Colby Anderson Hoists His New Hardware at Wheatley Hills Golf Club (photo courtesy MGA)
EAST WILLISTON, New York (June 22, 2018) -- On Friday at Wheatley Hills Golf Club, Colby Anderson of Nassau Country Club won the 2018 Long Island Amateur Championship Presented by Sterling National Bank by defeating Jonathan Farber of Tam O'Shanter Club, 1-up in their 36-hole match. Anderson survived a bracket of 32 competitors in match play after a stroke play qualifier in which 146 players competed.The championship has been held since the founding of the Long Island Golf Association in 1922 and is the Association's most prestigeous event.
The final match began at 7:30 am on Friday, and was close all the way through; Farber began with four pars, Anderson with a bogie, a birdie and two pars, leaving the match all square through four. Farber won the 5th hole (the second of consecutive par fives at Wheatley Hills) with a birdie, but then lost the par-three 6th with a bogey when he failed to get up and down from the front left of the green, to a middle left hole location.
They halved the 7th hole (the third par five on the front side) with pars, and the short downhill par-three 8th with bogeys; Anderson three-putted the par-four 9th hole's difficult green and they made the turn with Farber 1 up. Farber then promptly made a mess of the par-three 10th by hitting three bunker shots from different bunkers on either side of the green. When Farber conceded Anderson's par on the hole, the match was all square again.
Each player made an up and down for par on the number one handicap par-four 11th, and then Anderson conceded Farber's birdie four on the 12th when he was lying six. Farber went 2 up with a birdie three on the into-the-wind short par-four 13th with its table top green, when both players hit second shots well past the front hole location, drew them back with backspin and Farber got the benefit of a read from Anderson's longer putt from the same general direction. However, on the par-three 14th with its wide green, Farber was unable to get up and down from the front left corner to a low right hole location. Anderson had a routine two-putt par on the 618 yard par-five 15th, and Farber got up and down to halve it. Anderson returned the favor by getting up and down on the short par-four 16th versus Farber's routine two putt par. The match was squared again on 17 when Anderson won it with a one-putt bogey, and they halved the difficult par-four 18th with bogeys to finish the morning all square once again.
After the lunch break, Anderson began the afternoon with two daggers: he hit his second shot on the first dead into the flagstick, and it sprang back two inches for a conceded birdie, and then Anderson's blind second shot to the elevated second hole took one hop and stopped dead one foot below the hole, for his second consecutive birdie and a 2-up lead. However he could not get up and down on the par-three 3rd from left of the green to a back right hole location, which halved his lead.
They then halved the par-five 4th with routine two putt pars. Farber sank a chip from off the back of the par-five 5th for birdie, and again the match was even. Both players made routine two putt pars on the par three sixth, but Farber hit both a bad chip and an indifferent putt on the par-five 7th to lose the hole to Anderson's two-putt par. Anderson then got up and down from pin-high left of the par-three 8th to a back left hole location with a nicely-judged flop shot, while Farber three putted. Farber then pushed his 9th hole tee shot out of bounds onto the driving range on the right, ultimately conceding Anderson's par putt. Therefore, Anderson's lead through 27 holes was three, the largest lead of the match.
That lead disappeared quickly, however. Anderson dumped his attempted-flop second shot from short right on the par-three 10th into the bunker middle right of the green while Farber made a two putt par. They halved the par-four 11th with bogies, and Anderson pushed his drive on the par-five 12th near the OB fence separating the course from the Northern State Parkway, and was unable to advance it more than about 50 yards. Anderson short-sided himself back left with his fourth shot and eventually conceded Farber's putt for par when he was lying six. The lead was down to one, but Farber three-putted the tabletop 13th green and the lead was two again. It went right back to one when Anderson was unable to get up and down on the par-three 14th from the left hand bunker to the low front right hole location.
They then halved the long 15th and the short 16th with tense two-putt pars. Farber, having been behind since the seventh hole in the afternoon, then made a six-foot birdie putt, and they went to the 18th tee with the match returned to all square for the sixth separate time. After they hit their drives, things did not look promising for Anderson, for he found the left rough, while Farber was in the fairway and closer to the green. However, Anderson hit a nicely-judged low long iron below the electric cables which cross that portion of the course, and his ball fetched up on the right apron of the green, perhaps 30 feet from the hole.
The match then turned for the final time when Farber did not allow enough room for the left to right crosswind to effect the ball flight of his iron shot. The ball hit the cart path to the right of the green and bounced high, ending up in the rough above and right of the green, both short-sided and with the kidney-shaped back bunker between the ball and the hole. The only way to leave himself a relatively makeable putt was for Farber to land a perfect flop shot in the one foot of fringe before the green began. He could not, and ended up with a fifty foot uphill putt, which he hit to about four feet. Anderson was now finally able to play his third shot, and chose to putt it from the fringe to the steeply-sloping hole location. He hit a good putt, leaving himself an uphill six-footer. When he rolled it in, Anderson became the 2018 Long Island Amateur Champion.
They each hit 14 out of 26 fairways, Anderson hit 19 out of 36 greens in regulation to Farber's 18 and Anderson took 63 putts to Farber's 61, all three comparisons indicative of how close the match was.
View results for Long Island Amateur
ABOUT THE
Long Island Amateur
18 hole qualifier to determine 32 players for
match play. Previous year's champion gets #1
seed for match play.
View Complete Tournament Information