Oct. 8, 2009
By: Tommy Braswell
Charleston Post & Courier
Charleston, S.C. -- Five days after the U.S. Mid-Amateur golf championship began at Kiawah Island Club's Cassique course, the 264 qualifiers have been narrowed down to four, and a couple of those players are former Furman players.
Furman grads Robert Gerwin of Cincinnati, who will celebrate his 43rd birthday today, and Tim Spitz of Rochester, N.Y., advanced to today's semifinals.
Gerwin will face Nathan Smith, the qualifying co-medalist from Pittsburgh who was a member of this year's Walker Cup team and won the 2003 U.S. Mid-Amateur.
Spitz faces Patrick Carter of Huntington, W.Va., a four-time quarter-finalist in the Mid-Amateur.
The 36-hole championship match with an invitation to play in the 2010 Masters on the line will be played Friday, with the morning session beginning at 8 a.m. and the afternoon session starting at 12:30 p.m.
Gerwin, playing in his 10th U.S. Mid-Amateur, said it felt like the movie "Field of Dreams" Wednesday, when he returned to Cassique to finish off his second-round match, which got underway at 7:20 a.m.
"I've never hit golf balls in the dark before," said Gerwin, who was the only one of the semifinalists who had to finish off a second-round match.
Gerwin, a 1989 Furman graduate, ended up playing 36 holes Wednesday, beating Troy Logan, 4 and 3, to earn the right to face defending champion Steve Wilson of Ocean Springs, Miss. Gerwin was 3-up through 11 holes against Wilson, but Wilson won the next three holes to square the match. Gerwin birdied 17, hitting a pitching wedge to two feet to go back in front, then played the 18th solidly while Wilson struggled. Wilson pulled his tee shot into a fairway bunker and was unable to reach the green, finally conceding the match to Gerwin. Gerwin said he has a lot more confidence now.
"Birdieing 17 this afternoon, I never would have been able to do that 10 years ago," Gerwin said. He said he had not played the 17th in match play, and the up tee position threw him. But he watched Wilson select a hybrid club and followed suit.
"It's been a storybook year," said Gerwin, who will face he said. "I'm the underdog. I'll go out and play hard."
Spitz, 33, played at Furman with former Carolinas Amateur champion Cordes Ford of Charleston and Clemson assistant golf coach Jordan Byrd. He helped the Paladins win the 1997 Southern Conference championship. Spitz beat Danny Germaine, 3 and 2, in Wednesday's morning session and then had to go 20 holes before beating Tripp Davis in the afternoon session.
He was 3-up through 12 holes, but Davis won 13, 14 and 15, before Spitz regained the lead with a par on the 16th hole. He still had the 1-up lead at 18, but Davis hit a brilliant shot to less than two feet on the last hole of regulation to extend the match.
"That's probably the best match I've ever played in," Spitz said. "Tripp played so well on the back nine. I'm really happy and proud of the way I hung in there."
Spitz said said he played the par-5 second hole, where he won the match, conservatively, laying up and then hitting a great wedge shot to 10 feet behind the hole. Davis had a 12-footer that just missed, while Spitz was putting from the same line when he birdied the hole the first time he and Davis played it.
"The ball was just trickling down, and the last roll of the ball it fell right into the cup."
