Wednesday, August 16, 2017

LOS ANGELES – In the end, it look took the top golfer in the field to eliminate Chris Crisologo from the U.S. Amateur Championship.

The Simon Fraser senior-to-be and reigning GNAC and PING West Region Men’s Golf Player of the Year advanced to the match play round of the annual amateur tournament, held in Los Angeles at The Riviera Country Club and the Bel-Air Country Club.

After surviving a two-hole playoff stroke play round Wednesday morning, Crisologo was paired up against No. 1 seed Hayden Wood, who set the tournament record for the two-round stroke play round the day before with a two-round score of 139. Crisologo more than held his own, pulling even on the eighth, 10th and 11th holes before Wood won the next three holes to take the match 4 and 3.

Wood went two-up after sinking a birdie on the fifth hole, but Crisologo sank par puts on the No. 6 and No. 8 holes go all square after eight holes. Wood, however, put the match away by shooting par on the 12th through 15th holes. Crisologo shot bogey on all four holes.

“The U.S. Amateur is the biggest and most important amateur golf tournament world, and for Chris to make match play is a huge accomplishment,” Simon Fraser head coach Matthew Steinbach told the Simon Fraser athletic communications office. “Chris will grow and learn from this experience and it will help him get to the next level in competitive golf.”

Crisologo, a PING First Team All-American in 2016-17, needed a pair of consistent rounds in the stroke play portion of the competiton to make the cut, carding 2-over-par 72 on both days. Crisologo struggled some in Monday’s round, shooting four bogeys and taking a double-bogey on the 468-yard, par-4 15th hole, but rebounded to record three birdies and just three holes at bogey or worse to close the stroke play rounds in a tie for 57th place.

In Wednesday morning’s 13-player stroke play playoff, Crisologo found himself on the brink of elimination as one of six players to record bogey on the 324-yard, par-4 10th hole. Redemption came on the next playoff hole as Crisologo shot birdie on the par 3, 14th hole to claim the tournament’s final match play spot.

Crisologo was one of three golfers with GNAC connections competing at the U.S. Amateur. Recent Saint Martin’s graduate Austin Spicer finished the two-round stroke play competition with a two-round score of 148, which included a low round of 2-over-par 72 in Tuesday’s round. Western Washington alumnus Jake Koppenberg carded a two-round score of 151 and also shot his best round, a 4-over-par 74, on Tuesday.