Eddy Lai
(NCGA Photo)
VALENCIA, CA (June 23, 2016) -- What started out with
156 players has trimmed itself down to just eight, as
the 105th California Amateur Championship completed
Round of 16 play Thursday at Valencia CC. Collegians
have been the story of the tournament thus far, with
two of them earning co-medalist honors in the stroke
play portion of the event and 14 of the 16 competitors
Thursday being 23 years of age or less. But the two
mid-ams who remained in the field held their own, with
SCGA Tournament regulars Tim Hogarth, who won this
event in 1999, and Sean Birren both winning their
matches.
Birren, who won the SCGA Public Links
Championship in 2015, was in a close match all day
against P.J. Samiere of San Diego State. With no man
ever taking a lead of more than 1up, Birren eventually
won as both men collected pars on the 18th hole. After
being down 1 through four holes, Birren took 1 up leads
on holes 6, 8 and 16, the last of which he never
relinquished.
For Hogarth, he breezed through Round of 32
action on Wednesday with a 7 and 6 victory, but did
have to play the course through 17 holes on Thursday,
winning 2 and 1 against T.J. Masters. Hogarth, who has
a lot of experience on the Valencia CC track, played his
17 holes in 1-under par on Thursday.
Some of the best play of the day came off the clubs
of Shintaro Ban of UNLV, who defeated Fresno's Greg
Gildea 4 and 3. Ban entered the back nine 1up, before
going on a tear that included two birdies and an eagle
over a 5-hole stretch.
"I told my caddie that if the 11th hole was playing
at 300 yards or less, I was going for it," said Ban of the
par-4 hole, which was playing at 305 yards for
Thursday's action. "I didn't necessarily think I'd hit the
green, especially 15 feet from the hole, but I did and
was able to knock in the putt."
The eagle put Ban, who is the brother of last year's
champion Shotaro, 2 up in his match with 7 holes to
play, but he wouldn't need them, increasing his lead to
3 holes through 14 and ending the match on the 15th
green with a birdie. With the win, Ban advances to face
Birren Friday morning.
Also advancing to the quarterfinals was recent CIF
State Champion Hidetoshi Yoshihara, who will play golf
at UCLA in the Fall. He will take on Brandon Tsujimoto
of UC Riverside tomorrow.
The full list of quarterfinal matches are:
Eddy Lai vs. Peter Kuest
Shintaro Ban vs. Sean Birren
Hidetoshi Yoshihara vs. Brandon Tsujimoto
Sebastian Crampton vs. Tim Hogarth
ABOUT THE
California Amateur
The Championship is open to amateur golfers
who have established current indexes of 4.4
and are members in good standing of the
Southern California Golf Association, the
Northern California Golf Association, or the
Public Links Golf Association of Southern
California. Nonexempt players must qualify. An
entrant may play in only one qualifying event,
even
if
the golfer
belongs to clubs in both Southern California
and Northern California. The 18-hole
qualifying
rounds will determine the qualifiers.
The championship field will play 36 holes of
qualifying at a Northern or Southern California
Location, with the low 32 golfers from that
combined field moving on to match play (with
a
playoff, if necessary, to determine the final
spots).
Two rounds each of 18-hole match play will
follow on Thursday and Friday and the 36-hole
final match will be on Saturday.
The location will rotate yearly between
Northern and Southern California locations.
View Complete Tournament Information