California State Am: Medalist advances to Quarters
- NCGA Photo
PEBBLE BEACH. CALIFORNIA (June 22, 2006) --Players were forced to navigate fog and poor visibility at Pebble Beach Thursday to move on to the quarterfinals in the CGA (State) Amateur Championship.
Medalist Steve Woods survived two close matches to survive the day. In the first round of match play, the former champion outlasted Robert Funk to win 1 up. While playing in the lead group in the afternoon wave, Woods was all square with Roberto Galletti through 15 holes but then registered two straight pars to close out the match. Relying on experience and local knowledge helped Woods, as the back nine was played in thick fog that left players with no more than 150 yards of visibility.
Woods' former college teammate at San Jose State, second seeded Jeff Gilchrist of Carmichael also moved on to the quarterfinals. The 34-year old defeated defending champion Don DuBois, 2 and 1 in the morning round. During the round of 16, Gilchrist was able to navigate the toughest stretch of holes at Pebble Beach, Nos. 8-11, in 1-under par to pick up three holes on Aaron Goldberg and eventually win 2 and 1.
Gilchrist will meet another Northern California standout, Pittsburgh's Scott Hardy in the quarterfinals. Hardy came back from as many as 4-down on the back side. Inspired by birdies on Nos. 15 and 16, the Saint Mary's golf coach closed out John Pate of Santa Barbara to win 2 and 1.
Another former champion, Ed Cuff of Murrieta was eliminated on day one of match play. Jordan Nasser of Anaheim Hills defeated the 1998 champion, 2 and 1 in the the round of 16. Last year's runner-up, Joseph Bramlett of Saratoga defeated Matt Marshall of Los Gatos, 3 and 2 to advance to familiar territory. Bramlett enjoyed a stretch of three straight birdies (11-13) and punctuated the win with an additional birdie on the par-4 16th.
The quarterfinalists tee off at 6:10 a.m. Friday, with the semifinals starting at noon. A 36-hole final is scheduled for Saturday morning. Live scoring will continue to be provided for the remainder of the matches
ABOUT THE California Amateur
The Championship is open to amateur golfers
who have established current indexes of 4.4
and are members in good standing of the
Southern California Golf Association, the
Northern California Golf Association, or the
Public Links Golf Association of Southern
California. Nonexempt players must qualify. An
entrant may play in only one qualifying event,
even
if
the golfer
belongs to clubs in both Southern California
and Northern California. The 18-hole
qualifying
rounds will determine the qualifiers.
The championship field will play 36 holes of
qualifying at a Northern or Southern California
Location, with the low 32 golfers from that
combined field moving on to match play (with
a
playoff, if necessary, to determine the final
spots).
Two rounds each of 18-hole match play will
follow on Thursday and Friday and the 36-hole
final match will be on Saturday.
The location will rotate yearly between
Northern and Southern California locations.
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