By Adam Brady, for amateurgolf.com

MONTEREY, CA (May 29, 2005) – It was fitting that Phillip Hall won the amateurgolf.com Monterey Bay Championship by getting up and down on the last playoff hole. After all, that’s what he did time and time again during the weekend at Bayonet and Black Horse GCs.

On the heels of an extraordinary 2-under-par 71, Hall, of Atherton knocked off Haeyoung Lee of Scotts Valley on the third hole of sudden death. Hall’s gutsy 12-foot par putt followed a deft pitch from 40 yards short of the green. Lee then left short a 10-footer to force yet another hole.

Hall, who describes his lifestyle simply as “playing golf every day,” made three birdies on the round, starting at the 626-yard par-5 fourth. He also birdied the par-5 10th and par-4 12th to come back from a five-stroke deficit to begin the final round. His 77 on the first day came as a result of hitting only five greens, and he got up and down several more times to save pars in the final round.

Lee, meanwhile, made five birdies during a final-round 74 on a course he is quite familiar with. The 23-year-old senior-to-be at New Mexico State is currently serving an internship at Bayonet and Black Horse as part of the Professional Golf Management program through his school. In fact, minutes after the playoff ended, he was back behind the counter in the pro shop. “I have to go to work,” he said simply.

Lee said he worked hard on his short game prior to the tournament, “and it paid off. I made a lot of birdies, but I also made a lot of bogeys.”

Among those bogeys was one on the second hole of the playoff, in which both he and Hall were in the trees off the tee. But while he escaped with that one (as Hall bogeyed as well) he couldn’t get away with the one on the final playoff hole. Both he and Hall were in the fairway bunker off the tee, and while Hall came up well short with his approach, Lee missed long left and couldn’t get up and down from the rough.

“I thought I hit a pretty good putt, but it came up short,” Lee said. “And he made a great putt of his own. This course is tough and you’ve got to stay focused. I think I did that pretty well.”

First-round leader Adam Deadrich tied for third after following his even-par 72 with a 77 in the final round. His 149 total was matched by Erik Hallgrimson, who shot 73-76.
Earlier in the afternoon, Robert Rowland shot a stellar even-par 72 to capture the Senior Division title by three shots. Rowland came into the final round having shot 73 the day before at Black Horse and trailed the venerable Earl Stewart by a shot. He was still one back after both players shot 37 on their opening nine in the final round (Black Horse’s back nine).

Stewart increased the lead to two with a birdie on the par-5 first, but stumbled the rest of the way with bogeys on six of the next seven holes. Meanwhile, Rowland tied it up with a par on the tough second hole (his 11th), the only player in the final group to par the hole. “That helped a lot,” Rowland said later. “No doubt about it."

A birdie from 20 feet on the short par-4 seventh gave him the lead for good and led to a rare win for the 61-year-old retired airline pilot. “I’m a good top-10 finisher, but I don’t win a lot,” Rowland said. Indeed, he had earned three runner-up finishes this season – at the Livermore City, amateurgolf.com Metropolitan Amateur and Manteca City Four-Ball with partner Bob Reed – but hadn’t won since the Santa Clara County two years ago.

And this win was extra meaningful considering he defeated a player of Stewart’s caliber and was consistently the shortest hitter of a final group that also included Bob Cayton (runner-up at 73-75 -- 148) and Mark Miller (third at 73-76 --149). “I’m not long but I stay out of trouble,” Rowland said. “And that’s what you have to do out here.”

James Kline captured the Net Division title with a final-round 72 that was good enough to win by two shots. It paled in comparison to his first-round 66, but clutch pars on his 16th and 17th holes keyed the victory.

Kline, a network engineer with Cisco Systems who also races motorcycles, is soon moving to North Carolina. However, he hopes to find a way to defend his title.

“Next year,” Kline said with a wink, “I may have to plan a business trip this time of year.”

* * *

Final results from the amateurgolf.com Monterey Bay Championship, played at Bayonet Black Horse Golf Course:

	CHAMPIONSHIP					SENIOR					NET
Pos	Player Name	Rd1	Rd2	Tot	Pos	Player Name	Rd1	Rd2	Tot	Pos	Player Name	Rd1	Rd2	Tot
1	Phillip Hall *	77	71	148	1	Robert Rowland	73	72	145	1	James Kline	66	72	138
2	Haeyoung Lee	74	74	148	2	Bob Cayton	73	75	148	2	D L Jones	70	70	140
T3	Adam Deadrich	72	77	149	3	Mark Miller	73	76	149	3	Randall Swanson	71	70	141
T3	Erik Hallgrimson	73	76	149	4	Earl Stewart	72	78	150	4	Al Richardson	72	70	142
5	Randy Haag	73	77	150	5	Doug Baker	77	76	153	T5	Jeff Hollstien	72	71	143
T6	Greg Ford	74	77	151	6	Michael Harding	75	79	154	T5	Jim Robertson	74	69	143
T6	Jason Melvin	74	77	151	T7	Doug Dusenbury	79	76	155	T5	Tim Burke	69	74	143
T8	Darryl Donovan	75	77	152	T7	Gary Petersmeyer	75	80	155	T8	Korsen Yu	71	73	144
T8	Terry Foreman	74	78	152	T7	Neil Duffy	76	79	155	T8	Micky Carson	73	71	144
10	Michael Nicoletti	73	80	153	T10	Joe Zanassi	77	79	156	T10	John Kornitsky	74	73	147
T11	Bret Wagar	75	79	154	T10	Tom Pera	79	77	156	T10	Mark Roth	77	70	147
T11	Martin Renaud	78	76	154	12	Terry Ackerman	82	75	157	T12	Alan Parker	72	76	148
T13	Adam Sides	79	76	155	13	Stanley Lent	81	78	159	T12	Jim Thurman	77	71	148
T13	Chris Rulfs	79	76	155	14	David Hemrick	76	84	160	T12	John O'Malley	75	73	148
T15	Bob Sayous	77	79	156	T15	Bob Bouchier	78	84	162	T12	Tony Caviglia	76	72	148
T15	Cary Chiappone	73	83	156	T15	Frank Pokigo Jr.	80	82	162	16	Valerie Robertson	74	75	149
T15	Greg Wardle	81	75	156	T15	Wayne Mosher	83	79	162	T17	Cameron Farah	79	71	150
T18	Digger Cokley	82	75	157	T18	Dave Ware	83	80	163	T17	Justin Moroyan	73	77	150
T18	Eben Warde	76	81	157	T18	Dennis Fox	80	83	163	T19	Del Hocker	77	74	151
T18	Josh Bleyle	78	79	157	T18	Leith Anderson	80	83	163	T19	Gary Donaldson	76	75	151
T18	Patrick Pernice	79	78	157	21	Rick Anderson	82	83	165	T19	Jeff Kier	72	79	151
22	Matt Jacobsen	77	81	158	22	Chuck Weil	83	84	167	T19	Jeffrey True	77	74	151
T23	Robert Matias	79	80	159	23	Daniel Kuper	84	84	168	T23	Craig Cowan	74	79	153
T23	Tom Gottwald	80	79	159	24	Bob Twaddell	85	84	169	T23	Meredith Glacken	82	71	153
T25	Michael Vera	83	77	160	T25	Art Knapp	80	91	171	T23	Noel Rush	77	76	153
T25	Peter Israel	82	78	160	T25	Joe Rhodes	84	87	171	T26	Jeff Traweek	75	79	154
T25	Thomas Duensing	81	79	160	27	James Brickey Jr.	88	86	174	T26	Jim Waggoner	79	75	154
T28	Andrew Overton	79	82	161	28	Charles Kozak	88	92	180	T28	Dave Davis	77	78	155
T28	Dan Koehn	79	82	161						T28	Peter Funt	76	79	155
T28	Mark Nicoletti	75	86	161						T30	Dave Joenk	78	78	156
T28	Robert Goodwin	76	85	161						T30	Mason Gunn	74	82	156
T28	Sean Dyer	80	81	161						T30	Mike Murphy	80	76	156
33	Mark Swenson	79	83	162						33	Mark Kavanaugh	76	81	157
34	Kevin Kobalter	84	80	164						T34	Frank Angelo	81	77	158
35	Aaron Dean	87	78	165						T34	Todd Knapp	77	81	158
T36	Curtis Abbey	80	88	168						36	John Pappas	76	83	159
T36	Haksong Lee	87	81	168						T37	Bill McKinley	81	85	166
38	Ryan Kahl	85	90	175						T37	Greg Munroe	80	86	166
39	Andrew Loftus	91	89	180						39	Chuck Byers	85	82	167
40	Thomas Baur	96	87	183						40	John Picone	83	91	174
T41	Bill Foley	89	NC	NC						41	Anil Sehgal	90	93	183
T41	Logan Woodruff	88	WD	WD						42	Rick MacDonald	76	WD	WD
* won in playoff

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