click above for a video recap of the event

OAKLAND, Calif. (Sept 16, 2007) -- More than 70 players made their way to Oakland’s uniquely urban links course --affectionately called “Metro” by it’s regular players --  for the 5th amateurgolf.com Metropolitan Amateur.

Matthew Garcia, 18, of Burlingame fired a 5-birdie, bogey free final round of 67 (a near mirror of the scorecard posted by Senior Division player Herb Jensen the day before) for a 36-hole tournament record of 136, five shots lower than Evan Derian of Manhattan Beach.

Derian followed his uneventful round one 77 with a nice Sunday front nine of 1-under 35, then lit up the back nine with five birdies and an eagle on No. 17. He narrowly missed a putt on No. 18 to tie the overall course record of 63.

“I was hitting my driver well, and just sticking my lob wedges,” explained the modest Derian.

And while there are no leaderboards at amateurgolf.com (yet), judging from the way Matthew Garcia went about his business in the final group he wouldn’t have been fazed to see 141 flash on a scoreboard in front of him.

The tall, long ball-capable Garcia was sticking to his game plan, honed at his home course, The Olympic Club. Standing at 7-under for the tournament, he even felt comfortable laying up from the 200-yard range on the 17th, where many players (including the charging Evan Derian) try to grab an eagle or birdie for the road by clearing the water hazard in front of the green.

“I knew I was bogey free, so I felt comfortable laying up on 17,” said Garcia. “Then I just made a 20 foot putt on 18 so it was a nice way to end the tournament.”

In the Senior Division, Craig Johnson of Woodside came out to his first amateurgolf.com with the modest expectation of enjoying a Saturday pairing with his 16-year-old son Barrett and figuring out the course. A 2-under 70 put him in the middle of a final round pairing that included fellow San Francisco Golf Club member Jim Williams and one of that venerable club’s employees, the steady 68-year old Ron Wiley.

Leading the tournament (and rounding out the final foursome) was Herb Jensen of Carmichael. Jensen was enjoying his weekend in the Bay Area even more thanks to a bogey free round of 67 that saw him hit all 18 greens in regulation.

On Sunday, it looked to be more of the same for Jensen, who made an early bogey on No. 2 on but got the stroke back with a birdie at the fourth, a 446-yard par 4.

A comedy of errors (unless you were Jensen or Jim Williams) ensued at No. 6, where Williams tee shot found one of the rare trees on the course, and his provisional ball was hit mistakenly by Jensen, resulting in a two stroke penalty for a double bogey. Williams, coming off two straight birdies, suffered a triple bogey eight.

Johnson, who was already 1-under on the day thanks to a birdie at No. 3, made birdie and the resulting 3-stroke swing gave him the lead. Jensen quickly got square with a birdie on the par-3 seventh, and grabbed the lead at No. 8 when Johnson made bogey.

Johnson birdied No. 10 to get into another tie, and after the players split the next three holes with pars, Johnson took a two stroke lead with birdie at No.14, where Jensen bogeyed. His playing partner and friend Jim Williams summed it up this way:

“On 14, he [Johnson] hits the sweetest, purest 4 iron you've ever seen to a tough green over water to a back shelf pin. Then he canned the putt.”

The one stroke lead carried through to No. 17, where Johnson effectively put away the tournament by reaching the par 5 green in two with a 5 wood.

Credit Jensen, however, with never giving up. Needing a 2-stroke swing on No. 18, Jensen’s birdie putt down a steep slope nearly found the cup. Johnson almost holed out from 10 feet to shoot 68, then missed the inconsequential come-backer that will allow Williams to needle him for months to come. And Jensen, by the way, gets the 50 NCGA Senior points that go along with being the lowest score of the over 55-year-old players.

Net Division – Going LOW from the Whites
The Net players in amateurgolf.com events all know how to get around the golf course, but even par net still wins money at most of the tough venues we compete on.

Not this time.

Vince Steele proclaimed on Saturday that more than half the Net field would be under par playing from around 6000 yards at Metro, and he was right. He also won the tournament.

Steele, a 12.5 index player from Concord, broke 80 both rounds of the tournament, the first time he has ever accomplished the feat on consecutive days.

“I really wanted that last putt,” said Steele. “I didn’t know I needed it to win the tournament.”

Indeed, Steele edged Jim Grensted by a single shot thanks to his finish, with Grensted posting a gross 69, the lowest amateurgolf.com Net Division history. Grensted’s 68-60=128 net was just one shy of Steele’s 62-65=127 winning total. Korsen Yu finished alone in third at 132.

TOURNAMENT NOTES:

- A note of thanks to the entire staff of Metropolitan Golf Links, especially Professional Lynn Jones and Superintendent Gary Ingram for helping us prepare for and administer a quality event

- Evan Derian’s final round 8-under 64 equaled the tournament record at Metropolitan, posted last year in this tournament by Martin Trainer. (Pro golfer Dong Yi holds the regular record at 63.) While neither player won the event, they both enjoyed the excitement that ensues when players and those gathered around the scoreboard see such a number posted.

- Thanks to amateurgolf.com newcomer Mike Noble (and Al Richardson, who referred him to us) who many of you met for the first time at this tournament. Noble, who played Linebacker for Stanford before a brief pro career with the Raiders, will be working (is it work?) at many of our events in 2008.

- A final note of thanks to Leonard “Googie” Kirtley for his assistance with rules.

* * *

Final results from the amateurgolf.com Metropolitan Amateur, played at the 6959 yard, Par 72 Metropolitan Golf Links follow: (note: a story and video will be posted by Monday morning)

	CHAMPIONSHIP
Pos	First	Last	Hometown	St	Rd1	Rd2	Tot
	Matthew	Garcia	Burlingame	CA	69	67	136
	Evan	Derian	Manhattan Beach	CA	77	64	141
	Mike	Jensen	Los Altos	CA	70	72	142
	Brian	Swenson	Dublin	CA	70	72	142
	Eric	Mina	Fremont	CA	72	71	143
	Erick	Thorson	Westlake Village	CA	74	70	144
	Adam	Barkow	Albany	CA	70	75	145
	Stephen	Hale	Bakersfield	CA	73	72	145
	Andrew	Bowdish	San Jose	CA	71	75	146
	Dominic	Coccia	Sonoma	CA	72	74	146
	Mike	Granelli	Clayton	CA	72	74	146
	Chris	Jensen	Los Altos	CA	72	75	147
	Travis	Bregman	Newhall	CA	73	74	147
	Sean	Dyer	Aptos	CA	74	73	147
	Dennis	Carson	Burlingame	CA	73	75	148
	Matt	Cohn	San Francisco	CA	73	76	149
	Jef	Mallari	Dublin	CA	73	76	149
	Stan	Morrison	San Francisco	CA	74	75	149
	Sal	Felice II	Hollister	CA	77	72	149
	Rhett	Colbrese	San Diego	CA	72	78	150
	Matt	Williams		CA	79	71	150
	Neil	Summers	Livermore	CA	77	74	151
	Jeffrey	Hamm	Danville	CA	74	78	152
	Josh	Boro	SAN JOSE	CA	74	79	153
	Keith	Schwartz	San Mateo	CA	74	79	153
	Brandon	McNally	Burlingame	CA	77	76	153
	Chip	Doyle	Castro Valley	CA	80	73	153
	John	Hasse	Berkeley	CA	76	78	154
	Johnny	Ferreira	San Diego	CA	73	83	156
	Kitt	Flood	San Francisco	CA	78	78	156
	Esan	Geroux	Mill Valley	CA	78	78	156
	Tyler	Lotridge	Napa	CA	76	81	157
	Miles	Thorson	Thousand Oaks	CA	79	79	158
	Takashi	Shimabukuro	Berkeley	CA	80	78	158
	Dylan	Smith	San Francisco	CA	80	78	158
	Daniel	Coccia	Sonoma	CA	80	79	159
	Logan	Woodruff	oakland	CA	81	79	160
	Chris	Monk	Foster City	CA	83	79	162
	Ron	Siskey	Grover Beach	CA	83	85	168
	Randall	Schwartz	Burlingame	CA	86	84	170
	Bruce	Rosen	Solana Beach	CA	88	83	171
	Martin	Renaud	Hayward	CA	82	wd	wd
	Jeff	Lenamon	San Ramon	CA	wd	wd	wd
	Patrick	Pernice	Oakland	CA	wd/inj	wd/inj	wd/inj
	SENIOR DIVISION
Pos	First	Last	Hometown	St	Rd1	Rd2	Tot
1	Craig	Johnson *	San Francisco	CA	70	70	140
2	Herb	Jensen	Carmichael	CA	67	74	141
3	Jim	Williams *	Orinda	CA	70	74	144
4	Ron	Wiley	San Francisco	CA	71	76	147
5	Tom	Lyons	Pleasanton	CA	73	75	148
6	Walt	Edgerley	Pleasanton	CA	75	74	149
7	Michael	Donnelly	Clayton	CA	76	75	151
8	Kevin	Gaughan	Danville	CA	78	75	153
9	Thomas	Hitchcock	San Mateo	CA	80	80	160
T10	Kevin	Tierney	Sunnyvale	CA	82	79	161
T10	Robert A.	Hulme	Provo	UT	84	77	161
12	David	Love	San Francisco	CA	82	82	164
13	Dan	Redmond	San Francisco	CA	85	80	165
	NET DIVISION
	First	Last	Hometown	St	Rd1	Rd2	Tot
1	Vincent	Steele	Concord	CA	62	65	127
2	James	Grensted	Belmont	CA	68	60	128
3	Korsen	Yu	Sunnyvale	CA	67	65	132
4	Barry	Bhangoo	Oakland	CA	67	68	135
5	SungHo	Jin	Fremont	CA	70	69	139
	Zachary	Carr	San Francisco	CA	70	72	142
	Steve	Clarke	San Francisco	CA	67	76	143
	Al	Richardson	Santa Clara	CA	69	74	143
	David	Mack	Redwood City	CA	71	72	143
	Nigel	Harold	Alameda	CA	76	69	145
	Lyle	Covino	san francisco	CA	78	70	148
	Michael	Walsh-Ellis	San Francisco	CA	75	76	151
	Bruce	Stinson	Emeryville	CA	80	86	166

Note: Senior players under 55, marked by asterisk, do not earn NCGA Senior Points. Those points go to the low 5 players and ties who are at least 55.

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