William Mouw of Chino has added another piece of hardware to his collection.
The 18-year-old Mouw, who will be a freshman at Pepperdine in the fall, defeated Christian Banke of Danville, 4 and 2, to win the 108th California Amateur Championship on the Dunes Course at Monterey Peninsula Country Club http://www.mpccpb.org in Pebble Beach.
“It feels great,” said Mouw, a graduate of Ontario Christian High. “It’s an honor to have my name on the trophy with those guys. It was a great match. We both played great. My mental coach and I talked about how long the week is and that I needed to just keep plodding along with no big expectations. Visualize, verbalize and realize.
“This is going to be a great confidence booster going into college. My putting wasn’t the best this week. I just told myself to just keep going. Some will eventually fall. I’ll enjoy this win, and then go home and get back to work on the greens.”
Mouw, who also won the 2017 Western Amateur, the 2019 Thunderbird International Junior, the 2019 PING Heather Farr Classic and several events on the Southern California Golf Association Junior Tour, became one of the youngest winners of the state title.
However, the youngest sate champ remains Mac Hunter, who was 16 when he won in 1972.
Other winners of the Cal State Amateur include Johnny Miller, Ken Venturi, Mark O’Meara, Gene Littler, John Cook, Bobby Clampett, Dick Lotz, Johnny Dawson, Eli Beriteau, Forrest Fezler, Gary Vanier, Sam Randolph Jr., Charlie Wi, Mark Johnson, Spencer Levin, and in recent years, Bhavik Patel, Kevin Marsh, Shotaro Ban, Shintaro Ban, Bobby Bucey and P.J. Samiere.
Mouw, seeded 24th, was 1 down to the third-seeded Banke after the morning 18, but pulled even by hitting his approach shot to within three feet on the first hole for a birdie and never trailed again in the scheduled 36-hole final.
No. 5 in the Golfweek Junior National Rankings, Mouw took the lead for good with a 15-foot birdie putt on the sixth hole before building his lead to 3-up through 10 holes on his way to victory.
Banke, a senior at San Dieto State, defeated Joshua McCarthy, 2 up in the semifinals, while Mouw got past Caden Fioroni of La Jolla, 1 up.
For complete results, visit https://calam-108thcaliforniaamateurchampionship.golfgenius.com/pages/4789745127780274716
