MET Open: Amateur Mark Costanza comes up just short, finishes runner-up

Mark Costanza of Morristown, N.J., finished in solo second place at the 108th Metropolitan Golf Association Open Championship and was the low amateur.

Costanza shot 2-under overall and 2-under 69 in the final round to jump up the leaderboard into second place.

Dylan Newman won the tournament at 4-under, even though he shot a 2-over 73 in the final round.

Newman started the day with a two-shot lead, but a pair of early bogeys on Nos. 2 and 7 and movement from other players led to a crowded leaderboard with nine holes to go. Mark Costanza of Baltusrol and 2022 champion Ryan Siegler of TPC Jasna Polana both made an eagle on the par-5 ninth.

The jump pulled Costanza within a single shot while Siegler found himself tied with Newman at 4-under after adding a birdie on the par-4 10th. However, Costanza then made double-bogey five on the par-3 11th, while Siegler played his final eight holes in 4-over.

Newman made birdie on the ninth himself as he made the turn. Though he made a bogey on 10, he bounced back with birdies on Nos. 11 and 13 to quickly extend his lead to four shots as others fell back.

"I had a feeling they would move the tees up on 13," Newman told the MGA. "I wasn't going for that. I hit the same shot in the pro-am from the fairway. I let [the ball] feed down to the right, and it was perfect."

Mark Costanza finished as the low-amateur

Costanza carded a 2-under 69 in the final round -- one of just four sub-par rounds in the final round -- to move up the leaderboard and earn low amateur honors with the second-place finish.

Amateur Melan Dhaubhadel finished in T3 at 1-under for the tournament.

Dhaubhadel, playing in the final group alongside Newman, started the final round at 4-under, but the Louisiana Monroe senior made three bogeys and no birdies in the final round en route to posting a 3-over par 74.

Dhaubhadel won the Metropolitan Stroke Play Championship in June.