Tyson Shelley of Salt Lake City, Utah, fired a closing 8-under 62 to overcome a nine-stroke deficit and win the 56th Pacific Coast Amateur on Friday at Capilano Golf and Country Club in West Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
Shelley, a rising junior at BYU, had a mountain to climb as Australia’s Jack Buchanan started the final round on 14-under – three strokes clear of countryman Jeffrey Guan and Utahan Cooper Jones. There seemed to be little hope as Shelley played in the fifth-to-last threesome with a throng of competitors ahead of him.
But momentum started to flow in Shelley’s direction. He made birdies at Nos. 4, 5, 8 and 9, and Buchanan bogeyed his first two holes, cutting the deficit to three strokes.
Buchanan would bounce back by going 3 under in his ensuing 13 holes, but Shelley continued to apply pressure with four more birdies on his back nine. His scorecard was a spotless, bogey-free effort that still put him two strokes behind Buchanan at the time he signed his card.
But like he started the day, Buchanan struggled down the home stretch. Bogeys on Nos. 16 and 17 sent him into a playoff with Shelley.
On the first extra hole, both players made two-putt pars. On the next hole, the par-5 18th, Shelley reached the green in two after hitting a beautiful 4-iron from 230 yards. Buchanan missed the green to the right and couldn’t recover, allowing Shelley a two-putt birdie for the title.
“I’m feeling out of this world right now,” Shelley said. “I don’t really have words to explain how I’m feeling.”
Shelley’s 62 tied the competitive course record at Capilano. He joins fellow champions Will Zalatoris, Andrew Putnam and Aaron Wise – all eventual PGA Tour winners. Coming into the week No. 731 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking, Shelley posted by far the biggest victory of his career.
This was the sixth of seven tournaments in the Elite Amateur Golf Series. The final tournament is the Western Amateur, being played this week at North Shore Country Club in Glenview, Illinois.
RESULTS
Hailey Jones shot 1-under 215 to win the 93rd Ladies National Golf Association Championship on Thursday at The Grizzly Golf and Social Lodge in Mason, Ohio.
Jones, a Dallas resident who will play at Texas State as a graduate transfer from Oklahoma State, never trailed in the tournament. She opened with a bogey-free 6-under 66 to build a substantial lead. That large margin would be challenged over the next two days as she shot 74-75 to close.
Two players were on her heels and took momentary leads throughout the day: Paraguay’s Giovanna Fernandez and American Faith Choi. In the end, both Fernandez and Choi lost the tournament with catastrophic errors on the back nine.
Choi’s disaster happened first. Sitting at 4-under for the tournament, tied with Jones and one stroke behind Fernandez, Choi took a quadruple-bogey 9 on the par-5 11th. She went on to finish solo third at 1-over 217.
Fernandez, a junior at Arkansas, battled Jones all day in a back-and-forth affair before coming to the 18th tee with a one-stroke lead. However, she pulled her tee shot out of bounds and took a triple-bogey 8. Despite Jones carding bogeys on her final three holes, Fernandez’s late mistake put her at even-par 216 in solo second.
Jones came into the week ranked No. 526 in the WAGR.
Dr. Jonathan Valuck of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, shot 3-over 219 to secure a one-stroke victory on Wednesday in the 15th Society of Seniors Jack Hesler Tournament at The Club at Olde Stone in Bowling Green, Kentucky.
Valuck, who entered the third and final round tied at 3-over with Jack Hall of Savannah, Georgia, began with a double bogey on No. 1. By the turn, Valuck was one stroke down to Hall, who then had a two-stroke swing go in his favor after he birdied the par-4 10th while Valuck took a bogey.
Now trailing by three strokes, Valuck mounted a charge with birdies at Nos. 11, 13 and 15. Hall took a bogey at No. 16 and Valuck parred out for a one-stroke win.
Hunter Logan of Steens, Mississippi, shot 11-under 199 to win the 94th Southeastern Amateur by one stroke on Saturday at the Country Club of Columbus (Georgia).
Logan, a Mississippi State golfer who also won the Dogwood Invitational last month, opened the tournament by going 64-62, making 15 birdies to just one bogey in those two rounds. He would be starved for birdies in round three, but he saved his best for last.
After making bogeys at Nos. 6 and 8, Logan brought multiple players back into contention. Brantley Scott (Troy), Tucker Allen (North Texas) and Rafe Reynolds (South Carolina) all had opportunities to win down the stretch due to Logan’s slow start.
Allen and Reynolds reached 13 under early on the back nine, but each gave away his position with four costly bogeys to finish tied for third at 9 under.
Scott came to the 18th tee at 11 under, one stroke ahead of Logan who had made bogeys on Nos. 16 and 17 to fall to 10 under. Playing in the penultimate threesome, Scott made a bogey and had to watch to see what would transpire behind him.
Fortunately for Logan, his only birdie of the day came on the final hole, giving him the one-stroke victory.
Wake Forest’s Marshall Meisel won in a six-hole playoff on Saturday in the 82nd Monroe Invitational at Monroe Golf Club in Pittsford, New York.
Meisel registered four rounds in the 60s (65-69-69-68) to match Valparaiso’s Anthony Delisanti (66-65-73-67) at 9-under 271. Delisanti overcame a four-stroke deficit on the back nine by making birdies at Nos. 13, 17 and 18. Meisel did not make a birdie in his final nine holes, registering eight pars and one bogey to settle for a playoff.
In the playoff, Meisel chipped in from just off the green for birdie – in a steady rainfall, no less – to extinguish Delisanti.
Sean Fairholm