Shintaro Ban honored as NCGA Player of the Year
Shintaro Ban
(NCGA Photo)
PEBBLE BEACH, CA (December 9, 2016) -- Back in
1981, Nathaniel Crosby won NCGA Player of the Year
honors by playing in and winning just one event—
the
U.S. Amateur.
San Jose native Shintaro Ban nearly matched
that
feat. A junior at UNLV, Ban won 2015-2016 NCGA
Player of the Year honors by playing in only three
events–one being a qualifier.
“It means a lot. I think Player of the Year is one
of
the bigger things for a golf association,” Ban said. “It
gets marked down in history. There are a lot of great
names who’ve won it. I’m glad to be one of
them.”
The 20-year-old became only the 11th player to
capture both the California Amateur
Championship
and theNCGA Amateur Match
Play
Championship. The list of
players who’ve bagged both titles in one year
includes
Jack Neville (1913), Charles Seaver (1933), Michael
Brannan (1976) and, most recently, PGA Tour
member
Spencer Levin (2004).
With each win, Ban collected 700 points. He’d
finish
with 1,475 after also earning 75 points by advancing
through a U.S. Amateur qualifier. Bayonet/Black
Horse
GC member Nick Moore, the defending 2014-2015
NCGA Player of the Year, was second with 1,457
points.
Moore, who made a late surge with his record third
win
at the NCGA Valley Amateur, had a chance at
passing
Ban but finished as runner-up at the Las Positas
Open.
Third place went to E-Club San Francisco member
and
2016 NCGA Public Links champion Matt Cohn at
1,286
points.
“I didn’t think I hold it down. I thought
someone
would catch me,” Ban said.
In its 105-year history, the California Amateur
Championship had never seen a pair of brothers
hoist
the Edward B. Tufts Trophy, let alone in back-to-back
years. Ban changed all that, defeating Hidetoshi
Yoshihara, 5 and 4, in the finals at Valencia CC to
win
the title just a year after his older brother Shotaro
did.
At the NCGA Amateur Match Play Championship,
Ban was a buzzsaw, defeating 17-year-old runner-up
Eddy Lai, 10 and 9. Through the first 13 holes of the
36-
hole final, Ban went 6-under. He’d never trail at any
point in his final three matches. Over his five
matches,
he only trailed a span of three holes total.
Other Players Honored:
NCGA Women’s Player of the Year:
Sabrina Iqbal
NCGA Senior Player of the Year: Dale
Bouguennec
NCGA Senior Women’s Player of the Year:
Lynne Cowan
NCGA Super Senior Player of the Year: Gary
Vanier