Global Golf Post - September 5, 2011

John Wright and B.J. Bohne won the Merit Amateur, a 54-hole, modified Stableford competition hosted by The Merit Club in suburban Chicago. The winners posted a plus- 16 point total, seven points ahead of runners-up Chris Beto and Eric Burch.

Mike Brawley and Russ Fitton teamed to win the Senior Flight at plus- 3, two points ahead of the team of Mike Coyle and Brad Bur-ris.

BLOGS MISFIRES ON PETERSON “SNUB”

The golf blogosphere was all aflutter last week over the apparent snub by the United States Golf Association of LSU player John Peterson, who did not make the U.S. Walker Cup team that travels to Scotland this week to contest the biannual match. Several bloggers seized on this decision to vent their anti-USGA rhetoric, but they ignored two inconvenient facts.

First, it was pointed out that Peterson finished second in a Nationwide Tour event. The facts are deeper. He led for three rounds, and finished second when Harris English went flying by him in the final round to capture the title. English did make the Walker Cup team.

Additionally, it was never pointed out that Peterson chose to sit out the summer’s

John Peterson was left off the U.S. Walker Cup squad.

second-most important amateur event, the Western Amateur, played just weeks before the final selections were to be made. With the deepest field assembled all summer long, and with Captain Jim Holtgrieve and International team selection head Steve Smyers in attendance, Peterson was nowhere to be found.

AMATEUR CHAMP KRAFT NO. 13 IN WAGR

U.S. Amateur Champion Kelly Kraft moved up 34 spots in the World Amateur Golf Ranking, to No. 13, following his surprising win at Erin Hills. England’s Jack Senior, who advanced to the quarterfinals, rose eight spots to No. 12, while American Jordan Russell moved up 18 spots to No. 18 after losing to Patrick Cantlay in the semifinals.

Cantlay, who maintains a solid lead in the rankings, was named the fifth recipient of the Mark H. McCormack Medal as the leading player in the WAGR at the culmination of the 2011 amateur summer season. Cantlay’s runner-up finish in the U.S. Amateur at Erin Hills affirmed his spot at the top of the WAGR, a position he has held for 13 weeks. Cantlay will be presented with the Mark H. McCormack Medal at the Walker Cup this week.