99th California State Amateur Championship: Complete Results
SAN DIEGO, Calif. - Santa Clara University's Scott Travers - the 2010 WCC Player of the Year - is the best amateur golfer in California. Travers, a native of Trabuco Canyon, Calif., out-dueled hometown favorite Harry Rudolph of La Jolla to win the 99th California State Amateur Championship at Rancho Santa Fe Golf Club in San Diego.
Travers birdied four of the first six holes Saturday to establish an early lead and went on to win the title by sinking a six-foot putt on the 33rd hole of the day - going up by four with three to play.
"At the end of it I could barely see straight, it was such a long day," said Travers after the round. "There must have been a 100 people out there and 90 people were rooting for Harry. I was trying not to let all that affect me. I was just trying to be really steady and win holes."
The 2010 California State Amateur began on Monday, June 21st with 155 players vying for 32 spots in the match play portion of the tournament. After wins on Wednesday on Thursday, Travers defeated multiple NCGA champion Randy Haag of Burlingame, Calif., Friday morning, (3 and 2) advancing to the semifinals that afternoon where he beat Sacramento State all-conference standout Grant Norton (5 and 3), setting up a 36-hole playoff against Rudolph.
"Before I played today everyone was telling me `way to go' and `congratulations' but I hadn't won anything yet," said Travers. "I had to stick to my same routine this morning. After the first tee shot my nerves were gone - and birdying the first hole definitely helped."
When Travers finished the first 18 holes, leading by three, he walked into the Rancho Santa Fe clubhouse to find his change of clothes hanging in Arnold Palmer's locker. He returned to the course and immediately birdied two of the next four holes to go up by four with 14 to play - leading the whole way.
"Without question this was the biggest tournament win for me," said Travers, who capped his junior season at Santa Clara this year by qualifying for the NCAA Regionals. "Knowing you can finish tournament's and doing it wire-to-wire was great for me. I won the UCI Invite last season near my hometown up in Irvine and that was special but this was so much harder to win. This also does so much for my confidence to play at this level for six straight days."
