Nick Nosewicz captures Colorado Match Play
Nick Nosewicz (left) (Photo by CGA)
AURORA, Colo. — Nick Nosewicz of Meadow Hills Golf Course struck a blow for mid-amateur golfers on Friday by becoming the oldest winner of the Colorado Match Play Championship since 1994.
Nosewicz, 31, never trailed in the 36-hole final of the 115th Match Play, defeating Connor Klein of Lone Tree Golf Club 4 and 3 for the title at CommonGround Golf Course.
The last golfer older than Nosewicz when he won the CGA Match Play was Mark Crabtree, who was 38 when he prevailed in the event for the fourth time in 1994. Crabtree has since been inducted into the Colorado Golf Hall of Fame.
On Friday, Nosewicz won his fifth match in three days by beating the 21-year-old Klein, the reigning national Division II junior college individual champion.
Nosewicz, who regained his amateur status after being a pro, won the CGA title a summer after finishing runner-up in the CGA Stroke Play.
A member of a well-known golfing family in Colorado -- his grandfather, Ed Nosewicz Sr., is in the Colorado Golf Hall of Fame -- Nick Nosewicz built a huge lead and then held Klein at bay.
Nosewicz was 7 up through 16 holes before Klein won four straight (18 through 21) -- three of them with birdies -- to cut the deficit to a manageable 3 down. Klein wouldn't get any closer during the second 18, but did get back to 3 down with a 16-foot birdie on the 32nd hole.
But Nosewicz closed out the match with a 3 1/2-foot par putt on the next hole as Klein had to blast out of a fairway bunker and missed a 9-foot par putt that would have prolonged the contest.
Nosewicz finished the day 1 under par for 33 holes.
View results for Colorado Match Play
ABOUT THE Colorado Match Play
The CGA Match Play Championship will be played
using the PGA TOUR style match play Pod
Play system at gross scoring. This means that any
player who qualifies for the
championship will be guaranteed at least three (3)
matches in the championship at
CommonGround Golf Course. After each player is
ranked (see below), all players will be
distributed into their pod with three (3) other
players. This will yield 16 pods of four (4)
players. Each player will play all three other players
in their pod (see schedule below). The
winner of each pod will advance to the Round of 16
and a single elimination knockout
round will be played at CommonGround Golf Course.
The top 8 players will advance to
complete the championship at Colorado Golf Club in
a single elimination bracket.
Player Seeding: All 64 players will be ranked 1 – 64.
The defending champion will be
ranked #1. Exempt players will be ranked next based
on their 2020 CGA Player of the Year
points standings. The rest of the field of 64 will be
made from qualifying players that came
from an off-site qualifier. Qualifying players will be
ranked in order of their qualifying score
at their given site.
Pod Assignments/Seeding: The pods will follow the
PGA TOUR style of randomized drawing.
Once players have been seeded 1 - 64, players will
be drawn at random so that each pod
will consist of a player ranked 1 - 16 (Player 1), 17 -
32 (Player 2), 33 - 48 (Player 3) and
49 - 64 (Player 4).
Pod Play Scoring: There will be no extra holes during
the pod play portion of matches.
Scoring during pod play will be as follows: Match
Won – 1 point | Match Tied – ½ point |
Match Lost – 0 Points.
Note: If there is a tie for the pod winner, a sudden
death playoff will determine the person
advancing from that pod.
View Complete Tournament Information