Blake Hathcoat of Fresno earned medalist honors in stroke-play qualifying by six shots over Josh McCarthy of Danville in the 115th Northern California Golf Association Match Play Championship at Spyglass Hill Golf Club in Pebble Beach.
Hathcoat, a junior at St. Mary’s who captured the Saguaro Amateur early this year, led the way into the match-play portion of the tournament by shooting 70-65—135, 9-under-par, while McCarthy, a junior at Pepperdine, finished at 72-69—141, followed by Nick Moore of Seaside at 73-69—142, and Eddy Lai of San Jose and UCLA at 69-74—143.
Hathcoat’s 65, which included five of his nine birdies as he shot 31 on the back nine, tied the tournament record set by Maverick McNealy of Portola Valley and Stanford in 2016. McNealy won the tournament the year before.
Cornell Mitchell of Incline Village, Nev., shot 74-71—145 to tie for fifth with Noah Willsey of Murrieta, who wound up at 75-70—145, Grant Johnson of Walnut Creek, who totaled 70-75—145, and Sean Yu of Taiwan, who came in at 74-71—145.
Ben Peters of Redwood City shot 74-72—146 to tie for ninth with J.R. Warthen of Pismo Golf, who wound up at 73-73—146, Austin Fox of Folsom, who finished at 75-71—146, and Ryan Grauman of Alamo, who totaled 74-72—146.
The top 32 players advanced to match play, with the first two rounds set for Wednesday.
For complete results match-play pairings, visit https://www.golfgenius.com/pages/1286427
