Steve Carter, of Saint Augustine, earned the 9th seed after posting a 71-74—145 in the stroke play qualifying to advance to match play. In the first round, carter defeated Alan Pope, of Orlando, 1 up. Carter then defeated Robert Koehn, of Winter Park, 5 and 4 in the Round of 16 and Andy Latowski, from Port Saint Lucie, 4 and 2 in the quarters. Carter advanced to the finals by defeating David Abell, from Jupiter, in the semifinals 2 up to secure his spot in the finals versus Thad Hudgens.
The final match went back and forth many times as Hudgens was 1 up through the first four holes until Carter birdied the 5th hole to square the match. Carter took his first lead of the day after winning the seventh hole, but Hudgen’s squared the match heading into the back nine by winning the par 4 ninth hole. Carter started to take command of the match on the back nine by winning the 10th, 12th, and 14th holes to go 3 up. Carter closed out the match by birdying the difficult par 3 15th hole for the 4 and 3 victory. This is Carter’s second Mid-Amateur Championship. Last year, Carter partnered with Andy Purnell to win the Mid-Amateur Four-Ball North Championship.
Thad Hudgens, of Longwood, went into match play as the 23rd seed. In his first round match Hudgens upset the tenth seed and the 2009 Mid-Amateur Stroke Play Champion Tim Hume, of Tampa, 3 and 2. Hudgens then defeated the 2005 Mid-Amateur Champion Jon Veneziano, of Eustis, 1 up in the Round of 16. In the quarters, Hudgens defeated the 1998 State Amateur Champion Dainel Owen, of Ocala, 2 up to face Stephen Anderson, of Hobe Sound, in the semifinals. Hudgens prevailed in a hard fought match 1 up to advance to the finals against Steve Carter.
