Voges to Play for Title in U.S. Amateur

Somewhere near the midpoint of the United States Amateur golf championship, Mitch Voges of Simi Valley said he was struck by a peculiar thought.

Standing in the middle of the fairway as he sweated out another close match, a revelation hit him squarely between the eyes.

Are we having fun yet?

“I thought, ‘This is what I do for sport and relaxation?’ ” Voges said with a laugh. “This is trauma.”

Saturday afternoon, Voges took the trauma and drama out of his semifinal match as he easily advanced to this morning’s 36-hole match-play final at The Honors Course in Ooltewah, Tenn.

Voges dispatched Bryan Pemberton of Dublin, Calif., 6 and 5, to cruise into the final against Manny Zerman of San Diego.

The final will be televised live on ESPN, beginning at 11 a.m.

Zerman, a 22-year-old South Africa native who will be a senior in the fall at the University of Arizona, is trying to become the first foreign-born golfer to win a U.S. Amateur title since Gary Cowan of Canada won in 1971. Zerman, the defending Pacific 10 Conference champion, lost in the final last year to Phil Mickelson of San Diego.

Zerman earned his second trip to the title round by defeating Dicky Pride of Tuscaloosa, Ala., with a birdie on the first hole of sudden death in the afternoon round.

Voges, 41, who played college golf at Brigham Young, easily defeated Pemberton, who will be a senior at USC. Voges, the director of golf at Spanish Hills Golf and Country Club, a project under construction in Camarillo, buried Pemberton, 22, under a blizzard of birdies at the turn.

Voges long has maintained that the strength of his game is from tee to green, but against Pemberton, Voges’ long-handled putter worked to near perfection.

Pressure? What pressure?

“You do what you can with a knot in your gut,” said Voges, whose 13-year-old son Christian is serving as his caddy.

After going 2-up with a birdie on the sixth hole, Voges birdied Nos. 9 and 10 to move 5-up. At No. 9, Voges sank a nasty 20-foot putt with about six feet of left-to-right break.

“That was a big bender,” he said.

Yet it looked as though Pemberton might be poised to make a move at the par-four 12th after Voges’ approach shot skipped over the green and into some patchy rough. After a chip shot off a dirt lie, Voges canned a 10-footer to save par and halve the hole, however.

“That was the end of the day right there,” Voges said. “You don’t want to let down then, and I didn’t.”

A routine par four by Voges at the 394-yard 13th closed out the match. Voges was four-under par for the round when it ended.

On the tight and watery Pete Dye-designed course, which measures 7,064 yards, Pemberton didn’t help his chances by missing the fairway with his tee shot at Nos. 9, 10, 11 and 13.

In the morning round, Voges withstood the effects of a balky putter to upset Jay Sigel of Berwyn, Pa. Despite three-putting three times on the back nine, Voges edged Sigel, 2-up.

Against Sigel, 47, who won the U.S. Amateur in 1982 and 1983, Voges went 1-up with a birdie at the par-four 17th and closed out the match with a par four at No. 18.

By advancing to the final, Voges earned an invitation to The Masters at Augusta National in April. He also moved into contention for a position on the Walker Cup amateur team.

The U.S. Amateur winner is granted an automatic Walker Cup berth, but since Zerman is not a U.S. citizen, Voges might be extended the invitation.

Voges became the second area player to advance to a U.S. Amateur final this summer. Heidi Voorhees of Studio City, who will be a sophomore at USC, advanced to the women’s final earlier this month.