Casey Leebrick of San Luis Obispo survived a wild final hole to win the 29th annual Santa Cruz City Amateur Championship.
The 19-year-old Leebrick salvaged a closing bogey to win the title by one stroke over defending champion Mike O’Donnell of Chico at DeLaveaga Golf Course www.delaveagagolf.com—designed by the legendary Alister Mackenzie—in Santa Cruz.
“The golf gods being on your side, I guess,” said Leebrick, 19, who is transferring to Sacramento State from York College in Pennsylvania. “I feel pretty good. The last hole was kinda a blur.”
Leebrick, who captured the Capital Athletic Conference individual title last season, hit his tee shot with a 2-iron off a tree that is out-of-bounds on left side of the final fairway, but the ball bounced back onto the fairway not all that far off the tee.
However, after mis-hitting a wedge shot that barely cleared an out-of-bounds area, Leebrock got a friendly bounce off a cart path and found himself 50 yards from the hole. He pitched onto the green and two-putted for his winning bogey.
Leebrick, who was in a three-way tie for the lead after the first round, finished with a score of 68-71—139, 1-under-par, while O’Donnell was second at 68-72—140, followed by Neil Ostermann of Santa Cruz at 68-74—142.
Even Peterson of Clovis shot 70-73—143 to tie for fourth with Tony Ralph of Sunnyvale, who finished at 72-71—143, while Jerry Ledzinski of Carmel was sixth at 70-74—144, followed by Jordan Stibbard of Sunnyvale at 70-76—146 and Jeffrey Yamaguchi of Fresno at 75-72—147.
Jon Larson of Santa Cruz totaled 75-73—148 to tie for ninth with Michael Jura III of Fresno, who wound up at 71-77—148, Tim Sauer of Loomis, who shot 72-76—148, and Xavier Coreno of Fresno, who came in at 73-75—148.
For complete results, visit http://www.delaveagagolf.com/news-events-posts/now-available-2019-santa-cruz-city-amateur-final-results.html
