McCartin Wins Virginia State Amateur
7/3/2006 12:00:00 AM | Men's Golf
July 3, 2006
HOT SPRINGS, Va. -- Wake Forest junior Chris McCartin scored an 8 and 6 victory over Chesapeake's Adam Horton to claim the 93rd Virginia State Golf Association Amateur Championship, which concluded Sunday at The Homestead's Cascades Course (6,613 yards, par 35-35--70).
McCartin led from wire-to-wire in the 36-hole final to collect his first State Am title.
Possessor of a 3-up advantage through 25 holes, McCartin finished the match with five straight birdies. He started to break open the match at the par-3 eighth in the afternoon session, curling in a 14-footer and he holed a 13-foot attempt at No. 9 to go 5 up with nine holes to play. Horton narrowly missed on his attempts at the two holes.
McCartin started to seal the match at the par-4 10th. With his opponent in close, McCartin holed a left-to-right breaking 20-footer and Horton missed on his five-footer. Instead of Horton getting to within four, McCartin's lead grew to 6 up.
"That was really just like a dagger," said Horton, who was making his first finals' appearance.
McCartin made sure of it, knocking his iron shot to 9 feet at the par-3 11th and converted a conceded birdie after Horton missed in a tough spot long and right with a blind green above him. McCartin put an exclamation point on the match a hole later, blistering a drive down the center of the fairway and hit an iron approach to 8 feet for a conceded birdie; Horton's tee shot found the trees left. McCartin's putting was the difference maker in the decisive stretch.
"It wasn't really clicking that I was doing that. I was in the zone where every putt looked pretty easy. It wasn't just today. It was all week," said the fifth-seeded McCartin, who trailed only once briefly in his opening round match on Friday. "I made a lot of putts and that really helped."
It also helped that he birdied the first hole five of the six rounds in match play, including twice today. And with a birdie from the right rough at the par-3 fourth in the morning, McCartin owned a 3-up lead, an advantage he owned until No. 10. Horton answered back, winning Nos. 11 (25 foot birdie putt from the back fringe), 12 and 13 to square the match.
As has seemingly been the case for much of the week, McCartin had the answer at the right time, sticking a 9-iron approach from 155 yards to 4 feet at the par-4 14th to retake the lead for good.
"That was the biggest moment of the whole day," said McCartin, who then went on to win Nos. 15 and 16 to move 3 up. Horton won No. 18 with a par to get within two.
Following the recess given to players following the first match, Horton pulled his tee shot way left onto the bordering highway at the first, the 19th of the day, and McCartin made a conceded birdie to go back to 3 up.
"Not exactly what I was looking for out of the lunch break - sending the ball screaming down Route 220," Horton said.
He wouldn't get any closer the rest of the match, narrowly misfiring on putts when McCartin built on his lead by converting key birdie chances.
"He played really well and made all the putts he had to and hit really high quality iron shots," said Horton, who graduated from Methodist College in December. He plans to go into the insurance business and remain a lifelong amateur. "He did what you want to do in match play - once you get your opponent down, make sure you do everything you can to keep him down."
With his triumph, McCartin became the first Wake Forest golfer to win the State Am at the Cascades since Lanny Wadkins triumphed at the layout in 1970. Interested in golf history, (McCartin's brother, Mike, a golf history buff, and is building a course in Scotland with designer Tom Doak) McCartin joins a distinguished list of names on the Schwarzschild Brothers trophy, going to the champion.
"I've come close to winning a lot, but this is the biggest one that I've gone on to win," said McCartin, who is headed to the prestigious North-South Amateur at Pinehurst's No. 2 Course following today's event.
McCartin's win signaled the fifth straight year that a 20-something has won the State Am title. Previous winners Jay Woodson (2002 and 2003) and Leesburg's Billy Hurley (2004 and 2005), now professionals, were each in their early 20's when they won.
The 2007 VSGA Amateur Championship is set for Lowes Island Club's Island Course in Potomac Falls.
HOT SPRINGS - Result from the final round of match play at the 93rd VSGA Amateur Championship at The Homestead's Cascades Course (6,613 yards, par 35-35--70) on Sunday, July 2.
(5) Chris McCartin (Arlington) def. (10) Adam Horton (Chesapeake), 8 and 6
Players Mentioned
