Mouw, 18, takes down Banke to win California Amateur

As he prepares for his freshman season at Pepperdine, William Mouw got a major confidence boost and a massive trophy on Saturday at Monterey Peninsula Country Club. The 18-year-old Mouw prevailed at the California Amateur Championship despite the fact that he carried the highest World Amateur Golf Ranking into the event.

With his 4-and-2 defeat of Christian Banke, Mouw, ranked No. 58, also becomes one of the youngest winners of this championship. The youngest champ ever remains Mac Hunter, who captured the title in 1972 at the age of 16. Mouw is 18.

After stroke-play qualifying, Mouw had the No. 24 seed. Banke, meanwhile, was the No. 3 seed. Regardless, Mouw’s name joins a list of champions that includes

Ken Venturi, Johnny Miller and Mark O’Meara.

“It feels great. It’s an honor to have my name with those guys,” said Mouw, who prepped at Ontario Christian High. “It was a great match. We both played great.”

Mouw trailed by one hole after the first half of the 36-hole final, but stuffed his approach to 3 feet on the first hole after lunch and made birdie to tie it up. He was 2 up by the time the match turned for the final time, then won No. 10 to go 3 up. Banke couldn’t overcome that deficit.

All week at Monterey Peninsula, Mouw had his dad Billy on the bag. Mouw also leaned heavily on his mental coach, with whom he often talks on the phone.

“My mental coach and I talked about how long the week is and that I needed to just keep plodding along with no big expectations. Visualize, verbalize and realize,” said Mouw, who hit 15 of 16 greens in the afternoon round. “This is going to be a great confidence booster going into college.”

Mouw is the No. 5-ranked junior golfer in the country, according to the Golfweek Junior Rankings.

Quotes and information in this article courtesy of NCGA