Long Beach State men’s golfer Philip Chian claimed medalist honors at the 100th Annual California State Amateur Championship at The Olympic Club in San Francisco on Tuesday.
With the honor, Chian will head into match play competition Wednesday with the top seed against the 31 remaining players.
The junior followed up his first round performance of an even-par 67 on Monday with another impressive round of 2-under 69.
Chian struggled early in the round as he carded three consecutive bogeys on holes two through four. After converting his first birdie on the eighth hole, he tallied his fourth bogey on the ninth, making the turn at 3-over for the day and 1-under for the tournament.
”I guess I was nervous [at the start of the round],” Chian said in a release. “I scrambled the first six holes.”
However, that would change at the start of the back nine as Chian registered five birdies and four pars to finish the round with a score of 5-under 31.
”My putter just started getting hot,” Chian said in a release. “I was just a lot more focused on the back nine; instead of thinking not where to hit it, I thought of where I should hit it.”
The junior finished with a three-stroke lead over Jake Johnson of Cameron Park, who matched Chian for a two-under par today on the Lake course and claimed the second seed in match play.
Closely behind him was Cory McElyea of Santa Cruz and Xander Schauffele, who will be joining Chian at LBSU in the fall.
McElyea and Schauffele both fired two-under par rounds, four strokes back of the lead. Meanwhile, defending champion Scott Travers found himself on the wrong side of the cut after a six-over par round.
Tied for 18th at end of Round 1, Travers shot a 10-over 77 on the Lake course to fall out of contention.
Freshman Ben Doyle of La Jolla High School, who captured the CIF/SCGA Southern California High School Championship at Brookside GC last month, shot a 6-over 73 to go along with his first round score of 3-over 70, is tied for 16th.
The cutline for match play came at 145 (4-over) and had nine players competing for the last two spots in a sudden death playoff. John Catlin of Carmichael and Mark Harding of Hermosa Beach outlasted the other seven players and draw the top two seeds in the first round, respectively.
In the head-to-head battle between the SCGA and NCGA, Northern California prevailed, winning the Roger Lapham Trophy. Each team, consisted of six players, is selected by their respective association. The North got off to a strong start and nine-stroke first-day lead.
Final results are based on the best five scores out of six for each of the teams for a two-day total score. It was the NCGA’s first win since 2008.
Wednesday’s round will take place on the Lake course, and is scheduled to begin at 7:30 a.m. in groups of two off tee number one. All players have now competed on both the Lake course and Ocean course.
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