Rose Eliminates Overton; Semifinals Set

Galloway Township , N.J. – Dayton Rose, 20, of Stillwater, Okla., defeated record-tying medalist Jeff Overton, 20, of Evansville , Ind., 3 and 1, Friday to advance to the semifinals of the 2003 U.S. Amateur Public Links Championship at Blue Heron Pines Golf Club’s East Course.

 

“It’s great,” said Rose, a junior at Oklahoma State. “It’s great to know I beat the medalist. I had great ball striking round and I hope I can keep hitting fairways and greens.”

 

Rose took a 2-up lead after five holes and did not trail again. His round included 12 pars, three birdies and two bogeys.

 

Overton, a two-time all-Big 10 choice at Indiana University, had tied Public Links marks for lowest 36-hole score (132) and lowest round (64) in the stroke play portion of the championship.

 

“I didn’t hit a lot of solid iron shots,” said Overton. “I think I hit one solid iron shot. I didn’t play very well and when you don’t hit good approach shots it’s hard to recover.”

 

Rose meets Chris Stroud, 21, of Groves, Texas, in the semifinals. Stroud, a 2002 semifinalist and the 2003 North and South Amateur champion, defeated Matt Every, 19, of Daytona Beach , Fla. , 2 up.

 

Brandt Snedeker, 22, of Nashville, Tenn., edged Brady Stockton, 23, of San Ramon, Calif., 1 up, and will meet Luke List, 18, of Ringgold, Ga., in the other semifinal match.

 

Snedeker is a first-team All-American at Vanderbilt and List will attend the Nashville school as a freshman in the fall. A member of Team USA at the 2003 Palmer Cup in South Carolina, where he compiled a 3-1 match play mark, Snedeker was the Southeastern Conference Player of the Year.

 

List, the youngest remaining player in the field, qualified for the 2003 U.S. Open at Olympia Fields (Ill.) will attend Vanderbilt in the fall.

 

All of the quarterfinalists are exempt from qualifying for the 2004 championship at Rush Creek Golf Club in Maple Grove, Minn. The winners of the semifinals are exempt from qualifying for the 2003 U.S. Amateur at Oakmont (Pa.) Country Club in August.

 

The 36-hole final is scheduled for Saturday. The first 18 begins at 7:30 a.m. and the second 18 starts at 12:30 p.m.

 

The U.S. Amateur Public Links Championship, for bona fide public course players, is one of 13 national championships conducted annually by the United States Golf Association, 10 of which are strictly for amateurs.

 

Results

Galloway, N.J. – Results from Friday’s quarterfinal round of match play at the 2003 U.S. Amateur Public Links Championship played at the 7,127-yard, par-71 Blue Heron Pines Golf Club’s East Course:

 

Quarterfinal Round

Dayton Rose , Stillwater , Okla. (143) def. Jeffrey Overton, Evansville , Ind. , (132), 3 and 1

Chris Stroud , Groves , Texas (149) def. Matthew Every, Daytona Beach , Fla. (145), 2 up.

   Brandt Snedeker , Nashville , Tenn. (139) def.. Brady Stockton , San Ramon , Calif. (143), 1 up

Luke List , Ringgold , Ga. (144) def. Timothy Kane , Simsbury , Conn. (151), 3 and 2