June 1, 2015
Eight players are headed to this year’s California Amateur Championship after advancing through a qualifier held Monday at par-72 Merced Golf and Country Club.
Leading the way was medalist Cole Nygren of San Luis Obispo, who carded a solid 3-under 69. A junior at Cal Poly, Nygren posted five birdies to go with just two bogeys. He’d make his big move on the back-nine, where he went 3-under thanks to birdies on holes No.12, No.13 and No.14.
Finishing tied for second place at 70 were Andrew Bonner of Ripon and Patrick Soli of San Carlos.
The final five automatic spots came down to a playoff between seven players who all came in at 72. In the playoff, those advancing were Shrish Dwivedi of Redwood City, Pebble Beach’s JT Harper, Stockton’s Anthony Madrid, Justin Avery of Clovis and Redmond Lyons of San Francisco.
The first alternate spot went to Portola Valley’s Dakota McNealy, who is the younger brother of Stanford star Maverick McNealy. The second alternate spot went to El Macero’s Scott Raber. Raber recently teamed up with pal Ben Corfee to win the NCGA Four-Ball Championship.
This year’s California Amateur Championship will tee off June 22-27 at Lake Merced GC in Daly City.
