Voges Wins, Berganio Falls in Match Play

It didn’t take long for Mitch Voges of Simi Valley to realize that Thursday might be one of those rare, near-perfect days.

On the first hole of the match-play portion of the United States Amateur golf tournament at The Honors Course in Ooltewah, Tenn., Voges smoked a drive and smote an eight-iron to within four feet of the pin on the 401-yard par four.

Voges made the putt for a birdie, and the rest of the day went nearly as smoothly on the difficult, Pete Dye-designed course.

Voges, 41, advanced into the second round with a sparkling effort in a 3-and-1 defeat of Michael Sposa of Tamarac, Fla.

“If you gave me the round to play over again, I’d probably only take two, three shots back,” said Voges, the director of golf at the Spanish Hills Golf and Country Club, a course under construction in Camarillo.

“It was by far the best I’ve struck the ball and by far the best I’ve scored since I got here.”

With the match even after 12 holes, Voges birdied Nos. 13 and 14 to move 2-up. He won the match by draining a six-foot birdie putt on the 17th.

Voges hit 14 of 17 greens in regulation and was three-under par when the match ended after the 17th hole.

Voges will face Shaun Micheel of Cordova, Tenn., in today’s round. Micheel defeated Buddy Alexander of Gainesville, Fla., 2 and 1.

Micheel, a local favorite, was one of the low qualifiers in the stroke-play portion of the event on Tuesday and Wednesday. Micheel fired rounds of 72-69--141 to finish five shots behind co-medalists Allen Doyle of La Grange, Ga., and John Harris of Edina, Minn.

David Berganio Jr.’s hopes of winning a third major amateur tournament this summer ended when he was eliminated on the second extra playoff hole.

Hans Albertson of Manchester Village, Vt., who reached the final eight in last year’s amateur, defeated Berganio in a 20-hole match.

But Berganio, 22, from Sylmar, won the U.S. Public Links and Pacific Coast Amateur tournaments earlier this summer. And he didn’t exit the U.S. Amateur without a fight.

Albertson was 3-up after eight holes and 1-up going into the 18th hole. But Berganio forced Albertson into overtime by winning the 18th.

However, Albertson claimed a berth in the second round of match play with an eight-foot putt for par on the second hole of sudden death.

Thursday morning, Albertson had to survive an early-morning playoff in which 19 golfers vied for 10 remaining spots in the match-play field of 64.

Mark Swygert, a sophomore from Clemson, pulled the upset of the day by eliminating Jack Nicklaus’ son, Gary, 2 and 1, to advance to a second-round match with defending champion Phil Mickelson of San Diego.

Mickelson, winner of the PGA Tour’s Tucson Open earlier this year, was extended to 19 holes before defeating Casey Martin of Eugene, Ore.

Mickelson, who won a trio of matches by the score of 1-up in last year’s tournament, found a rugged competitor in Martin.

Neither golfer was more than one hole down during the match with the defending champion pulling out the win on a six-foot birdie putt at No. 1, the first extra hole.