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• Stanley delivers at Southern Amateur
• Smith, Curtis reach North & South finals

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By RON BALICKI
Senior Writer

AURORA, Colo. – Jack Newman won three consecutive holes midway through the afternoon session Saturday of the scheduled 36-hole final at the U.S. Amateur Public Links Championship to break open a tightly contested match and win the 83rd annual championship at Murphy Creek Golf Course.

Newman, 20, of Des Moines, Iowa, defeated John Chin, 21, of Temecula, Calif., 5 and 3, on a hot, sunny day just outside of Denver.

It was by far the biggest win of Newman’s career, topping that of the Western Intercollegiate title he won this spring as a sophomore at Michigan State.

In addition to winning the gold medal, James D. Standish Jr. Cup and landing an exemption from qualifying for this year’s U.S. Amateur, Newman also gained an expected invitation to compete in next year’s Masters at Augusta National Golf Club.

“It’s all pretty awesome,” said Newman, who had his three older brothers, older sister and four friends drive from Des Moines overnight to watch him play the final. “I’m especially excited to be going to the Masters. That’s a dream I’ve had since I was a kid. What an experience that is going to be.

“I’d be lying if I said that wasn’t on my mind all day.”

Neither player led by more than two holes at any time through the first 26 holes. Newman won the par-4 ninth to go 2-up in the afternoon session after Chin’s drive went left into a hazard. At the par-4 10th, Chin, a junior at UC-Irvine, found another hazard on his approach shot, and after he missed an 8-foot putt, conceded Newman’s 5-foot birdie putt.

Newman, a second team All-Big 10 Conference selection, went 4-up at the par-3 11th – the match’s 29th hole – when he two-putted for par from 25 feet and Chin failed to get up and down after hitting over the green.

After they halved the next two holes with bogeys and pars, Newman put things to rest with a conceded 27-foot putt for birdie 4 at the 15th hole.

Chin, the 2008 Big West Conference champion and its Player of the Year, found the water hazard on the next hole. His next tee shot came to rest in the left rough, his fourth shot landed in a greenside bunker and when he missed his 30-foot bogey try, the match was over.

“It got very frustrating out there this afternoon,” said Chin, one of the longest hitters in the amateur game. “I think I was 4 under in the morning and was 1 down, but that was Jack playing just awesome.”

Newman was 1-up at the 18-hole break thanks to making a 25-foot birdie putt from the fringe for a halve after Chin knocked his approach to 3 feet.

“I’m a true believer in something just not happening and that was the case at (holes) 9, 10 and 11,” said Chin, who was playing in his first USGA championship. “It just wasn’t to be.”

Newman carried his own bag through the stroke-play qualifying round and into the quarterfinals. He notched 21-hole victory over Florida’s Billy Horschel in the second round and a 24-hole win over Cory Nagy in the quarters.

In the semifinals, Newman’s Michigan State teammate, senior Randy Hutchinson, who lost in the quarterfinals, was on the bag. But Hutchison had to leave before the final match.

Newman was prepared to carry his bag again and started out doing so before his oldest brother, Andy, 33, arrived and took over the chores on the seventh hole.

“Andy has a lot of golf knowledge so it was great having him there,” Newman said. “He knows my game and we’re really close. It was just nice to have someone out there to talk to and help keep me calm.”

With the victory, Newman, who was No. 1,221 in the Golfweek/Scratch Players World Amateur Rankings coming into the championship, is the first Iowan to win the U.S. Public Links title.

“Right now I don’t think all this has really sunk in. It probably will in a day or two,” Newman said. “All I know is I’m unbelievably excited and I’m really tired. It’s been a long week, but a great week.”

Starting the week, not many considered Newman – or even Chin for that matter – among the primary threats to win this title. And that includes the two finalists. Like Chin, when it was all over, Newman left with a completely different outlook about himself and his game.

“I gained a tremendous amount of confidence from this week,” Newman said. “I never had competed much at a national level before. Obviously my game held up and now I feel I can compete with the best players out there.”

He’ll get another chance on an even bigger stage next month when he competes in his first U.S. Amateur Championship at Pinehurst.

“That should be really exciting,” he said. “And best of all, now I don’t have to worry about going through qualifying.”

• • •

Ron Balicki is a Golfweek senior writer. To reach him e-mail rbalicki@golfweek.com.

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Final results from the U.S. Amateur Public Links Championship, played July 14-19 at the par-71, 7,551-yard Murphy Creek Golf Course in Aurora, Colo.:

FINALS
Jack Newman def. John Chin	5 and 3
SEMIFINALS
Jack Newman def. Cason Hammock	3 and 1
John Chin def. David Johnson	4 and 3
QUARTERFINALS
Cason Hammock def. Randall Hutchison	2 up
Jack Newman def. Corey Nagy	24 holes
David Johnson def. Kyle Leach	5 and 4
John Chin def. Jeff Dennis	4 and 3
THIRD ROUND
Cason Hammock def. Trey Bowling	4 and 3
Randall Hutchison def. Andrew Paulson	7 and 5
Jack Newman def. Kelly Kretz	5 and 3
Corey Nagy def. Grant Leaver	2 and 1
Kyle Leach def. Rickie Fowler	2 and 1
David Johnson def. Andy Winings	3 and 2
Jeff Dennis def. Pat Grady	1 up
John Chin def. Wesley Bryan	3 and 2
SECOND ROUND
Cason Hammock def. Brady Johnson	3 and 2
Trey Bowling def. Riley Arp	5 and 3
Randall Hutchison def. Dan Whitaker	6 and 5
Andrew Paulson def. Peter Malnati	7 and 6
Kelly Kretz def. Brian Locke	2 and 1
Jack Newman def. Billy Horschel	21 holes
Corey Nagy def. Patrick Lundy	4 and 2
Grant Leaver def. Nakarintra Ratanakul	4 and 2
Rickie Fowler def. Cody Paladino	4 and 3
Kyle Leach def. Scott Langley	1 up
David Johnson def. Jon McLean	1 up
Andy Winings def. Robert Rohanna	6 and 4
Pat Grady def. Zach Sebert	2 up
Jeff Dennis def. Ben Bastel	3 and 2
John Chin def. Luke Morgan	8 and 6
Wesley Bryan def. Kevin Foley	4 and 3
FIRST ROUND
Brady Johnson def. Aaron Goldberg	5 and 4
Cason Hammock def. Daniel Sorgini III	1 up
Riley Arp def. Jim Grady	3 and 2
Trey Bowling def. Lion An	5 and 4
Dan Whitaker def. Travis Reid	2 up
Randall Hutchison def. James Dalthorp III	1 up
Peter Malnati def. Kevin Aylwin	4 and 2
Andrew Paulson def. Chan Kim	3 and 2
Brian Locke def. Kent Wiese	3 and 2
Kelly Kretz def. Lucas Lee	2 and 1
Billy Horschel def. Nicholas Macdonald	4 and 3
Jack Newman def. Ryan McDonald	3 and 2
Corey Nagy def. David Ludlow	4 and 2
Patrick Lundy def. Les Teuteberg	6 and 5
Nakarintra Ratanakul def. Austin Love	5 and 3
Grant Leaver def. J.C. Horne	4 and 3
Rickie Fowler def. Michael Knott	4 and 2
Cody Paladino def. Phillip Choi	21 holes
Scott Langley def. Peter Fallon	2 and 1
Kyle Leach def. Nicklaus Newcomb	3 and 2
Jon McLean def. Rod Butler	3 and 1
David Johnson def. Matthew Lapham	6 and 5
Andy Winings def. Sterling Clark	19 holes
Robert Rohanna def. Philip Arouca	4 and 2
Zach Sebert def. Zachary Zaremba	1 up
Pat Grady def. Brandon Berry	2 and 1
Jeff Dennis def. Ricky Montanez	3 and 1
Ben Bastel def. Ji Moon	1 up
John Chin def. Brandon Crick	20 holes
Luke Morgan def. Craig Voorhees	1 up
Kevin Foley def. Greg Pool	8 and 7
Wesley Bryan def. Brad Nicholson	2 and 1

• Click here for stroke-play qualifying scores.




Posted: 7/19/2008

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