Silvernail takes home Southern California Match Play title

RANCHO CUCAMONGA, Calif. (August 6, 2014) — Brett Silvernail, a University of California-Santa Barbara senior and Ventura, Calif. native, defeated Dan Sullivan of Pasadena on Wednesday afternoon 5-and-4 to capture the 2014 Southern California Match Play Championship. Silvernail never trailed in the match, birdieing the first hole and steadily building the lead from there. After losing the fifth hole, Silvernail won three out of the next four holes to extend his lead to four-up, eventually winning with a push on the 14th hole. Silvernail was the 13th seed and had to fend off a number of top-seeded players to get to the final against Sullivan, including a round-of-16 match against four-seed Sean Crocker and a semifinal matchup with the stroke play medalist Tim Hogarth. Silvernail had close matches with both players, needing the 17th hole or further to advance. Sullivan, 47, did not play college golf but managed to beat plenty of young talent in the field. He faced Joe Ryon, former UC-Santa Barbara Gaucho, winning one-up in the round-of-16. Ryon shot the course record, 59, at El Camino Country Club in 2013. Then in the quarterfinals, Sullivan handedly defeated San Diego State junior Gunn Yang, a South Korea native who attended Torrey Pines High School. Sullivan reached the finals with a 3-and-2 win over Loyola Marymount University senior Tyler Torano.