State Am matches: underdog days of summer

LEHI — Evidently, seeds mean nothing in match play.

The participants in the Utah State Amateur Golf Championship have been saying all week that getting to match play was their first goal, because once in match play anything can happen. Well, anything and everything did happen in Friday's first two match-play rounds at The Golf Club at Thanksgiving Point.

Most noticeably, most of the top seeds were sent packing one by one. The first to go was No. 2 seed Robert McRae, who lost in the first round when 31st seed Robbie Fillmore trickled in a slick 12-foot birdie putt on the final hole. Then No. 4 seed Dustin Pimm dropped his opening match when Zach Bachman curled in a 20-foot birdie on the 19th hole.

The biggest upset, however, might have been when University of Utah golfer Chance Cota came from three holes down in round two to knock off No. 1 seed and medalist Michael McRae two up. In round one, Cota knocked off Kirk Siddens, the 2006 UGA player of the year.

"I couldn't even dream about doing something like this," Cota said. "But it's an underdog day."

Of the eight remaining golfers who tee off this morning in the quarterfinals, four are college golfers and two are former college golfers. One other, Dan Horner, is a businessman, and the other, Scott Clark, was a businessman.

Horner won his two matches Friday by repeatedly knocking down the flagstick with deadly iron shots. He blasted Ryan Job in the morning round by making birdie on six of his first 11 holes. He then toppled Thanksgiving Point's own Carl Jensen 2 and 1 when Jensen made bogey on the difficult par-4 16th and Horner lipped out his tee shot on the treacherous par-3 17th, leaving him a gimme 3-inch birdie to win the match.

"It's hard (for opponents) to feel like they can come back when you're hitting it that close all day," Horner said.

Today Horner will face Clark, who came from two down with six holes remaining in round two to beat 2003 champion Tommy Sharp with a tender 20-foot downhill birdie putt on the 18th hole.

"I just wanted to get one to the hole," Clark said. "I was struggling to get my putts to the hole all day."