Aron pays price for disastrous finish at US Amateur

BY Bruce Young | US Mens Amateur Tour | 2004 US Amateur Championship | Round Three | 20 Aug 2004

Aron Price’s disappointing last few holes in today’s third round of the US Amateur Championship, has cost him a real chance of beating the hottest golfer in US Amateur golf, Ryan Moore.

Price had advanced to the third round with a 2 & 1 victory over The University of Georgia’s, Kevin Kisner, in the morning round and then against the number one qualifier and leading amateur in US golf Ryan Moore, he played his way to a three up lead with five holes to play.

Surely he couldn’t lose from here.

A double bogey at the 14th cost him the hole and the difference was just two. Both players parred the 15th and so Price was two up with three to play. Price bogeyed the 16th to lose that hole and then double bogeyed the 17th to lose that hole to a bogey by Moore.

Within the space of thirty minutes the match had turned from a convincing Price win to a possible loss as the pair stood on the 18th tee. The slide that Price was on, continued at the last when he bogeyed to allow Moore to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. It will be a bitter pill to swallow for Price who may well have become the favourite for the title if he had made it to the quarter finals. The only time that Moore was ahead in the match was at the 18th but unfortunately for Price, that is all it takes.

Bronson LaCassie, the only other Australian to make the matchplay field, was eliminated in round two today. The match between he and Floridian, Nicholas Thompson, who plays for Georgia Tech in collegiate golf, swung both ways until the 14th when LaCassie bogeyed three consecutive holes to allow the twenty one year old Thompson to win 3 & 2 and advance to round three.

In the upset result of round three, Danny Green of Tennessee, accounted for Spencer Levin, who along with Ryan Moore was a favourite for the event, when beating him two up.