Capan Cruises through 2nd Round at Maridoe, But Loses in the 3rd

National

CARROLLTON, Texas -- Match play. Some golfers love it. Some hate it. 

You can shoot 77 (5 over par) and still win, as Will Holcomb, the medalist and No. 1 seed at the Maridoe Amateur Championship, did on Thursday in his first round match. He shot 74 on Friday morning and won on the first extra hole. In his afternoon Round of 16 match, he was even par for 15 holes and won fairly easily, 4&3 over Logan McAllister.

Or you can be under par, even par or right around par and lose, which is essentially what happened to Frankie Capan, the No. 12 seed, on Friday afternoon. The 2020 Minnesota State Amateur champion -- and MGA Player of the Year -- had breezed through his first two matches, beating Matthew Sharpstene 5&4 while playing 14 holes at Maridoe Golf Club in 1 over, and he was 4 under for 14 holes as he crushed Segundo Oliva Pinto 6&4 Friday morning in the Round of 32.

On Friday afternoon, however, Capan, a sophomore at Florida Gulf Coast University (he transferred from Alabama this fall), was even par and 1 down after nine holes against the No. 5 seed, Christopher Gotterup. Having started on the back nine, Capan then proceeded to birdie No. 1 (441 yards, par 4) and No. 2 (611, par 5) to go 1 up. He bogeyed No. 3 (209, par 3), but regained the advantage with a birdie at No. 5 (360, par 4) -- at which point, he was 2 under, but only 1 up.

Gotterup, a Rutgers senior from Little Silver, N.J., (and the 2019-20 Big Ten Player of the Year)  squared the match by making a par at the 575-yard, par-5 seventh, while Capan was making X. Both players parred the 150-yard eighth hole, but Gotterup won the ninth hole -- and the match 1 up -- with a par at the 450-yard, par-4. 

As a result, Gotterup will play Benjamin Shipp in the quarterfinals Saturday morning. Shipp is the No. 45 seed, but he hasn't played like it. He's been under par in each of his three matches. The North Carolina State senior was 3 under in the best match of the first round, which he won in 19 holes over Garrett Reband. He was 2 under for 17 holes on the way to a 2&1 victory over the No. 13 seed, Clay Feagler, in the second round, and on Friday afternoon, he was 3 under for 16 holes as he knocked off the No. 4 seed, Noah Goodwin, 3&2.

The No. 2 seed, an Oklahoma State sophomore  by way of Tokyo Japan -- Leo Oyo -- is also gone. He started his match against the No. 47 seed, Sam Choi, at No. 10 and shot 42 on the back nine. He was 3 down as he walked off the 18th green. It could have been worse, and Oyo righted the ship on the front nine. He was even par for the first seven holes, reduced the deficit to 2 down, and birdied the par-3 eighth. But Choi matched his birdie and closed him out, 2&1.

Choi, a sophomore at the University of New Mexico, gets Baylor junior Ryan Grider next. Grider, the No. 23 seed, was 4 under for 13 holes as he blitzed No. 7 Parker Coody (the grandson of 1971 Masers champ Charles Coody) 6&5.

If Thursday and Friday had been three rounds of stroke play, instead of match play, the guy who would be leading is Luke Potter, the No., 3 seed. A 16-year-old high school junior from Encinitas, Calif., who is committed to Arizona State, Potter was 2 under for 15 holes in a first-round 4&3 conquest of Alexander Yang, 4 under in a 2&1 victory over John Kieffer and 3 under as he dispatched Graysen Huff 3&1 in the Round of 16 Friday afternoon. In other words, he's 9 under for 49 holes.

Besides Shipp and Potter, the only other player to have been under par in all three of his matches is Jonathan Brightwell, who will be Potter's opponent Saturday morning. Brightwell started his senior year of college at North Carolina-Charlotte last fall, and after the NCAA declared that because Covid 19 aborted the 2019-20 season, everyone who wanted it would get another year of eligibility, Brightwell resumed his senior year at Oklahoma, making him one of the many fifth-year seniors in college sports this year.

The former 49er/now Sooner got off to a shaky start at Maridoe, shooting 80 on Monday in the first of the three stroke-play rounds. But he came back with a 69 on Tuesday and eventually tied for 11th in qualifying. He got the No. 11 seed, and he's 7 under for 49 holes since then. On Friday afternoon, he and No. 6 seed David Puig played the best match of the day, Brightwell shooting a 69 to win 1 up. Puig had a 71.

As for Holcomb, his quarterfinal opponent will be the No. 8 seed, Preston Summerhays. If the seedings were based on golf geneology, Summerhays would be No. 1. His father, Boyd Summerhays, played on the PGA Tour for a decade, and one of his uncles is Tony Finau, a PGA Tour winner who is currently No. 19 in the Official World Golf Rankings. Another uncle is Daniel Summerhays who was a regular on the PGA Tour from 2011 to 2019. (He was on the Korn Ferry Tour in 2020.) And his father's uncle is Bruce Summerhays, who won three times on the PGA Champions Tour.

Preston, an Arizona State recruit for 2021, demonstrated a knack for overcoming adversity while winning the 2019 U.S., Junior Championship (he had to come back from 4 down in one of the matches), and he's showing the same kind of resilience this week. After posting a 71 on Monday, he shot 80 on Tuesday, but bounced back with a 73 on Wednesday to tie for seventh in the stroke-play portion of the tournament. In his first match, against Shane French, he was 1 under after three holes -- and 2 down. But he battled back, with consecutive birdies on the fifth, sixth and seventh holes and was 3 under for 15 holes in a 4&3 victory.

In his next match, which started on the 10th tee, he shot 41 on the back nine. After 15 holes, he was 6 over but only 1 down to Patrick Welch, and he birdied the last three holes (7, 8 and 9) to win 1 up. On Friday afternoon, he started on No. 10 again -- and shot 32 on the back nine, an improvement of nine strokes over his morning back nine score. He played 15 holes in 5 under as he defeated Mcclure Meissner 4&3.      


Maridoe Amateur Championship

Nov. 30-Dec. 6
       
At Maridoe Golf Club

Par 72, 7,291 yards      

Carrollton, Texas

Match Play

Round of 64

(12) Frankie Capan, North Oaks def. (53) Matthew Sharpstene 5&4

(28) Eddy Lai, San Jose def. (37) Angus Flanagan, Surrey, England 19 holes 

Round of 32

Frankie Capan def. (44) Segundo Oliva Pinto, Cordoba, Argentina 6&4

(5) Christopher Gotterup, Little Silver, N.J. def. Lai 3&1

Round of 16

Gotterup def. Capan 1 up