New Hampshire Am: Stevens def Friel, 2 & 1
- photo courtesy NHGA
TILTON, New Hampshire (July 12, 2008) -- Mark Stevens, a Junior at the University of Rhode Island from Concord, and runner-up in this event last two years, defeated Ryan Friel of Brookline, Mass today to win the New Hampshire State Amateur Championship.
It was the sixth successive State Amateur in which a new winner has been crowned.
After winning two matches on Friday, Stevens seemed determined to make his third trip to the finals the charm.
"I didn't play that bad the last two years. I just ran into buzzsaws," Stevens said on Friday. "I have no fear. I'm out there to win. If it's meant to be ... great. If not ... make it to the final next year and give it another shot."
In the final match, Stevens never trailed. After halving the first three holes, Stevens took a one up advantage with a birdie at the 375-yard par 4 fourth, but lost that lead two holes later to a Friel birdie at No. 6. Evidently backing up his Friday words, Stevens bounced back with an eagle on the par 5 seventh, then ran his lead to 3-up after Friel made bogey on Nos. 8 and 9.
Friel fought the match back to even after 15, but lost the final three of the morning round to an birdie-par-eagle run by Stevens.
After lunch, the players tied their 19th hole, then Friel made on the 20th to get to 2-down. The match was tense for the next eight holes, all being halved with pars. Friel got to 1-down with a birdie on their 29th hole, but gave it back two holes later when he made bogey on the 418-yard 13th.
After four more halved pars, Stevens closed out the match, 2 & 1.
The 21-year-old will head back to the University of Rhode Island's fall schedule with some new found confidence. Perhaps next year he will come back and defend and end the six year streak of new winners...
View results for New Hampshire Amateur
ABOUT THE New Hampshire Amateur
Competition will be held at ten pre-qualifying
sites and will be 18 holes at Stroke Play.
The
low qualifiers and ties from all the sites
along
with the players exempt from
prequalifying, will
be eligible for the 36-hole qualifying on
the
first two days of the tournament proper.
Sixty-four players will begin match play the
following day. Entries are open to males
who
are members in good standing of member
NHGA
Clubs who are legal residents of New
Hampshire. An eligible non-resident can
play in
NHGA Championships if he has been a
member
in good standing of an NHGA member club
for
the last three complete golf seasons and
has
played a minimum of 25 rounds of golf at
this
club in each of the three seasons. A letter
signed by the President of the member
club
must accompany his first entry, stating
that
the player complies with NHGA eligibility
requirements.
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