Throughout the week, 22-year-old Pleasanton resident Noah Woolsey kept telling himself to believe. By the time it was over, it happened.
A senior at the University of Washington, the No.2 seed Woolsey erased an early three-hole deficit and came storming back to win the 110th California Amateur Championship over No.4 Wes Payne, 2 and 1, on a hot Saturday at The Preserve Golf Club in Carmel Valley.
Woolsey, who joins a list of California Amateur champions that includes Johnny Miller, Mark O’Meara and two-time winner Bobby Clampett, hadn’t won an event since 2019. Clampett, who grew up in Carmel Valley, was among the spectators taking in the action.
“The whole week, I was just walking down the fairway telling myself, ‘You can do this’, over and over and over. It kind of calmed me down.” said Woolsey, who was rooted on by among others his mom, Miegen, and dad, Phil. “It’s pretty crazy. I had a former California Amateur champ walking down the fairway with me. Just an incredible week.”
A day after earning a spot in the 36-final via a gritty semifinals win on the 21st hole, Woolsey would quickly find himself down three holes after he opened the morning 18 holes with three consecutive bogeys. He’d twice cut the lead back to 1-up, but entered the break down three when Payne responded with a pair of birdies of his own on holes Nos. 16 and 17.
It was time again to just believe.
“My parents and others gave me a lot of encouragement, and I knew there was still a lot of golf left,” said Woolsey, a former member of the Junior Tour of Northern California. “I reminded myself that I had come back in the semifinals and won. So why couldn’t I do that again?”
Through the first four holes of the second 18, Payne, a 31-year-old real estate agent from San Francisco, held firm. But then on both holes Nos. 5 and 6, Payne made bogey after coming up short of the green with his approach and three-putting, respectively. The lead was suddenly just 1-up.
A hole later on the par-4 7th, Woolsey kept the pedal to the metal by holing our from 106 yards for an eagle to tie the match. “When I holed out that flipped things around for sure,” Woolsey said.”It was like all the holes before didn’t matter.”
Still riding the momentum, Woolsey would go on to take his first lead of the match on the 28th) hole (par-4 10th) when Payne’s second shot bounded into the thick rough to the right of the green, leading to another bogey. Suddenly holding his first lead of the match, Woolsey kept it going with a birdie win on the 11th and a par win on the 14th to take a commanding 3-up lead.
Payne, the runner-up at last year’s NCGA Amateur Championship at Spyglass Hill, did cut the deficit back to 1-up with a par win on the 15th and a birdie win on the par-3 16th. But Woolsey yet again refused to give in. On the par-5 17th, still holding a 1-up lead, Woolsey hit a terrific pitch shot from just below the green to within a few feet of the flagstick to save par. Payne, meanwhile, could only watch as his own pitch attempt landed short, rolling back off the green and eventually leading to a bogey.
“I just played bad in the afternoon. There’s no other way around it,” said a dejected Payne afterwards. “I putted awful, and I hit some shots that I didn’t hit all week.”
Woolsey, meanwhile, will head to among other events such as the Pacific Coast Amateur with some extra confidence. And belief in himself. Earlier in the week, he was as member of Team NCGA Pacific Coast Amateur,
“I’m exhausted but also so excited,” he said. “I didn’t ever get fazed, even when I was down three through three. I just kept believing in myself.”