MORGAN HILL, California (January 16, 2016) -- The Silicon Valley Amateur is a tournament dominated by college players more than any of our "Tour" events.
Among the 90 Championship Flight contestants today were more than a dozen Cal Bears, a nice contingent of St. Mary's Gaels, as well as the occasional San Jose State Spartan, Cal Davis Aggie, and more than this writer can remember after a long day at 7:00pm.
Tied at the top, with an up-and-down round that included eight birdies, is Travis Rowney. After bogeying the 10th hole (his first) and marking par on No. 11, he scored three birdies in a row on Nos. 13-15; he would go on to duplicate the "hat trick" on his second nine on Nos. 4, 5, and 6. Watch out for this San Jose State Spartan (from Pleasanton, Calif.) if he can steady the bogeys tomorrow on the Nicklaus Tournament Course.
Cal player Walker Huddy, who hails from Studio City, posted the same 4-under 68 -- but his was much less eventful, as in bogey-free.
That same moniker goes to bogey-free Ben Doyle, Huddy's teammate at Cal who is in a three way tie for third with two other Cal Bears, Sebastian Crampton and 2015 Trans-Miss Amateur winner Collin Morikawa.
Doyle, from La Jolla, scored his first AmateurGolf.com trophy at the Christmas Classic last month at Del Monte.
The low Mid-Am golfer 25-years and over was Robby Salomon; he fired 70 and this 2015 U.S. Am qualifier from the Monterey Bay should be dangerous tomorrow.
SENIOR/NET
Steve Donnelly of Salinas posted a solid 74 to lead Jeff Britton by a shot. Britton recently ran away with the Tour Championship; it's possible runner-up Donnelly is looking for some revenge. (Actually we're all friends but what the heck, it should be a great final round.)
Abi Vickram has a nice margin in the Net Division after and even par 72.
ABOUT THE AGC Silicon Valley Amateur
PAIRINGS |
RESULTS
The Silicon Valley Amateur is the first
AmateurGolf.com
tournament to have, on it's past winner's list, a
MAJOR
champion. That would be Collin Morikawa, who won
the
2016 title. Just over 4 years later, he won the PGA
Championship just up the road at TPC Harding Park
in
San Francisco.
2021 marked the announcement of Baylands Golf
Links as the tournament's new host venue. It's
location in Palo Alto is fitting -- as the original garage
where Hewlett Packard was founded is located there,
and today's biggest tech companies dot the area
map
like the Canadian Geese on the fairways and
wetlands
near Baylands in the winter. Like
Corica Park in Alameda, Baylands was recently
completely redesigned as a new course from the dirt
up, under the hand of architect Forrest Richardson,
and
the results are stunning.
View Complete Tournament Information