Gonzalez, Collyer to meet in Cotton States final
Paul Gonzalez (UT-Arlington photo)
MONROE, La. (July 28, 2018) – A week ago at this time, Paul Gonzalez had the lead going into the final round of the West Texas Amateur. Gonzalez fell to T-5 in the final round of that event, but it’s another week, another tournament, another opportunity. On Sunday, Gonzalez will face off against Blake Collyer in the championship match of the W.E. Cole Cotton States Invitational.
Gonzalez, a sophomore at Texas-Arlington, has survived two double-round days at Bayou DeSiard Golf Club to reach the final match. On Saturday, he knocked off Grayson Jones in the morning quarterfinals, 2 up, then took down Charlie Miller in the semifinals, 2 and 1.
Collyer, meanwhile, had a slightly easier day on Saturday than Gonzalez. In the quarterfinals, Collyer, of Australia, took down Sean Wilcox, 6 and 5. His semifinal match against Luke Long only went 15 holes.
Collyer won the Australian Dunes Medal last year. His past month has been highlighted by a T-30 at the Southern Amateur and a T-33 at the Players Amateur.
ABOUT THE Cotton States Amateur
Originally played in 1949 as the Bayou
DeSiard Labor Day Golf Tournament, the
tournament's
name was changed to the Cotton States
Invitational in 1951 by the club's young head
professional, W. E. "Winnie" Cole. He felt that
the
name better reflected the main states that the
tournament's players originated from (and a
move
to
mid-summer made the name a necessity later
anyway). Little did Cole know that 27 years
later, in
1978, the event would be renamed again,
forever to
be known as the W. E. Cole Cotton States
Invitational Golf Tournament.
Past champions of this highly competitive, yet
festive
tournament include Don January and Hal
Sutton. Gil
Morgan, David
Toms and many other PGA Tour players have
also
competed. The tournament field field is limited
to 96
amateur
participants
having a verified USGA Handicap Index not
exceeding 0.0. Long a match play event, the
format was changed in 2021 to 72 holes of
stroke play.
View Complete Tournament Information