Andreas Gjesteby is one of the top remaining seeds
Photo courtesy of Baylor University Athletics
MONROE, LA (July 24, 2015) – Match play got underway today at the 2015 W.E. Cole Cotton States Invitational in the balmy 98-degree heat at Bayou DeDiard Country Club in Monroe, Louisiana. The only thing hotter than the temperature yesterday was Blake Traweek’s the play on the course, where he fired a round of 6-under 66 to take medalist honors heading into Friday’s match play portion of the event.
Traweek, a junior at University of Louisiana – Monroe, faced the 32nd seed, Matthew Dunn in the first of two rounds on the day. Dunn, who finished yesterday’s stroke play with a round of 5-over 77, put yesterday’s score behind him and upset Traweek with a 2&1 victory.
Dunn didn’t have time to celebrate his win over the top seed, as he next faced 17-seed Hayden Wood in the Round of 16. Wood dispatched Dunn 3&2 to make it to the quarterfinals tomorrow, where he’ll face first round leader Cory Churchman. Churchman had a disastrous 77 to follow up his first round 67, but overcame it with a 4&3 win over 25th seed Garrison Mendoza and a 1-up win over the 24th seed, Garrett Dolecheck.
In the bottom half of the bracket, 2nd seed Andreas Gjesteby, a rising senior at Baylor University from Drammen, Norway, seemed to blow through his matches with relative ease. His day began with a comfortable 6&4 win over William Meyers, the 31st seed, and followed that with a 4&3 win over 18th-seeded Derek Busby. He advances to face 7th-seeded Chuck Spears.
28th seed Ross Bell III was another golfer who sent higher seeds packing, with wins over the 8th and 12th seeds. He’ll try to keep that momentum going as he faces 4th seed Michael Perras in the quarterfinals.
In the final bracket, 14-seed Zachary Coats advanced with two 1-up wins and will face Papito Gonzalez, the 27th seed.
Wood and Churchman will be the first to tee off when the quarterfinals begin on Saturday morning at 8:30 a.m.
ABOUT THE Cotton States Amateur
Originally played in 1949 as the Bayou
DeSiard Labor Day Golf Tournament, the
tournament's
name was changed to the Cotton States
Invitational in 1951 by the club's young head
professional, W. E. "Winnie" Cole. He felt that
the
name better reflected the main states that the
tournament's players originated from (and a
move
to
mid-summer made the name a necessity later
anyway). Little did Cole know that 27 years
later, in
1978, the event would be renamed again,
forever to
be known as the W. E. Cole Cotton States
Invitational Golf Tournament.
Past champions of this highly competitive, yet
festive
tournament include Don January and Hal
Sutton. Gil
Morgan, David
Toms and many other PGA Tour players have
also
competed. The tournament field field is limited
to 96
amateur
participants
having a verified USGA Handicap Index not
exceeding 0.0. Long a match play event, the
format was changed in 2021 to 72 holes of
stroke play.
View Complete Tournament Information