Golfweek - Golf News Magazine

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• Notes: Hie among headliners at Southern Am
• Arseneault medalist at Women’s North & South

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By RON BALICKI
Senior Writer

AURORA, Colo. – It took a little while for Aaron Goldberg to get his golf game kicked into high gear, but once he did it took off like a super-charged dragster.

After making the turn in 1-over- 37 Tuesday in the second round of the 36-hole qualifying portion of the 83rd U.S. Amateur Public Links Championship at Murphy Creek Golf Course, Goldberg came sailing home with a 5-under 30 on the back nine.

His 4-under 67 and opening-round 65 gave him a 10-under 132 total, good enough to be this year’s medalist earn the No. 1 seed in the 64-player match-play bracket.

Goldberg, 22, of San Diego, finished one shot better than 2007 U.S. Walker Cup team member and 2008 Ben Hogan Award winner Rickie Fowler, who missed sharing medalist honors when his 10-foot birdie putt at the final hole lipped out.

Fowler, No. 1 in the Golfweek/Scratch Players World Amateur Ranking, had rounds of 67-66 and is two shots clear of Wyoming sophomore Zachary Zaremba, who shot 66-69. In at 5-under are Loyola Marymount’s Brian Locke, Charlotte’s Corey Nagy and Gonzaga’s Brandon Crick.

Sixty-three players finished at 4-over-par 146 or better. The 64th and final spot in the match-play bracket was up for grabs in a 10-man playoff.

“I got off to a slow start,” said Goldberg, a third-team All-American as a senior at San Diego State this past season. “I don’t know what it was. I was just out of rhythm. I tried to stay patient and hope things would turn around.”

Goldberg bogeyed the fourth hole, birdied the fifth and bogeyed the ninth. He said his birdie at No. 10 “kind of got me back on track.”

He followed with an eagle at the 528-yard, par-4 13th when he holed a 5-iron shot from 230 yards out and then added birdies at Nos. 14 and 15.

“I never did see the ball go in, but it was sure fun when we got to the green and realized it did,” Goldberg said. “Now that’s something that gets you going.”

Goldberg’s opening round was pretty much the same. He made two birdies and shot 2-under on his first nine (back), but on the front he made just one par en route to a 4-under 32. He had six birdies and a pair of bogeys.

While certainly pleased with his efforts thus far, Goldberg, a quarterfinalist in this event last year, knows there is plenty of golf to be played.

“I feel I’m playing very well right now, but anything can happen in match play,” said the 2008 U.S. Palmer Cup team member. “You can’t let yourself get too excited right now because you know to get to where you want to go (win), you’ve got six matches in front of you.”

As far as being medalist, Goldberg said, “That’s all fine and well, but come tomorrow it doesn’t matter if you’re No. 1 or No. 64. I think last year Colt (Knost, the winner) was No. 45 going into match play. The bottom line is you have to play well all week.”

Fowler, a first-team All-American and winner of the Phil Mickelson Award as Freshman of the Year last season at Oklahoma State, got his round going with birdies at Nos. 3 and 4. After his lone bogey of the day at No. 8, he birdied the ninth and then holed out a 166-yard shot with a 54-degree wedge for eagle at the 10th. He added one more birdie at the 15th.

“I’ve struggled at times with my putter the last two days, but I did make a couple of good putts toward the end today,” said Fowler, who this summer won the Sunnehanna Amateur and made the cut at the U.S. Open. “I was trying to give Aaron a run for his money, but came up just short. I’m playing well and hitting the ball well so I’m looking forward to match play and seeing where I can go.”

One of Fowler’s Walker Cup teammates, Billy Horschel – the two were went 2-0 in foursomes in helping lead the U.S. to victory – also advanced to match play with his 2-under 140 total.

“All that matters is getting into match play,” said Horschel, a senior at Florida and a three-time All-America. “It doesn’t matter how you do it, as long as you do it. Now we’ll see what happens.”

• Zack Fischer of Texarkana, Texas had a hole-in-one during Tuesday’s morning round. Using a 7-iron, he aced the 208-yard, par-3, eighth hole. That helped lead him to a 2-under 69. But an opening round 9-over 80 left him at 7-over 149 and just shy of making the cut for match play.

• Danny Green, 51, of Jackson, Tenn., has some very good memories of experiences and accomplishments in his previous 13 APL Championships. He was runner-up to Chez Reavie in 2001 and in 2004 was stroke-play medalist with a 131 total, the lowest medalist score in U.S. adult amateur competition, male or female.

But his 14th APL start is one he’ll no doubt want to forget. It marked the first time the former U.S. Mid-Amateur champion and U.S. Walker Cup team member failed to advance to match play. With rounds of 77-76, his 11-over 153 left him well shy of the cut mark.

“I was really starting to feel ill out there on my last nine holes and wasn’t sure I would be able to finish,” Green said. “The officials in our group wanted to call in and have someone come out and take me to the clubhouse. But I didn’t want to withdraw. I just did my best to gut it out and finish. But I feel pretty rotten right now.”

• The average age of the 156 players in the starting field at this year’s U.S. Amateur Public Links was 23.49 years old. The youngest competitor was 16-year-old Ian McConnell from Rearview, Fla. The oldest at 51 years, 19 days was Benjamin Sumulong, of Anchorage, Alaska, who is eight days older than Green.

• • •

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

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Scores with relation to par from the second round of stroke play at the U.S. Amateur Public Links, played July 15 at the par-71 Murphy Creek Golf Club in Aurora, Colo. (Note: x-advanced to match play in playoff):

1. Aaron Goldberg	65-67--132		-10
2. Rickie Fowler	67-66--133		-9
3. Zachary Zaremba	66-69--135		-7
4. Brian Locke	69-68--137		-5
4. Corey Nagy	67-70--137		-5
4. Brandon Crick	69-68--137		-5
7. Travis Reid	66-72--138		-4
7. Jon Mclean	69-69--138		-4
9. Andy Winings	68-71--139		-3
9. Kevin Aylwin	70-69--139		-3
11. Nakarintra Ratanakul	70-70--140		-2
11. William Horschel	70-70--140		-2
11. Jeff Dennis	72-68--140		-2
11. Scott Langley	72-68--140		-2
11. Riley Arp	73-67--140		-2
11. Greg Pool	70-70--140		-2
17. Kyle Leach	71-70--141		-1
17. Ji Moon	74-67--141		-1
17. Trey Bowling	72-69--141		-1
20. J.C. Horne	72-70--142		E
20. Wesley Bryan	72-70--142		E
20. Philip Arouca	72-70--142		E
20. Andrew Paulson	70-72--142		E
20. James Dalthorp Iii	73-69--142		E
20. Jack Newman	71-71--142		E
26. Pat Grady	72-71--143	+	1
26. Cody Paladino	72-71--143	+	1
26. Cason Hammock	74-69--143	+	1
26. Daniel Sorgini Iii	70-73--143	+	1
26. David Johnson	68-75--143	+	1
26. Luke Morgan	68-75--143	+	1
26. Les Teuteberg	72-71--143	+	1
26. Kelly Kretz	69-74--143	+	1
34. Brandon Berry	74-70--144	+	2
34. Lucas Lee	69-75--144	+	2
34. Patrick Lundy	75-69--144	+	2
34. Craig Voorhees	69-75--144	+	2
34. Matthew Lapham	75-69--144	+	2
34. Randall Hutchison	74-70--144	+	2
34. Chan Kim	73-71--144	+	2
34. Robert Rohanna	70-74--144	+	2
34. Phillip Choi	72-72--144	+	2
43. Ryan Mcdonald	73-72--145	+	3
43. Ben Bastel	72-73--145	+	3
43. Nicklaus Newcomb	70-75--145	+	3
43. Lion An	76-69--145	+	3
43. Jim Grady	77-68--145	+	3
43. Peter Fallon	70-75--145	+	3
43. Ricky Montanez	69-76--145	+	3
43. Nicholas Macdonald	72-73--145	+	3
43. Austin Love	74-71--145	+	3
43. Kevin Foley	74-71--145	+	3
43. Brad Nicholson	74-71--145	+	3
43. Grant Leaver	72-73--145	+	3
55. Sterling Clark	75-71--146	+	4
55. Peter Malnati	75-71--146	+	4
55. Dan Whitaker	77-69--146	+	4
55. Rod Butler	74-72--146	+	4
55. John Chin	71-75--146	+	4
55. David Ludlow	76-70--146	+	4
55. Kent Wiese	77-69--146	+	4
55. Zach Sebert	73-73--146	+	4
55. Michael Knott	74-72--146	+	4
64. x-Brady Johnson	75-72--147	+	5
• • •
Missed the cut
64. Drew Lethem	74-73--147	+	5
64. A.J. Gerlach	77-70--147	+	5
64. Rob Garland	68-79--147	+	5
64. Troy Johnson	74-73--147	+	5
64. Jonathan Hodge	73-74--147	+	5
64. Danny Anderson	76-71--147	+	5
64. Casey Carnes	73-74--147	+	5
64. Seth Girouard	74-73--147	+	5
64. Minghao Wang	74-73--147	+	5
74. Andy Roberts	73-75--148	+	6
74. Terrence Miskell	75-73--148	+	6
74. Chris Brant	76-72--148	+	6
74. Matthew Hicks	74-74--148	+	6
74. Tyler Obermueller	73-75--148	+	6
74. Steve Galko	75-73--148	+	6
74. Travis Ross	74-74--148	+	6
74. Peter Lansburgh	75-73--148	+	6
74. Ravi Patel	75-73--148	+	6
83. Lance Lopez	74-75--149	+	7
83. Michael Brown	77-72--149	+	7
83. Robert Godfrey	75-74--149	+	7
83. James Allenby	76-73--149	+	7
83. Ian Mcconnell	75-74--149	+	7
83. Tim Kay	73-76--149	+	7
83. Zack Fischer	80-69--149	+	7
83. Matthew Stephens	74-75--149	+	7
83. Ricky Jones	72-77--149	+	7
83. Gerard Connolly	75-74--149	+	7
83. Casey Calmi	74-75--149	+	7
94. Jimmy Henderson	77-73--150	+	8
94. Michael Beausejour	77-73--150	+	8
94. Chandler Smith-Stetson	74-76--150	+	8
94. Sean Maekawa	76-74--150	+	8
94. Josh Brock	75-75--150	+	8
94. Alex Williams	74-76--150	+	8
94. John Moheyer	77-73--150	+	8
94. Chris Freeman	74-76--150	+	8
94. Kenny Kim	75-75--150	+	8
94. Brent Martin	74-76--150	+	8
104. Chris Gilman	73-78--151	+	9
104. Craig Cyr	77-74--151	+	9
104. Danny Behm	77-74--151	+	9
104. Kyle Prolo	74-77--151	+	9
104. Marais Lombard	76-75--151	+	9
104. Paco Saracho	77-74--151	+	9
104. Nathan Schenz-Davis	77-74--151	+	9
104. Benjamin Sumulong	74-77--151	+	9
104. Andy Latowski	74-77--151	+	9
104. Jared Sawada	75-76--151	+	9
114. Chad Horner	75-77--152	+	10
114. Josh Bevell	77-75--152	+	10
114. Derek Fathauer	75-77--152	+	10
114. Michael Dominici	75-77--152	+	10
114. David Sampson	79-73--152	+	10
119. Peter Gibbs	76-77--153	+	11
119. Dan Hosek	75-78--153	+	11
119. Gene Webster Jr	76-77--153	+	11
119. Michael Wog	79-74--153	+	11
119. John Huh	74-79--153	+	11
119. Christopher Cappella	77-76--153	+	11
119. Danny Green	77-76--153	+	11
119. Tyson Mcfarland	77-76--153	+	11
119. Phil Henzlik	74-79--153	+	11
128. Gabriel Maier	75-79--154	+	12
128. Will Cullen	76-78--154	+	12
128. Michael Brown	76-78--154	+	12
128. Christopher O’Keefe	77-77--154	+	12
128. Vincent Johnson	80-74--154	+	12
128. Tyler Weir	76-78--154	+	12
128. Mike Gillis	79-75--154	+	12
128. Kurt Lorenzen	77-77--154	+	12
136. Nathan Chambers	80-75--155	+	13
136. Ryan Castanet	83-72--155	+	13
136. Adam Tebbs	74-81--155	+	13
139. Seve Gonzales	76-80--156	+	14
139. Jeremy Franklin	75-81--156	+	14
139. Brendan Borst	76-80--156	+	14
139. D.J. Harries	82-74--156	+	14
143. Lee Levine	81-76--157	+	15
143. Taeksoo Kim	82-75--157	+	15
143. Jordan Mitchell	81-76--157	+	15
143. Thomas Timby	84-73--157	+	15
143. Douglas Snoap	80-77--157	+	15
143. David Mckendrick	78-79--157	+	15
149. John Baranco	82-76--158	+	16
149. James Jones	78-80--158	+	16
151. Brad Arrington	77-83--160	+	18
151. Kellen Watabu	82-78--160	+	18
153. Zach Sommers	80-81--161	+	19
153. Jay Betchan	81-80--161	+	19
155. Burke Nagle	82-80--162	+	20

Posted: 7/15/2008

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