Final match recap and interview
SANTA BARBARA, Calif. (June 30, 2012) --
He has a prolific resume, including two SCGA
Amateur Championships and a USGA Mid-Am
Championship, but when Kevin Marsh claimed
the 101st California Amateur Championship
Saturday afternoon in his hometown of Santa
Barbara, it quickly climbed towards the top of
his list of memorable moments.
"I've been lucky enough to win a lot
of golf tournaments, but this one is right up
there as good as any of them," said
Marsh, as he addressed a crowd of more than
100 people during the award ceremony.
Marsh defeated Ben Geyer of Arbuckle,
Calif. 4 & 3 in the 36-hole final of the six-
day tournament, winning his first state title.
Marsh blazed the La Cumbre CC course with
eight birdies and one eagle in 33 holes, while
putting on a putting clinic for the gallery of
almost 200 locals, who were dedicated to
cheering on their hometown hero.
Marsh and Geyer battled it out through the
first 18 holes, with Marsh flirting between a
one
and two stroke advantage for most of the
initial
round. Marsh extended that lead to 4 up
through 25 holes, but Geyer, who had pulled
out four come-from-behind victories already
this week, cut the lead in half after hole 28.
On
the 31st hole of the match, however, with the
advantage back to 3 up, Marsh made the shot
of the tournament, draining a 40-ft breaking
putt to basically put the match out of Geyer's
reach. Two holes later, it was over.
"Kevin capitalized when he needed
to," said Geyer. "It was a great
learning experience. Obviously coming into
today anything but a win would be
disappointing, but Kevin played really well, and
it
was a great week."
Geyer and Marsh got to know each other
pretty well earlier in the week, as the two
were
in the same pairing during the stroke play
portion of the championship. The final match
was extremely friendly, with the two
competitors congratulating their opponent
every chance they got.
Geyer didn't make it easy on himself Friday,
going to extra holes in both his quarterfinal and
semifinal matches, playing a combined 42 holes
on the day. While he admitted his legs
"weren't feeling great" today, he
almost said it didn't affect his game.
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.
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