LaCassie, Price qualify for US Amateur Match Play
BY Bruce Young | US Mens Amateur Tour | 2004 US Amateur Championship | Round Two | 18 Aug 2004
Two of the three Australians who made the field for this week’s US Amateur Championship at the famed Winged Foot Golf Club in New York, have made it into the top sixty four who will fight out the Match Play phase of the Championship.
Queenslander Bronson LaCassie, who was on shaky ground following his opening 74 yesterday, produced the equal best round of the tournament and the best round on the East course today, when he fired a four under 67 to climb to fourth place at the completion of the thirty six hole qualifying phase.
LaCassie played the easier East Course in round two, his first round 74 being over Winged Foot’s demanding West Course which has been the home of several US Opens.
LaCassie, who has played for the University of Minnesota for the past twelve months, showed the benefit he has derived from the competitive nature of US collegiate golf by producing such a fine score.
New South Wales’ Aron Price, a standout at the Georgia Southern University and who has had such a brilliant season on the US Amateur circuit, made a fine start yesterday in round one with an opening 71 over the West Course but faltered today with a 78 on the East. Over a back nine which had seen two double bogeys and two bogeys today, he needed a par at the last to avoid a playoff for one of the last spots. He is however now well and truly inside the field for the match play in 42nd position at nine over, with ten over being the cut off.
For New South Wales golfer Andrew McKenzie however, his US Amateur campaign has ended with rounds of 75 and 78 to miss by three shots.
The leading qualifier is arguably, perhaps along with Spencer Levin, the hottest golfer in US Amateur golf right now, Ryan Moore, who is the only player under par for the thirty six holes. Moore, the US Public Links Champion and recent winner of the Western Amateur, had rounds of 69 and 70 to finish one shot ahead of fellow American Nick Cook and Colombian Oscar Alvarez, a junior at Brigham Young University.
Levin finished in 12th place at five over.
The match play takes place over the next five days with a series of eighteen hole matches until the final over thirty six holes on Sunday.
