Krause remains steady for one-shot SCGA Mid-Amateur win

With a birdie on his final hole, Damon Krause closed out the SCGA Mid-Amateur title at Virginia Country Club in Long Beach. The Los Angeles native put together three steady rounds of golf, following an opening 1-under 69 with back-to-back rounds of 72.

Ultimately, Krause prevailed on the strength of his putter. He had just 11 putts on the back nine.

Coming off a good birdie at No. 14, Krause mis-clubbed on the par-3 15th and plugged in the face of a bunker short of the green. He hit a miraculous shot out that landed 10 feet behind the hole and trickled to a foot, then tapped in for par.

“Yesterday I hit the ball beautifully,” said Krause. “But then today, I just chose the wrong club on every shot and I had to scramble. My short game came through, which really hasn’t been that much of a strength in the past.”

Krause knew he needed to birdie the par-5 18th to win the championship. He had a blind iron shot into the kidney-shaped green, but he put it in a gully about 15 yards short. Krause was staring at a tricky uphill chip onto a plateaued flagstick location.

“I had a fluffy lie at the bottom of the hill,” he said. “In my mind I was just thinking don’t chunk it and have it roll back to my feet.”

His chip landed perfectly and rolled up to a couple feet, securing his Mid-Amateur title.

Behind Krause’s steady effort, the leaderboard shuffled. Another L.A. native, Jonathan Minkoff, logged one of only two final-round scores in the red. Playing two groups ahead of Krause, he used a 1-under 69 to climb all the way to a tie for second. Minkoff played his final nine in 2 under.

At 4 over for the week, Minkoff tied for second with Ryan Wilkins. Both were one shot behind Krause.

Joseph Benedetti of Playa Vista, Calif., was solo fourth at 5 over.

A crowd in fifth (6 over) included Nick Geyer, Tim Beans and AmateurGolf.com’s own Kyle Rector.

A handful of SCGA regulars finished farther down the leaderboard. Dan Sullivan, who won this title in 2017, the same year he reached the semifinals of the U.S. Mid-Amateur, tied for 13th at 9 over.

Two shots behind that, L.A. legend Tim Hogarth – winner of three SCGA Mid-Ams from 2007-10 and also the 1996 U.S. Amateur Public Links champion – was T-18.

Corby Segal, runner-up at this event last year and the winner in 2016, had a final-round 77 to finish T-24 at 12 over.

The top 10 finishers in this year’s Mid-Am are exempt for next year’s tournament. Additionally, the top 5 will earn a spot into the SCGA Amateur Championship, which is scheduled for July 11-14 at Lakeside GC.