BUCKINGHAM >> Brad Pendleton won the 20th annual Lake County Match Play Championship this past weekend at Buckingham Golf and Country Club. Arguably the best amateur golfer in Lake County, Pendleton breezed through his first two matches and appeared ready to do so again in the finals until Juan Lopez of Lakeport forced Pendleton to work overtime for the title.
Match play is different from traditional stroke play golf in that the winner is determined on a hole-by-hole basis. If you begin your round with scores of par and par after two holes and your opponent makes a birdie and a triple bogey, the match is dead even regardless of the fact you are even par and he is 2-over-par.
Pendleton won his initial match Friday afternoon with a 6-and-4 win (six holes up with four holes remaining) over Dave Gillen of Buckingham. Pendleton advanced to the semifinal round Saturday morning with a decisive win over Dylan Harrison of Cobb. Harrison had reached the semis by defeating Lake County Junior champion Matt Wotherspoon in the opening round on Friday by a 4-and-3 margin. All that remained for Pendleton was to beat Lopez in the finals to take home the one individual title, the Match Play, that he hasn’t previously won on the Lake County Amateur Golf Circuit. Lopez advanced to the finals by winning a tough opening-round match against Max Huff of Clear Lake Riviera by a 1-up margin. He then defeated Wyatt Ferrell of Kelseyville in the semifinals with a 4-and-3 victory. Ferrell had won his first-round match by a 2-and-1 margin over Brels Solomon of Upper Lake.
It appeared to be more of the same for Pendleton as he took a three-hole lead against Lopez through the first nine holes of their championshp match. Pendleton birdied the par-5 4th hole, eagled the par-5 seventh hole and closed out the front nine with a birdie-four on the ninth hole. Three holes later the margin of Pendleton’s lead remained the same as he was 3-up with just six holes left. Yet at that moment the match turned. Lopez won the par-5 13th hole with a par, took the par-3 14th hole with a birdie-two, and tied the match with a great par on the difficult par-3 15th hole. Lopez then won his fourth consecutive hole with a birdie-four on the short par-5 16th hole.
Pendleton steadied the ship with a birdie on the watery par-5 17th hole to square the match. On the 18 hole, Pendleton made a tap-in par putt while Lopez extended the match by making a curling, downhill 6-footer for his par. The 19th hole was tied with bogeys when Pendleton, who had issues with his ball in the high rough over the green, made a dynamic downhill 15-footer to extend the match. Both golfers missed the green on the par-3 20th hole and tied one another with bogeys. On the par-3 21st hole, Pendleton made a routine two-putt par while Lopez had to get up and down from left of the green, making a 12-foot par putt that dropped into the cup on the final roll.
Pendleton finally closed out the match on the 22nd hole by knocking in a 6-foot par putt for the overall win. Lopez, who was the Lake County Circuit’s top player prior to the Jonathan Carlson-Brad Pendleton era, previously won the Match Play title in 2003.
Net flight
The net flight for golfers with handicaps of 10 and higher featured six golfers. Two byes were given out in the first round to No. 1 seed Rick Easter of Lakeport and No. 2 seed Peter Wotherspoon of Buckingham. In other first-round action, Jack Lucich of Clearlake defeated Ken Kellner of Kelseyville with a 6-and-5 win while Javier Castaneda of Clear Lake Riviera beat Cliff Morris of Cobb 5 and 4.
In Saturday’s semifinals, Easter had his match extended to 19 holes before he finally defeated Castaneda. Wotherspoon automatically advanced to the finals when Lucich had to withdraw because of illness. In the finals, Easter took control of the match from the start, extending his lead over Wotherspoon by six holes upon completion of the front nine. Easter continued to play solid golf and ended up winning the net title with an 8-and-7 victory on the 11th green. It was Easter’s second Match Play victory, having also won the title in 2013.
Senior flight
There were not enough senior golfers to hold a senior scratch flight, so those members of the over-50 set were paired in a senior net bracket. In first-round play, John Flynn of Cobb played steady golf and ended up beating Craig Kinser of Lakeport by a net margin of 3 and 2. In the other semifinal match, Scot Lamanuzzi of Buckingham prevailed with a 1-up win over Dr. Bob Jolin of Lakeport, the No. 1 senior net seed. In the Saturday morning finals, Lamanuzzi played consistent golf and was able to defeat Flynn by a 2-and-1 margin of victory to claim the senior net title.
The next tournament on the Lake County Amateur Golf Circuit is the 24th annual Lake County Open on April 25-26 at Buckingham Golf and Country Club. The Lake County Open is the second-oldest 36-hole amateur stroke play tournament in the region.
