What Happened
It was a long day of golf on Friday at the Mid-Amateur Championship held at La Gorce Country Club in Miami Beach. This morning began with the second round of stroke play seeding as the players began with an 8:30 am shotgun start. Jake Sherwin fired a four-under-par, 67.
Meanwhile, second place was shared by two players who charged up the leaderboard during the second round. Alex Slaton fired two-under-par, 69 to move four places up the leaderboard into a tie for second place with Tyler Brown who posted a four-under-par, 67 to move twelve places up. The rest of the twenty-nine players filtered into place narrowly avoiding a playoff for the last spots.
Moreover, the afternoon brought even more golf for only 32 players out of the 88 who teed it up on Thursday. Jake Sherwin was the first match in after he defeated Cameron Hedge 5&4. Matthew Galloway and Anthony Brodeur also emerged as champions defeating Joseph Latowski and William Mallon respectively.
The defending champion, Jay Halverson put up a fight against Mike Finster as their match extended to 21 holes with Finster outlasting Halverson to advance to the Round of 16. Finster is coming off an seven month back injury that forced him to withdraw from the Florida Senior Open, and the Florida Senior Amateur.
What’s Next
Tomorrow the Round of 16 will begin at 7:30am followed by the Quarterfinals in the afternoon.
Notable
- There were 11 players under-par that advanced to match play, and 14 players under par out of the 88 who teed it up for the morning round.
- Five past champions advanced to the match play round of 32, including defending champion, Jay Halverson.
- TJ Shuart remains as the only past champion to advance to the Round of 16.
- Patrick Perez won by the largest margin after defeating Keaton Phillips 6 & 5.
Quotable
“I hit the ball pretty good. Got off to a rough start with a bogey on the first hole but then went on to birdie four holes after that with no other bogeys so after the first hole it was really solid. In match play I feel like I can be more aggressive, I don’t have to worry about making a double or a triple. I can just get up there and swing hard at it knowing that the worst result will just be to lose one hole, so I love match play.” – Jake Sherwin defeated Cameron Hedge 5 & 4.
“It was a long day of golf, I hit it well off the tee all day, and made some good putts. Match play is interesting, and it can get stressful. I had 5 up through 11, and you cannot let up and try to protect your lead by just tying holes. My opponent started going after it and next thing you know, my lead diminished to only 2 up. But I was able to close it out and I feel good for tomorrow. It is a lot of golf and it is just really important to miss it in the right spots and set yourself up for a chance for a birdie. – Alex Slaton defeated Derek Hurwitch 3 & 2.
“It was a great day. I played 39 holes today and played both rounds with defending champion, Jay Halverson. We had a very competitive match at the end and I hate to see one of us go home because he’s a heck of a player. It was close the whole time. We seemed to be tentative on our putts in stroke play, but in match play we were able to be more convicted with our putts and make more in. High level play out there, we were both under par. But in match play, you have a mindset of winning a hole as opposed to trying not to lose the hole.” Mike Finster defeated Jay Halverson in 21 holes.
