posting an even-par 70 to claim the tournament title at 6-under-par 274. Sim became the first player in the history to win the Sunnehanna Amateur and MIC in back-to-back weeks.
"I just hit a lot of greens today and tried to get the birdies where I could and just seemed to do that quite well," Sim commenting on his play in the final round. "You are always going to make maybe a couple of bogeys and which I did, but you just have to accept that - it's part of playing golf."
Sim recorded one birdie on the opening nine at the 432-yard par-4 5th and parred the rest of the holes to make the turn at 1-under-par 34. He ran into the bogeys he thought he would early on the back nine bogeying the 433-yard par-4 10th and 192-yard par-3 13th, sandwiched by a birdie at the 492-yard par-5 12th. However, he didn't let the mistakes disrupt his strong play all week and parred out to finish 1-over-par on the back and finished with the even-par 70.
"I wasn't really that agressive, but I played well pretty much all day," Sim said. "I seemed to play well pretty much all week, hit the ball quite well and holed a few putts."
While Sim was playing steady golf, third-round co-leader Mark Leon of Penn State struggled throughout his round. Leon opened the front nine with a 3-over-par 38 and bogeyed four of the first five holes on the back nine to take him out of contention for the title early. He finished with an 8-over-par 78 to end the tournament at 2-over-par 282 after entering the day at 6-under-par.
"It looked like a lot of guys were going backwards, so I just sort of kept playing par golf," Sim said. "If I got a birdie, great, but I just kept making pars and still had to hit fairways and greens keeping it pretty steady."
J.J. Killeen who entered the day within three strokes of Sim and Leon, closed the gap to two strokes moving to 4-under-par after a birdie on the 194-yard par-3 16th. However, Sim didn't falter and Killeen couldn't go further in the red in the final two holes. Killeen, a third-team GCAA/Ping All-American, finished second at 4-under-par after his 69 today. First-round leader Jeff Overton of Indiana, a second-team All-American and member of the victorius 2005 Palmer Cup team, also posted a 69 today to finish at 3-under-par and share third with Dayton Rose of Oklahoma State.
"I was very pleased with today's round and happy with the finish." Sim added. "It's great to have two victories in a row."
The next stop for Sim is next week June 23-26 at the Northeast Amateur at Wannamoisett Country Club in Rumford, RI outside of Providence looking to pull off the triple.
Sim on his chances of recording a third-straight victory, "We've got the Northeast Amateur next week and it would be nice to win that as well, but we will just see how it goes."
Rochester native Chris Agostinelli (Niagara) recorded the highest finish of
a local player in the past four years sharing 18th-place at 4-over-par 284,
Mid-Am John Kircher has the previous top local finish at 32nd in the 2004 MIC.
Rochester's Andrew DiBitetto (Charlotte) shared 44th at 13-over-par 293, Honeoye's
Scott Harris (MCC) placed 53rd at 16-over-par, Fairport's Adam Condello (Old
Dominion) finished 19-over-par for a share of 56th, Brighton's Blake Gianniny
(Hofstra) tied for 62nd at 25-over, Waterloo's Michael Stackus (St. John Fisher)
shared 66th shares 64th at 24-over and Rochester's Tony DiBitetto (UNC-Wilmington)
was 69th at 50-over-par.
-- STORY COURTESY MONROE COUNTRY CLUB --
* * * * * *
Final results from the Monroe Invitational, played at the 6787-yard, par 70
Monroe Country Club:
| Pos | Player | School | Rd1 | Rd2 | Rd3 | Rd4 | Tot | +/- |
| 1 | Michael Sim | Australia | 68 | 70 | 66 | 70 | 274 | -6 |
| 2 | J.J. Killeen | TCU | 72 | 64 | 71 | 69 | 276 | -4 |
| 3 | Dayton Rose | Oklahoma State | 69 | 70 | 69 | 69 | 277 | -3 |
| 3 | Jeff Overton | Indiana | 64 | 74 | 70 | 69 | 277 | -3 |
| 5 | Andrew Dodt | Australia | 66 | 70 | 73 | 70 | 279 | -1 |
| 5 | Matt Harmon | Michigan State | 71 | 73 | 66 | 69 | 279 | -1 |
| 7 | Colt Knost | SMU | 69 | 76 | 67 | 68 | 280 | E |
| 7 | Scott Anderson | Ohio State | 68 | 72 | 69 | 71 | 280 | E |
| 7 | Kyle Reifers | Wake Forest | 70 | 69 | 69 | 72 | 280 | E |
| 10 | John Holmes | Kentucky | 71 | 74 | 64 | 72 | 281 | 1 |
| 10 | Matt Thomas | Miami (Ohio) | 68 | 69 | 71 | 73 | 281 | 1 |
| 12 | Jason Day | Australia | 71 | 75 | 69 | 67 | 282 | 2 |
| 12 | Roy Moon | UCLA | 71 | 72 | 70 | 69 | 282 | 2 |
| 12 | Will Claxton | Auburn | 66 | 76 | 70 | 70 | 282 | 2 |
| 12 | Emmett Turner | Augusta State | 69 | 69 | 71 | 73 | 282 | 2 |
| 12 | Mark Leon | Penn State | 66 | 69 | 69 | 78 | 282 | 2 |
| 17 | Ted Smith | North Carolina | 71 | 70 | 70 | 72 | 283 | 3 |
| 18 | Michael Quagliano | Duke | 73 | 73 | 69 | 69 | 284 | 4 |
| 18 | Stuart Moore | Auburn | 70 | 74 | 71 | 69 | 284 | 4 |
| 18 | Scott Brown | USC-Aiken | 69 | 75 | 68 | 72 | 284 | 4 |
| 18 | Chris Agostinelli | Niagara | 70 | 73 | 68 | 73 | 284 | 4 |
| 18 | Ryan Blaum | Duke | 72 | 69 | 70 | 73 | 284 | 4 |
| 23 | Mike Barbosa | Georgia Tech | 73 | 72 | 69 | 71 | 285 | 5 |
| 23 | Patton Kizzire | Auburn | 69 | 68 | 74 | 74 | 285 | 5 |
| 23 | Jason Kokrak | Xavier | 71 | 72 | 74 | 68 | 285 | 5 |
| 26 | Nathan Smith | Mid-Am (Clarion) | 72 | 71 | 72 | 71 | 286 | 6 |
| 26 | Alex Hamilton | South Carolina | 69 | 75 | 71 | 71 | 286 | 6 |
| 26 | Jon Curran | Vanderbilt (Fall '05) | 71 | 72 | 70 | 73 | 286 | 6 |
| 26 | Kevin Kisner | Georgia | 71 | 70 | 72 | 73 | 286 | 6 |
| 30 | Tyler Leon | Oklahoma State | 71 | 73 | 71 | 72 | 287 | 7 |
| 30 | Josh Esler | Arizona | 72 | 69 | 72 | 74 | 287 | 7 |
| 30 | Ryan Posey | Oklahoma State | 75 | 73 | 70 | 69 | 287 | 7 |
| 30 | Joe Lanza | St. Mary's | 71 | 72 | 74 | 70 | 287 | 7 |
| 34 | Brendon Todd | Georgia | 71 | 68 | 75 | 74 | 288 | 8 |
| 34 | Brian Duncan | Clemson | 70 | 73 | 70 | 75 | 288 | 8 |
| 34 | Jack Ferguson | Clemson | 66 | 72 | 79 | 71 | 288 | 8 |
| 34 | Dane Burkhart | USC-Aiken | 72 | 71 | 74 | 71 | 288 | 8 |
| 38 | Matt Bortis | Arkansas | 67 | 78 | 72 | 72 | 289 | 9 |
| 38 | Justin Maker | Australia | 73 | 73 | 71 | 72 | 289 | 9 |
| 40 | Jeff Hood | California | 73 | 77 | 68 | 73 | 291 | 11 |
| 41 | Thomas Hagler | Alabama | 75 | 74 | 74 | 69 | 292 | 12 |
| 41 | Andrew Ruthkoski | Michigan State | 71 | 77 | 74 | 70 | 292 | 12 |
| 41 | Billy Hurley | Navy | 69 | 80 | 68 | 75 | 292 | 12 |
| 44 | Andrew DiBitetto | Charlotte | 70 | 75 | 76 | 72 | 293 | 13 |
| 44 | Jon McLean | TCU (Fall '05) | 71 | 75 | 72 | 75 | 293 | 13 |
| 44 | Matt Rosenfeld | Texas | 73 | 76 | 69 | 75 | 293 | 13 |
| 47 | Matthew Crenshaw | North Carolina | 73 | 74 | 74 | 73 | 294 | 14 |
| 47 | Scott Carlyle | California | 74 | 74 | 73 | 73 | 294 | 14 |
| 47 | Tom Davis | Australia | 72 | 73 | 74 | 75 | 294 | 14 |
| 50 | Michael Schachner | Duke | 74 | 73 | 69 | 79 | 295 | 15 |
| 50 | Andrew Lanahan | LSU | 74 | 75 | 74 | 72 | 295 | 15 |
| 50 | David Lutterus | Australia | 68 | 76 | 76 | 75 | 295 | 15 |
| 53 | Scott Harris | Barton | 72 | 78 | 71 | 75 | 296 | 16 |
| 54 | Will Dodson | SMU | 74 | 80 | 73 | 70 | 297 | 17 |
| 54 | David May | Clemson (Fall '05) | 75 | 75 | 73 | 74 | 297 | 17 |
| 56 | Trent Leon | OK State (Fall '05) | 77 | 75 | 72 | 75 | 299 | 19 |
| 56 | Adam Condello | Old Dominion | 77 | 74 | 74 | 74 | 299 | 19 |
| 58 | Dan Gabel | Virginia | 82 | 71 | 75 | 72 | 300 | 20 |
| 59 | Lorenzo Scotto | Italy | 74 | 78 | 75 | 74 | 301 | 21 |
| 59 | Phillip Mollica | Clemson (Fall '05) | 78 | 77 | 71 | 75 | 301 | 21 |
| 61 | Daniel McCarthy | Le Moyne | 74 | 79 | 76 | 73 | 302 | 22 |
| 62 | Blake Gianniny | Hofstra | 73 | 77 | 78 | 77 | 305 | 25 |
| 63 | Jeff Wolniewicz | Binghamton | 71 | 83 | 76 | 76 | 306 | 26 |
| 64 | Dawie Van der Walt | Lamar | 73 | 83 | 77 | 74 | 307 | 27 |
| 64 | Michael Stackus | St. John Fisher | 77 | 80 | 72 | 78 | 307 | 27 |
| 66 | Mark Anderson | South Carolina | 73 | 76 | 86 | 73 | 308 | 28 |
| 67 | Nathan J. Smith | Duke | 72 | 76 | 76 | 86 | 310 | 30 |
| 68 | Tony DiBitetto | UNC-Wilmington | 79 | 83 | 83 | 85 | 330 | 50 |
| 69 | Martin Ureta | North Carolina | 74 | 74 | 71 | WD | WD | WD |