Scott Raber of El Macero led almost from wire-to-wire and held on for a one-stroke victory over Connor Golembeski of Redmond, Wash., and Simon Kwon Salt Lake City in the 20th AmateurGolf.com Christmas Classic at Del Monte Golf Course in Monterey.
Raber, a native of Davis, stumbled with three straight bogeys through No. 16 in the final round and faced a tough chip shot from a scroungy lie 50 yards behind the 17th green, but hit it close enough to save par and added one more par at No. 18.
“I ended up in kind of a weird spot left of the (17th) green,” said Raber, who played at college golf at Chico State. “I could have tried getting it close, but with it sitting on the sand the last thing I wanted was to get too cute and end up in the front bunker where it probably would have plugged on me.
“My playing partner, Ben Corfee, and I won the NCGA Four-Ball (in 2015,) but from an individual perspective, this is probably my biggest amateur victory.
Raber posted a score of 68-72—140, 4-under-par, while Golembeski, a junior at Cal, birdied four of the last six holes to finish at 75-66—141, and Kwon, a freshman at Cal, wound up at 69-72—141.
“I think it was just keeping the ball below the hole,” Golembeski said of his final-round, which included eight birdies. “I struggled with that yesterday on the back nine, which led to a lot of bogeys. So, I made a point of it today.”
Kyle Gentry of Mountain View was fourth at 73-70—143, while Ben Soicher of Mill Valley shot 74-71—145 to tie for fifth with Cooper Hunt of El Dorado Hills, who wound up at 72-73—145, and Beau Forrest of Redding was seventh at 75-71—146.
William Walsh of San Mateo totaled 75-75—150 to tie for eighth with Benjamin Wang of San Ramon, who finished at 74-76—150, and Justin Lee of Merced, who came in at 75-75—150.
Ashkaan Hakim of San Ramon, who won the 2016 AGC Christmas Classic and the 2019 Sacramento City Championship, tied for 12th at 80-72—152.
Michael Staskus of Monterey captured the Senior Division by three strokes with a score of 77-72—149, while Tony Ralph of Sunnyvale shot 76-76—152 to tie for second with Corey Synnestvedt of Napa, who wound up at 73-79—152.
Kristen Lee of Pleasanton, who played college golf at Chapman, claimed the Net Division title by three shots with a score of 79-70—149, followed by Marc Sanders of Turlock at 73-79—152, and Scott Henrickson of Laguna Nigel at 73-80—153.
For complete results, visit https://www.amateurgolf.com/images/uploads/00070231.pdf
