Matt Panziale, a 30-year-old firefighter from Brockton,
Mass., and Josh Nichols, a 26-year-old wedding caterer from Kennersville, N.C.,
will meet Friday morning in the scheduled 36-hole final with the U.S.
Mid-Amateur championship on the line at the Capital City Club’s Crabapple
Course in Atlanta.
The winner has traditionally received an invitation to play
in the Masters. The USGA upped the ante when it recently announced it would
give the winner of the U.S. Mid-Am a berth in next year’s U.S. Open, which will
be played at Shinnecock Hills Golf Club, the William Flynn gem on the end of
Long Island.
The USGA is also giving a U.S. Open exemption to U.S. Junior
Amateur champion Noah Goodwin. U.S. Junior Girls’ champion Erica Shepherd and
the winner of next month’s U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur championship will receive
berths in next year’s U.S. Women’s Open at Shoal Creek.
I bailed on the U.S. Mid-Am after the two remaining Golf
Association of Philadelphia representatives, Michael R. Brown Jr. of Lu Lu
Country Club and Gregor Orlando of Philadelphia Cricket Club, were knocked out in
the first round of match play Tuesday. I haven’t missed many District One
Championships over the years and I couldn’t resist the urge to go check out the
action at Turtle Creek and do a little live-blogging.
Panziale and Nichols are, in many ways, what the Mid-Am is
all about, guys who have jobs and responsibilities that make it tough to fit
golf in. But they manage to continue to play at a high level and you’re
bringing some game if you can get to the final of the U.S. Mid-Am.
“It would be the biggest thing I could ever imagine,”
Nichols told the USGA website when asked about the potential exemptions that
would come his way were he to win the U.S. Mid-Am. “But the only thing I’m focusing
on is the drive on No. 1 (Friday). That’s all I’ve got in my mind right now.”
Panziale and Nichols will have a tough job matching the
drama of last year’s final at Stonewall’s North and Old Courses when Stewart
Hagestad rallied from 4-down with five holes to play to defeat Scott Harvey on
the 37th hole.
But Panziale, a reinstated amateur, already had that kind of
rally in a stunning victory on the 20th hole over Bradford Tilley,
the 34-year-old from Easton, Conn. who was the qualifying medalist, in Thursday
morning’s quarterfinals.
Panziale was 5-down with eight holes to play and fought his
way all the way back to send the match to extra holes before winning it on the
20th hole.
In the afternoon Panziale knocked off Dan Sullivan, a
50-year-old from Pasadena, Calif., 5 and 4.
Sullivan reached the semifinals a year ago at Stonewall,
falling in 19 holes to Harvey in a match I blogged about. My bag in qualifying
for the Mid-Am at Stonewall, Michael Mitani of Irvine, Calif., told me to watch
out for Sullivan. Two straight trips to the U.S. Mid-Am semifinals would seem
to validate Mitani’s opinion of Sullivan, a veteran of the Southern California
amateur scene.
Nichols, who played collegiately at Appalachian State,
cooled off probably the hottest player remaining in the bracket when he edged
Mark Harrell, a 32-year-old from nearby Lookout Mountain, Ga., 1-up, to earn
his spot in the final.
Harrell had stunned Michael Muehr of Potomac Falls, Va. in
the round of 16, 1-up, with a round of 7-under 63 with the usual match-play
concessions. Muehr was one of three qualifying co-medalists a year ago at
Stonewall.
Earlier Thursday, Nichols went the distance in his
quarterfinal match before pulling out a 2-up victory over Scott Anderson of
Columbus, Ohio.
I had mentioned in my post Tuesday that the second-round
match I was most interested in was one that pitted two reinstated amateurs that
three-time BMW Philadelphia Amateur champion Michael McDermott got past on his
way to the quarterfinals at Stonewall.
Joseph Ida of Overland Park, Kan., whom McDermott went 20
holes to beat in the opening round, claimed a 3 and 2 victory over Joe Alfieri
of Lutz, Fla., whom McDermott edged, 1-up, in the second round.
Ida, however, suffered a 6 and 5 setback to Tyler Crawford,
a 44-year-old from Indio, Calif., in the round of 16.
Crawford was ousted on the 19th hole in a tough
battle with Harrell in Thursday morning’s quarterfinals.
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