Texas Mid-Am Match Play: Mathias the victor
HUMBLE, Texas (July 29, 2007)-- Jon Mathias of San Antonio now holds both the TGA Mid-Am Match Play and TGA Mid-Amateur titles after defeating defending champion Alan Clark of Ennis in the finals of the 2007 Mid-Am Match Play Championship. Mathias won 3 & 1 at the Member’s Course of Redstone Golf Club in Humble. Even though Mathias and Clark had already played five rounds of competition (two rounds of stroke play qualifying and three matches) in four days, they still had plenty of energy to put on quite a battle, with some very good golf played by both finalists. Clark made a valiant effort at defending his title, but came up just short.
The final match was a back and forth battle most of the first nine holes and was all square at the turn. Mathias birdied Hole 10 and stayed ahead the rest of the way. A Clark bogey on Hole 13 and a Mathias birdie on Hole 15 gave Mathias a 3-up lead with three to play. Clark made birdie on No. 16 to extend the match, then hit a tree with his approach shot on 17. His third shot went over the green and when his par chip slid past the hole he conceded the hole to Mathias for the 3 & 1 win.
“I kept a good attitude all week no matter how squirrelly things got with the weather and the conditions,” Mathias said.
The conditions were certainly a factor throughout the week as both rounds of stroke play qualifying on Thursday and Friday had weather delays, and just to keep the trend going the championship match was delayed some 25 minutes by a passing storm that dropped even more rain on an already saturated Redstone Golf Club.
Asked about holding both the Mid-Am Match Play and State Mid-Amateur titles at the same time Mathias simply responded: “That is really neat.” Then with a grin he added, “Of course it would be nice to do it in the same year.”
Mathias plans to defend his Mid-Amateur title in September at Miramont CC in Bryan. Right now he said his sights are set on a third straight TGA South Regional Player of the Year Award when he tees it up next Friday in the TGA South Region Mid-Am, the final Regional Championship for the South Region in 2007.
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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.
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