ now-famous Master’s shot. However, Thomas was quick to praise his opponent. “(Carlos is) an all-around solid player. He deserved it.”

Reinsberg, who played in the second-to-last group, finished with a solid 69 but wasn’t able to make up the difference from his first-round 73. “I played well this year, just like the last couple of years,” he said. “In the first round I struggled a little bit, which kind of took me out. I never fare too well on the Jack Clark course. I hit it well, I just didn’t score that well.”

Having competed in the U.S. Open in 2003, Reinsberg will be trying to qualify again this year. Although he missed the cut the first time out, (he shot 76 and 76), he was happy with his results. “I broke 80, that was all I wanted to do,” he said. “It was an incredible experience, which is why I want to get back there.”

The greatest drama of the day was reserved for the senior’s round. 57-year-old Merton Goode, an anesthesiologist at Doctors Medical Center in San Pablo/Pinole, started the day from the 10th hole with a 3-stroke lead and extended it to six with seven holes to go. But three bogeys in a row and a triple bogey on the par-3 7th forced him into a playoff with Ronald Johnson. “I hit some good shots, but I made a couple of bad decisions on club selection, and I missed a couple of short putts,” explained Goode.

However, Goode prevailed in the end, making a par on the first playoff hole versus Johnson’s bogey to take the Senior’s Championship title.

Several players commented on the difficult pin placements today. “They were tough,” agreed tournament Chairman Al Wagner, “but when you’ve got a 6200-yard course, you’ve got to make it tough somehow, and there’s really one way to do it. But there were some pretty sadistic pin placements,” he added with a laugh.

* * * * *

Final results, May 1, from the Alameda Commuters, played at the Earl Fry North Golf Course:

To view Senior results, , click here>

First	Last	Rd1	Rd2	Rd3	Rd4	Tot
Carlos	Corona	69	64	71	68	272
Rick	Reinsberg	73	66	68	69	276
Ryan	Thomas	68	67	72	69	276
Trent	Tessler	68	72	67	71	278
Christoper	Ancheta	71	64	74	70	279
Joseph	Bramlett	73	68	70	70	281
Justin	Long	68	70	71	72	281
Brett	Borchers	68	71	72	71	282
Derek	Dobashi	71	72	69	71	283
Michael	Mulhearn	65	68	74	76	283
Tim	Breland	76	69	72	67	284
Chadd	Cocco	72	68	73	71	284
Scott	Hardy	66	70	74	74	284
Will	Johnson	68	70	73	73	284
Terry	Foreman	74	69	72	70	285
Kyle	Prolo	69	69	74	73	285
Kent	Yamane	72	70	71	72	285
Jamie	Looper	70	67	73	76	286
Jeff	Murphy	70	69	74	73	286
Jake	Yount	70	69	72	75	286
Domingo	Jojola	71	71	74	71	287
Jeff	Rangel	70	74	73	70	287
Da	Chuang	68	69	77	74	288
Ray	Suhandynata	74	66	73	75	288
Anthony	Vaccaro	68	75	72	73	288
Bob	Blomberg	72	72	73	72	289
Michael	McRae	67	68	82	72	289
Patrick	Pernice	75	68	74	72	289
Garett	Wagner	68	69	71	81	289
Craig	King	72	73	72	73	290
Jason	Stone	70	71	76	73	290
Ken	Webb	66	68	75	81	290
Siegfred	Wroebel	73	69	72	76	290
Danny	Buell	71	70	76	74	291
Jon	Burkard	71	71	68	81	291
Timothy	Nelson	69	71	75	76	291
Michael	Donnelly	67	72	76	77	292
Daniel	Cone	72	67	71	83	293
Adam	Deadrich	73	71	75	74	293
John	Enright	72	73	77	71	293
Mark	Miller	71	70	71	81	293
Gary	Brown	71	71	76	76	294
Jeff	Nelson	76	69	70	79	294
Victor	Simionas	75	69	72	78	294
Roland	Maples, Jr	74	71	75	75	295
David	Rebman	71	73	76	75	295
Dayne	Hale	69	70	78	80	297
Mark	Hill	71	74	79	73	297
Ryan	Collins	74	71	77	78	300
Ron	Williams	67	76	78	79	300
Sean	Demeter	71	74	81	82	308

failed to survive 36-hole cut
Mike Maurice	74	72	146
James Hay	72	74	146
Gary Vanier	75	71	146
T.K Miyazono	70	76	146
Anthony Souza	75	71	146
Orion Galioni	71	75	146
Mark Garcia	74	73	147
Jason McHargue	74	73	147
Michael Vera	74	73	147
Craig Wolfman	75	72	147
Iose Iulio	73	74	147
Adam Barkow	75	72	147
David Capel	74	73	147
Roger Demonte	73	74	147
Richard Schacht	74	73	147
Brian Razzari	72	75	147
Mike Powers	73	74	147
Joe Zanassi	71	76	147
Ernesto Marcelo	75	72	147
Josh Bleyle	76	71	147
Brett Mormann	73	74	147
Norman Hamill	76	72	148
Shawn Shelby	76	72	148
Bob Fulton	71	77	148
Chip Doyle	73	75	148
Andrew Wood	73	75	148
Blake Yu	73	75	148
Jay Guittard	76	72	148
Scott Terry	73	75	148
Gregory Isom	71	77	148
Nate Weidner	72	76	148
Sean Healy	77	71	148
David Sager	78	70	148
Dave Stone	71	77	148
Michael MacDonald	73	75	148
John Diego	74	74	148
Mike Murphy	78	71	149
Trent Isgrig	74	75	149
Jay Scheller	75	74	149
Taylor Hobin	74	75	149
Victor Chew	74	75	149
Rod Souza, Jr	76	73	149
Stephen Kilman	75	74	149
Andy Nevin	74	75	149
Akihiro Okada	78	71	149
Michael Palomino	71	78	149
Mark Scofield	73	76	149
Gary Tewell	76	73	149
Cary Chiappone	74	76	150
Greg Hutton	76	74	150
Ryan Wilson	72	78	150
Daniel O'Connor	78	72	150
Charlie Todaro	73	77	150
Anthony Yean	79	71	150
Guillermo Barton	71	79	150
Erik Kastmiler	74	76	150
Will Haydon	75	75	150
Michael Tobin	76	74	150
Josh Twist	76	74	150
George Kong	74	76	150
Scott Morris	76	74	150
William T Farynaz	76	75	151
Jeffrey Wong	78	73	151
Ki-Shui Liao	75	76	151
Dan Whitehurst	76	75	151
Todd Gormand	79	72	151
Chris Scott	73	78	151
Russell Yu	75	76	151
Phillip Gill	77	74	151
Rick Shumate	77	74	151
Aris Pope	76	75	151
Sean House	77	74	151
Bruce MacLean	80	72	152
Jim Dwulet	76	76	152
Richard Castanon	74	78	152
Tommy Bergeron	76	76	152
Steve Pence	77	75	152
Luke Allard	74	78	152
Bret Becker	74	78	152
Marco Dusi	76	76	152
Dan Hansen	76	76	152
Richard Sepp	75	77	152
Mark Loomis	72	80	152
Ryan Cullimore	74	78	152
Chris Manfrin	77	75	152
Grahame Skytte	77	75	152
Dana Wade	78	74	152
Yosuke Ariga	77	75	152
Jeff Wilson	78	75	153
Tim Caesare	75	78	153
Dino Muzio	78	75	153
Martin Renaud	77	76	153
Brien Donaldson	76	77	153
Anthony DiLaura	74	79	153
Thomas Uniacke	76	77	153
Stefan Von Seeger	79	74	153
Mick Baker	77	76	153
Dominic DeBellis	77	76	153
Steve Schoenfeld	79	75	154
Gary Conklin	79	75	154
Erik Hallgrimson	77	77	154
Robert Gundermann	77	77	154
Robert Goodwin	73	81	154
Michael Leong	77	77	154
Nick Kaufman	77	78	155
Jake Saito	77	78	155
Daniel Nelson	75	80	155
Michael Johnson	74	81	155
Peter Boese	78	77	155
Tsering Dorjee	78	78	156
Jeff Cheng	80	76	156
David Deem	79	77	156
Mark Merrigan	77	79	156
Brian Brake	78	78	156
Mike Granelli	81	76	157
Dae Jin	84	73	157
Derek Miller	78	79	157
Ralph Costanzo	76	81	157
Brendan Noonan	78	79	157
Taylor Neal	81	76	157
John Blankfort	83	74	157
Steve Bong	80	77	157
Nick Webb	77	81	158
David Fein	84	74	158
George Serra	79	79	158
Jeff Dwyer	79	80	159
Aaron Woolway	83	76	159
Shane Kim	80	80	160
Kimberly Conocono	82	78	160
Richard Hunz	81	79	160
Eoghan Canniffe	81	80	161
Patrick McKern	76	85	161
Carl Boxill	83	78	161
Michael Burch	83	78	161
Paul Ashbrook	83	79	162
Chris Goin	87	76	163
Mathew Park	84	79	163
Diane Kwon	87	76	163
Scott Stevens	83	81	164
Brian McShane	86	78	164
Craig Cole	79	85	164
Jonathan Suk	85	80	165
Daniel Greenhalgh	80	87	167
Amante Bartolome	88	79	167
Rick Kehr	84	85	169
Juan Salcido	86	83	169
Nick Hatzopoulos	86	83	169
Kenji Ohkawa	89	81	170
Jeff Myers	85	85	170
Cary Tokunaga	91	81	172
Richard Heaps	90	84	174
Geoffrey Johnson	92	83	175
Michael McCall	89	86	175
Jim Coyne	94	90	184

For more tournament information, visit the Alameda Commuters Web site.

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