British Amateur champ Bryden Macpherson
missed the cut after rounds of 77-76.
Cantlay Strikes Gold On Sunday For Silver Cup
AUGUSTA, GEORGIA | American
Patrick Cantlay, ranked No. 1 in the
World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR),
took home low amateur honors at the
2012 Masters with one of the most
astonishing final round performances
ever turned in by an amateur.
Cantlay went into the final round six
shots behind Hideki Matsuyama in the
contest for the Silver Cup. He made up
two shots on the front side, thanks to
an eagle on the par- 4 seventh. Incred-
ibly, he recorded a quadruple-bogey
nine on 13 and a double-bogey on the
par- 4 14th, taking him to 11-over par
for the tournament. He promptly eagled
the par- 5 15th and then made back-to-
back birdies on 16 and 17 to get it back
to 7 over. A final-hole par closed out a
highly unusual even-par 72, which in-
cluded two eagles, five birdies, a quad,
and a double-bogey.
back nine with Cantlay in the clubhouse
at 7-over par, Matsuyama needed
to shoot 1 under to tie Charlie Coe’s
mark, set in 1961-62. Bogeys at 16 and
18 ended his chances. Matsuyama,
after three impressive rounds, closed
with an 80 and a 9-over 297 total. It was
small consolation that he became the
first amateur to make consecutive cuts
since Matt Kuchar did it in 1998-99.
Matsuyama earned his second
Masters berth when he successfully defended his Asian Amateur title last fall.
He outplayed his more famous countryman, Ryo Ishikawa, a professional
playing in his fourth Masters. Ishikawa
missed the cut by four shots.
in two weeks and has been awarded
exemptions into the HP Byron Nelson
Championship and the Crowne Plaza Invitational. He earned spots in the Memorial and the AT&T National by virtue of his
U.S. Amateur championship.
Twenty-one-year-old Macpherson’s
tournament began with a rollercoaster
ride; he opened with a bogey, birdied
the second, and then rattled off three
straight bogeys before recording his
first par. He would go on to post an
opening 77, 5-over par. He followed up
with a 76 to miss the cut by four shots.
Like Kraft, he will turn pro immediately;
he, too, will play in the Memorial, and
then will look for exemptions on the
PGA Tour and Nationwide Tour.
the oldest amateur to have ever played
in The Masters. For just a moment, he
found his name on the leaderboard at
Augusta. He was in the second group off
on Thursday, and when he made a par
on the first hole, his name popped up on
the leaderboards.
Unfortunately, it didn’t stay there for
very long. He could take solace in the
fact that he did not finish last; indeed,
he beat past champions Craig Stadler
and Sandy Lyle and finished tied with
Ben Crenshaw.
It had been seven years since more
than a single amateur made the cut at The
Masters. In 2012, three advanced to week-
end play to vie for the Silver Cup, tying
the high-water mark last met in 2003.
It had been even longer that a
player took low amateur honors in
back-to-back years, which is what
Matsuyama was trying to accomplish.
Matsuyama, a Japanese college stu-
dent who is ranked No. 4 in the WAGR,
began the final round with a comfort-
able six-shot advantage over Cantlay.
However, he bogeyed his first hole and
never did get his bearings. Playing the
Two national amateur champions
were in the field, America’s Kelly Kraft
(U.S. Amateur) and Bryden Macpher-
son (British Amateur). Kraft made the
cut, while Macpherson did not.
Patrick Cantlay earned the Silver Cup as
the low amateur.
