2015 Western Am champ Dawson Armstrong (WGA photo)
SUGAR GROVE, Ill. — Dawson Armstrong and
Aaron Wise were back-and-forth all afternoon at
Rich Harvest Farms, much like a tennis match.
Though, this was the 113th playing of the
Western Amateur, and the championship match,
no less. No player ever held more than a 1-up
lead during the 20 holes played in the Illinois
summer heat, with 12 of the 18 regulation holes
being won by either player.
But it was Armstrong, the Lipscomb University
sophomore from Brentwood, Tenn., who had
two of the most crucial victories. He entered the
final hole, a par-5, one-down to Wise. So he
did exactly what he needed to do and cashed in
on his birdie opportunity to force the match to
extra holes.
Wise, who Armstrong noted out-drove him with
his 3-wood off the 18th tee,
knocked it right over the
pin to the back of green. Armstrong flared his
approach, ending up about
ten yards right but elected
to putt his eagle try from off the green.
Armstrong thought he had made
the long attempt, though it
came up a few feet short and he tapped in for an
easy birdie. Wise, on the
other hand, left his long
putt from the back of the green about 10 feet
above the hole, eventually
missing the remaining putt
to send the match to a playoff.
And after matching pars at the first, Armstrong
joined names like Tiger Woods, Jack Nicklaus,
and Phil Mickelson as winners of the Western
Amateur by making eagle — a bunker-hole out
— on the par-5 second
hole to defeat Wise.
"I don't really remember the reaction from the
crowd. I just remember the
reaction from me,"
Armstrong admitted when asked about the
sizable crowd following the
championship match. "But
looking over at the crowd and seeing them
cheering, it was really surreal
to see all that."
Armstrong found himself yelling from inside the
bunker, short and
right
of the second green. The reaction is, of course,
natural
considering the
extent of his win. The tournament is arguably
the most difficult
amateur championship to win, rivaling the U.S.
Amateur and
British
Amateur.
The victory is Armstrong's second of the
summer,
having already been victorious at the
Dogwood
Invitational early in July at Druid
Hills Golf Club in Atlanta. Had Wise won, it
would have been his second win of the summer,
as
well, having just flown into Chicago from
Eugene, Ore. where he won the
Pacific Coast
Amateur.
"Oh man. I don't know yet. It's hit me that I did
so well, but it
hasn't hit
me that it's over," Armstrong said. "Part of me
thinks I'm going to
drive out there, a solid 20-minute drive, and
warm up and tee off
again."
Again, an understandable thought. The two
finalists finished up
their
eighth competitive round at Rich Harvest Farms
in a five-day
span. But
Armstrong seemed eager to get back out there,
as he had glowing
things to say about this year's host course.
"That track is perfect," he said. "It is, in my
opinion, the perfect
combination of a 'big hitters' course and an
'accuracy' course. It
requires you to focus on every shot. Nothing is
given to you."
For Wise, likely a disappointing finish. But the All
Pac-12 Second
Team
honoree had a spectacular summer to follow up
his freshman
season,
sparked by a second-place finish at the Pac-12
Championship. He
placed seventh at the Sahalee Players
Championship early in July
before his breakout win at Eugene Country Club
last week.
SEMIFINAL RECAP
In Saturday morning's semifinal matchup,
Armstrong had his hands full against tournament
medalist and No. 1 seed Robby Shelton.
After going back and fourth during the first 11
holes, Armstrong strung together three straight
birdies to take a 3-up lead into the final four
holes. Shelton would get one back with a birdie
at
15, but Armstrong closed out the University of
Alabama sophomore 2-and-1 to advance to the
championship match of the 113th Western
Amateur.
Wise handed fellow Californian Jake Knapp of
UCLA a 4-and-2 defeat in his semifinal match,
and never trailed throughout the day. Wise built
a 5-up lead through eight holes thanks to five
front-nine birdies.
FRIDAY'S RECAP:
Shelton,
Armstrong, Knapp, Wise head to Western
Amateur final four
ABOUT THE
Western Amateur
Invitational event, and the most important
tournament in American amateur golf outside of the
U.S. Amateur. With a grueling schedule, it's quite
possibly the
hardest amateur tournament to win.
156 invited players come from across the
globe to play one of the toughest formats in
amateur golf. The tournament starts with 18
holes of stroke play on Tuesday and
Wednesday after which the field is cut to the
low 44 scores and ties. Thursday it's a long
day of 36 holes of stroke play to determine
the “Sweet Sixteen” who compete at Match
Play on Friday and Saturday (two matches
each day if you're going to the finals) to
decide the champion.
View Complete Tournament Information