Published: Sunday, Jun. 28, 2009
Golf: Cal Poly's Gonzalez wins state amateur title
Poly golfer rallies to win title in 36-hole final
Comments (0) | 
E-Mail
Print
tool name
closeCal Poly golfer Geoff Gonzalez had another comeback victory to win the match-play portion of the California State Amateur and became the first champion in 15 years to also have led the field in stroke play.
Gonzalez trailed Jeff Wilson, 46, of Fairlfield, who was 3-up after eight holes, but fought back to square the match by the 18th hole before winning 3 and 2.
“I was down in every match I played,” said Gonzalez, who’ll be a senior at Cal Poly next season. “I was used to coming from behind.”
Gonzalez, 21, took his first lead of the 36-hole final at Lake Merced Golf Course in Daly City on the 27th hole and never gave it back. The Diablo native became just the 12 medalist in the 98-year history of the event to go on to win the match-play title.
Gonzalez won four holes during a seven-hole stretch midway through the final 18. He took the lead with a birdie on the 516-yard par-5 ninth hole and also won the par-3 12th hole and par-5 14th to build his 3 and 2 conclusion.
It was the break between rounds that was key to Gonzalez’s dominance over the final eight holes. He hit five or six drives during the lunch break.
“I found something that worked between rounds and started crushing it,” Gonzalez said.
Gonzalez had been crushing it on the par 5s all week, posting birdies on five of seven in the final match and going 7-under on the four par 5s on his near course-record 64 in the second round of stroke-play qualifying.
Gonzalez’s trek to the final match included four close matches, including victories over Logan Goettsch of Fresno (2 and 1), Los Angeles’ Matt Grush (1-up), Scott Oxandaboure of Carlsbad (19th hole) and Sam Smith of Turlock (2-up).
Wilson held the lead for most of the final match but blamed his putting for being unable to capitalize.
“His putter was there and mine wasn’t,” Wilson said. “That was the difference. All my bogeys were three putts. You start to lose confidence in your putter and make tentative strokes.”
Wilson is a three-time medalist at the U.S. Mid-Amateur and four-time U.S. Open participant. He was the low amateur at the 2000 Open at Pebble Beach.
Gonzalez was in the tournament for the first time. He was the medalist at the state qualifier at Cypress Ridge in Arroyo Grande and was the co-medalist in stroke play at the Amateur, where he earned the No. 1 seed this week.
Gonzalez dedicated the win to his recently deceased grandfather, who taught him the game. “My goal coming in was to win, and to accomplish it is huge,” Gonzalez said. “To see my name among all those fantastic players, it’s quite an honor.”
What you should know about comments on SanLuisObispo.com
SanLuisObispo.com is happy to provide a forum for reader interaction, discussion, feedback and reaction to our stories. However, we reserve the right to delete inappropriate comments or ban users who can't play nice. See our full terms of service here.
Here are some rules of the road:
- Keep your comments civil. Don't insult one another or the subjects of our articles. If you think a comment violates our guidelines click the "report abuse" button. Responding to the comment will only encourage bad behavior.
- Don't use profanities, vulgarities or hate speech. This is a general interest news site. Sometimes, there are children present. Don't say anything in a way you wouldn't want your own child to hear.
- Do not attack other users; focus your comments on issues, not individuals.
- Stay on topic. Only post comments relevant to the article at hand. If you want to discuss an issue with a specific user, click on his profile name and leave him a public message.
- Do not copy and paste outside material into the comment box.
- Don't repeat the same comment over and over. We heard you the first time.
- Do not use the commenting system for advertising. That's spam and it isn't allowed.
- Don't use all capital letters. That's akin to yelling and not appreciated by the audience.
You should also know that The Tribune does not screen comments before they are posted. You are more likely to see inappropriate comments before our staff does, so we ask that you click the "report abuse" button to submit those comments for moderator review. You also may notify us via email at webmaster@sanluisobispo.com. Note the headline on which the comment is made and tell us the profile name of the user who made the comment. Remember, comment moderation is subjective. You may find some material objectionable that we won't and vice versa.
If you submit a comment, the username of your account will appear along with it. Users cannot remove their own comments once they have submitted them, but you may ask our staff to retract one of your comments by sending an email to webmaster@sanluisobispo.com. Again, make sure you note the headline on which the comment is made and tell us your profile name.
About comments
Reader comments on SanLuisObispo.com are the opinions of the writer, not The Tribune. If you see an objectionable comment, click the "report abuse" button below it. We will delete comments containing inappropriate links, obscenities, hate speech, and personal attacks. Flagrant or repeat violators will be banned. See more about comments here.