San Jose State's Yu takes top seed at California Amateur
Sean Yu (SJSU Athletics photo)
The format is about to change at the California Amateur. The bracket is set at Monterey Peninsula Country Club and San Jose State’s Sean Yu is at the top of it.
With rounds of 68-66, Yu, who will be a senior for the Spartans in the fall, edged UC Davis’ Thomas Hutchison by two shots for the No. 1 seed. Yu had 11 birdies in 36 holes, and only one bogey, which came in Tuesday’s second round.
“I like where the balance of his game is at right now,” said San Jose State
University men’s golf coach John Kennaday.
Yu will open match play against No. 32 seed Ramiz Jamal of Huntington Beach. Hutchison, who won last year’s NCGA Amateur Match Play Championship and recently competed in the Amateur Championship at Portmarnock (Ireland) Golf Club, will meet No. 31 Joseph Benedetti of Playa Vista.
If Yu advances. He’ll meet the winner of the match between No. 16 Jason Anthony and No. 17 Robert Hamilton. Anthony, of course, already has won the Billy Bell Cup and the NCGA Mid-Amateur this month.
Earlier in the college golf season, Yu finished second at the Western Collegiate, one of the most prestigious – and longest running – events on the West Coast. He has a tall task to fight his way all the way to the final match this week. The last stroke-play medalist to win this event was Geoff Gonzalez in 2009, according to the NCGA.
The No.3 seed went to San Diego State sophomore Christian Banke of Danville. He had the low score on Tuesday with a 63 on the Shore Course. First-round leader Cameron Sisk, a sophomore at Arizona State who reached the quarterfinals at Portmarnock, ended up as the No. 4 seed.
Information from San Jose State University, NCGA used in this report
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.
View Complete Tournament Information