GSU’s Wolfes advances to U.S. Amateur match play
BROOKLINE, Mass. – Georgia Southern golfer Scott Wolfes fired a 67 on the The Country Club Course in Tuesday’s second round of the U.S. Amateur Championship to tie for ninth and earn a spot in match play Wednesday.
Wolfes’ 67 was the lowest on The Country Club course Tuesday and one of just four scores under par.
The top 64 players from two rounds of stroke play advanced to match play and are seeded based on their standing. Wolfes finished stroke play 1-under (139) and will tee off Wednesday at 11 a.m. at The Country Club. His opponent will be determined after a playoff at 7 a.m. The Golf Channel will provide TV coverage from 3-5 p.m.
The junior finished his second round with a flurry, birdieing the final two holes of the day. He was 3-under par on the back nine and 2-under on his final four holes.
Wolfes played his first six holes at 1-under and finished the front nine bogey, birdie, bogey. He birdied 10 and 13, a par-4, 446-yard hole. A bogey on the par-4, 507-yard 14th hole left him at 1-under, setting the stage for his strong finish.
Wolfes has a positive history with match play in a tournament of this magnitude. He advanced to match play in the 2010 U.S. Junior Amateur, a similar national tournament also hosted by the USGA.
He made it to the quarterfinals (round of eight) before falling 2-and-1 to Justin Thomas, who went on to finish second in the tournament. A junior at University of Alabama, Thomas won the Schenkel Invitational, Georgia Southern’s home tournament, last spring.
Along with the prestigious Havemeyer Trophy, among the spoils for the winner of the U.S. Amateur is an exemption from local and sectional qualifying for the next U.S. Open, an exemption from qualifying for the next 10 U.S. Amateurs, an exemption from qualifying for the next British Open Championship and a likely invitation to the next Masters Tournament.
Wolfes advanced to the U.S. Amateur Championship by surviving a five-hole playoff in qualifying, sinking a 20-foot putt for birdie on hole 18 at the Capital City Club Crabapple Course in July to take the fifth and final qualifying spot. He is the first Georgia Southern player to compete in the U.S. Amateur since 2008.
WCU’s Poston misses cut at U.S. Amateur
BROOKLINE, Mass. – Despite rallying to card a second-day, even-par score of 70 on Tuesday, Western Carolina junior J.T. Poston finished tied for 108th out of 312 golfers in stroke play, missing the match-play cut in his first-ever appearance in the United States Amateur Championship. Poston missed match-play by just three strokes, as the cut line was at 4-over par 144.
Poston opened his 36-hole stroke play on Monday afternoon by shooting a 7-over 77 on the par-70, 7,246-yard course at The Country Club before firing even-par 70 at the 6,635-yard companion course at Charles River on Tuesday morning for a two-day total of 147.
Opening on the back nine on Monday, Poston quickly fell behind with a double-bogey on the par-4 11th hole. Following consecutive pars, Poston bogeyed No. 14 to slip to 3-over before a birdie on the par-4 15th left him at 2-over par through six holes. His first nine holes closed with a double-bogey on the par-3 16th and a bogey on No. 18 to make the turn at 5-over par.
Poston birdied his first hole of the front nine, but finished with three bogeys and five pars for a 2-over end to his opening 18 holes, 7-over and tied for 205th.
On Tuesday, Poston made the turn on the Charles River course at 2-over par with bogeys on the par-4, 379-yard third and par-4, 348-yard sixth holes, otherwise charting seven pars. A bogey on No. 10 moved him to 3-over for the day, but he finished his round strong. Poston scored birdie on three of his final eight holes with the rest scored in regulation to shoot 2-under on the back, even-par for his second round.
All told, the Hickory, N.C., native carded five birdies, 21 pars, eight bogeys and a pair of double-bogeys in his U.S. Amateur appearance.
Poston and his Catamount teammates open the fall portion of their 2013-14 season at the Golfweek Program Challenge on Sept. 8-10 at the True Blue Golf Club in Myrtle Beach, S.C.