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Stroke Play
Bringing the best players from across California for the most prestigious championship the Golden State has to offer, the California Amateur Championship teed off at Hacienda GC on June 22 with two rounds of stroke play before cutting the field down to the top 32 players and transitioning to a match play format.
Mitchell Hoey, of Alamo, Calif., was dialed during round one of the championship. Teeing off in the afternoon wave, Hoey would birdie three of his first nine holes, putting him in a great spot heading onto the back nine. A bogey on No. 3 would drop him back down to two-under before going on a tear to close out his round. Hoey would follow up the bogey with back-to-back birdies on Nos. 4 and 5 before an eagle on No.7 would put him at six-under with two holes to play. He would go on to birdie No. 8 and finish his round out with a par, walking off the course in the lead at seven-under, one shot away from tying the long-standing course record held by the legendary Tiger Woods, who set it when he won the SCGA Amateur Championship in 1994.
Hoey would be part of the first group out on the course for the final day of stroke play and although he had a different starting hole, his second round would be eerily similar to his first. Back-to-back birdies on Nos. 3 and 4 would put him at two-under early, but a bogey on No. 6 would cut that in half and he would finish out his front nine at one-under for the round and eight-under for the championship. Much like his first round, Hoey would kick it into another gear on the back nine, picking up five birdies and no bogeys, including three-in-a-row on Nos. 14, 15 and 16 to close out his second round at six-under. Hoey would finish the stroke play portion of the championship at a staggering 13-under, nine strokes better than the runner-up and placing him as the number one seed heading into match play, with the round of 32 starting on June 24.
Stroke Play Playoff
The final spots in the match play bracket were decided by a playoff, with seven competitors competing for two spots. Broken down into one group of three followed by a second group of four, the playoff kicked off on No. 1 with the group featuring Nik Neal, Eddie Zhang and Avery Lazarski teeing off first. All three competitors would make par on their first playoff hole, with the second group of Jared Abercrombie, Andrew Rodriguez, Nathan Tseng and Cory Chavez all getting the memo and cashing in for par to ensure all seven players would advance to the second playoff hole. No. 9 would serve as the second playoff hole and prove to be a much more formidable task for the remaining players. Chavez sealed his spot in the match play bracket after a long putt birdie just trickled in over the edge of the hole, while pars from Lazarski and Zhang would be enough to see the pair advance to a third playoff hole, where they would face off for the final spot in the match play bracket. The third playoff hole would take place on the treacherous par-3 No. 16, and after a fantastic tee shot from Lazarski, he would drain an uphill 12-foot putt to claim the final spot advancing to match play as the 32 seed in the bracket as the sun set on a beautiful day at Hacienda GC.
Match Play
The 115th California Amateur Championship came down to two members of Team California, the state's elite junior development program and part of the USGA's U.S. National Development Program, which helps identify and develop top junior golfers across 31 state programs nationwide, Max Emberson of Thousand Oaks, Calif., and Kailer Stone of Alameda, Calif. Emberson, the reigning SoCal Junior Amateur champion and incoming Georgia Tech freshman, finished the stroke play portion of the championship at one-under, good enough for the No. 6 seed heading into match play. He won all four of his matches by 3-up or more en route to the final, never needing all 18 holes and never trailing after the fourth hole in any match.
Stone took a slightly different path to the final. The reigning back-to-back NorCal Junior champion and incoming Pepperdine freshman finished the stroke play portion of the championship at two-over, earning the No. 16 seed in the match play bracket. He needed extra holes to win each of his first two matches, advancing in the round of 32 with a par on No. 19 before winning his round of 16 match with a birdie on No. 20, coming back late in both matches. The quarterfinals proved to be a bit more comfortable, as he advanced with a 6&5 victory before winning his semifinal match 1-up to set up a championship showdown with Emberson.
Kicking off the first 18 holes of the day, Stone got off to a fast start, going 1-up with a par on No. 2. Emberson struck back with a birdie on No. 5 to tie the match before taking the lead heading into the back nine with another birdie on No. 8. A par from Emberson on No. 13 was enough to put him 2-up, but Stone answered right back with a birdie of his own on No. 14 to trim Emberson's lead back to 1-up with four holes remaining in the morning round. Emberson and Stone both parred the final four holes to head into the break with Emberson leading the match 1-up and 18 holes left to play.
The final 18 holes of the 115th California Amateur Championship started with Emberson carding a birdie on No. 1 to extend his lead back to 2-up. Stone once again responded quickly, using pars on Nos. 3 and 6 to even the match. Neither player allowed the other to build any momentum, however, as Emberson responded with back-to-back pars on Nos. 8 and 9 to move back to 2-up heading into the final nine holes of the championship.
Emberson started the back nine strong, birdieing No. 11 to go 3-up, and if people were starting to think the match was over at that point, Kailer Stone certainly didn't get the memo. Stone immediately fired back, winning Nos. 12 and 13 with a birdie and a par before Emberson countered by winning No. 14 to move back to 2-up. Both competitors parred No. 15, leaving Emberson 2-up with three holes to play, a position Stone had found himself multiple times throughout the championship. Stone won the next two holes, parring both to tie the match with one hole to play. Stone and Emberson both bogeyed the final hole, sending the championship match to a playoff for the first time since 1999.
Heading back to No. 1 for the playoff, the first two extra holes saw both competitors par Nos. 1 and 2 to remain tied heading to the 39th hole of the match, tying the record for the most holes ever played in a California Amateur Championship final. Stone and Emberson both found the green on No. 3 in two shots, with Stone placing his approach just inside of Emberson's. Emberson narrowly missed his birdie putt, and Stone capitalized on the opening, rolling in his birdie attempt to secure the 115th California Amateur Championship on the 39th hole. With the win, Stone also earned a highly coveted exemption into the 126th U.S. Amateur Championship at Merion Golf Club later this year.
When asked about what it means to add his name to the Edward B. Tufts trophy next to the likes of Xander Schauffele, Jason Gore and Mark O’Meara, Stone said, “It’s so special. To have won this tournament, I haven’t even processed it yet, it just happened … this is amazing, I mean they’re obviously incredible players, and hopefully I can follow in their footsteps and have this be the first step of that.”
