Davis holds off Cavaliere charge for Met Amateur title

PARAMUS, N.J. (Aug. 5, 2018) -- Ryan Davis entered the afternoon half of the scheduled 36-hole final in the 116th Met Amateur with a 3-up advantage over Christian Cavaliere. Though Cavaliere trimmed the deficit to one on multiple occasions at Arcola Country Club, Davis' steady play won out, setting up a 2-and-1 victory.

Davis steadily built a lead in the morning and used birdies to win Nos. 9, 10, and 12 and build a 5-up lead. However, Cavaliere bounced back with wins on Nos. 14-16 to quickly trim the deficit to just two. But Davis added another birdie on the par-4 18th to extend his lead to three holes entering the final 18.

Semifinal matches finished in dramatic fashion earlier on Sunday morning, as both Davis and Cavaliere made birdie on the 18th hole to advance to the championship match.

Davis entered the morning 1 up on the 17th green against Jake Mayer in semifinal play. After both he and Mayer bogeyed 17, Davis stuffed his approach on 18 to 4 feet for a conceded birdie and a 2-up victory for his spot in the final.

Cavaliere’s par putt slides by and Ryan Davis is your 116th Met Amateur champion, winning 2&1! pic.twitter.com/P2oiS4Rv18

— Metropolitan Golf Association (@MGA1897) August 5, 2018

Meanwhile, in the other semifinal, Cavaliere faced a one-hole deficit against reigning MGA Player of the Year James Nicholas, resuming play on the par-4 16th.

Cavaliere erased the deficit quickly, knocking his approach to just 3 feet to make birdie and square the match. Both players got up-and-down from short of the 17th to send things to 18 all-square. Nicholas' approach on 18 finished 20 inches from the hole while Cavaliere's spun back to the front of the green, some 60 feet from the hole. But, Cavaliere--who said he had left a lot of putts short on Saturday--didn't make that mistake this time, draining the lengthy putt before Nicholas' bid missed.