Wilson knocks off Knapp in final to capture U.S. Senior Amateur title at Eugene

   It doesn’t happen very often at a USGA championship that a player who earns all or a share of medalist honors in qualifying takes it all the way home.

   But Jeff Wilson of Fairfield, Calif. did exactly that in this week’s U.S. Senior Amateur Championship, carrying the solid play that earned him co-medalist honors into match play and all the way to the gold medal.

   The 55-year-old Wilson, a perennial contender in USGA events dating back to his days as a junior in the late 1970s, finally earned that elusive first title Thursday, defeating defending champion Sean Knapp, the longtime western Pennsylvania amateur standout, 2 and 1, at Eugene Country Club in Eugene, Ore.

   Wilson became the first medalist or co-medalist to win the U.S. Senior Amateur crown in 31 years. When he fired a 2-under 70 to catch first-round leader Greg Condon of Monte Vista, Colo. for a share of medalist honors at 5-under 139, Wilson became the first player in USGA history to have been a qualifying medalist in the U.S. Amateur, the U.S. Mid-Amateur and the U.S. Senior Amateur.

   Wilson might stand alone with that distinction for quite some time.

   Wilson, who owns a car dealership, beat the best Pennsylvania has to offer in capturing the title. He knocked off Reading’s Chip Lutz, the 2015 U.S. Senior Amateur champion, 2 and 1 in the semifinals before defeating Knapp, who, much like Wilson, finally ended a USGA drought of his own in winning the U.S. Senior Amateur crown at The Minikahda Club in Minneapolis a year ago in his 40^th USGA start.

   Wilson won the match by taking three straight holes on the back nine to turn a 1-down deficit into a 2-up advantage.

   Wilson had grabbed an early lead by winning the first hole with a birdie and the fourth with a par. But Knapp battled back by winning the sixth with a par, the eighth with a birdie and the ninth with a par to take a 1-up advantage to the back nine of the 6,801-yard, par-72 Eugene layout.

   Wilson squared the match by winning the 10^th hole with a birdie, but Knapp restored his 1-up advantage by taking the 11^th with a birdie.

   That’s when Wilson went off. He nearly reached the par-5 13^th in two and won that hole with a birdie,  took the 14^th hole with a par and the 15^th with a birdie and was suddenly 2-up.

   It looked like Knapp might cut his deficit in half when his approach to the par-5 16^th left him four feet for birdie. Wilson had again nearly reached the green in two, but he chose to putt from off the green rather than chip it and left himself a nine-foot birdie putt. But he got the putt to fall and the birdie gave him a crucial half. A half at the 17^th hole closed out Knapp.

   “I think Sean said it best, it’s really hard to win one of these things,” Wilson told the USGA website. “First, you’ve got to get over yourself and then you have to beat the guy playing with you. And it’s difficult.

   “I always thought I was good enough to be a USGA champion, but I never put the work in. And that shows up when the matches are on the line. This year, I put the work in.”

   Knapp began the month by winning the Pennsylvania Golf Association’s Senior Amateur title at Philadelphia Cricket Club’s Militia Hill Course. Then it was off to northern California’s Monterey Peninsula, where he was probably disappointed with his rounds of 76 at the Pebble Beach Golf Links and 82 at the Spyglass Hill Golf Course and missed match play in the U.S. Amateur.

   But it was all perfect preparation for his title defense at Eugene this week. Knapp’s loss to Wilson was his first in U.S. Senior Amateur competition after 11 straight wins. Just as he had a year ago, Knapp credited his match-play success to all the experience he gained battling his Pittsburgh friend and rival Nathan Smith, the four-time U.S. Mid-Amateur champion.

   Look for Knapp to show up raring to give it another shot a year from now at the Old Chatham Golf Club in Durham, N.C.