Wi Gives It His Best Shot but Loses on the 21st Hole

Charlie Wi hit the best shot of his life on the greatest finishing hole in the world Wednesday, but it was not enough.

Wi wrestled for 5 hours 55 minutes and 21 holes in his second match of the day, hitting enough clutch shots to fill a shag bag, but didn’t quite get the job done.

“It was a great match,” Wi said, trying to mask his disappointment. “It was a tough match.”

Despite playing an often superlative round, Wi was defeated in the afternoon round of match play and was eliminated in the State Amateur golf championship at Pebble Beach Golf Links.

Wi, a resident of Thousand Oaks who won the tournament title three years ago, hit 13 of 18 greens in the match, but couldn’t put away Todd Andrews of Solano Beach.

In fact, Wi, a senior at Nevada and a 1990 graduate of Westlake High, needed to win the 18th hole to stay alive. Andrews was 1 up going to No. 18 and needed only to halve the hole to advance into today’s quarterfinal play.

Wi ripped his tee shot about 275 yards into the wind at the 18th, a 548-yard par 5 that is one of golf’s storied holes. Even though Andrews’ second shot found a fairway bunker, Wi went for the green in two.

Wi elected to hit a driver off the fairway. He started the ball well over the Pacific Ocean and faded it back onto the front of the green.

“There are maybe one or two pros who could hit that shot,” said Andrews, 21. “Maybe one or two who would even attempt it.”

Andrews saved par and Wi two-putted for a birdie to send the match into sudden death.

On the third extra hole, Wi’s drive clipped the limb of an oak tree and found some tangled, knee-high rough. Two shots later, Wi was still buried in a greenside bunker, and after he failed to hole his fourth shot, he conceded the match to Andrews, who had a tame 10-footer for a birdie.

Neither player held more than a one-hole lead in the match. Wi’s biggest letdowns occurred at the par-3 12th--where he missed a three-footer for par--and on the relatively easy par-5 14th, when he hit his third shot over the green and made bogey. Wi halved both holes, but missed major opportunities to take charge.

“I basically gave him two holes,” said Wi, 21. “(Bogeying the 14th) was really a rookie mistake.”

In a battle of battle-tested graybeards, Gary Vanier of Pleasant Hill outlasted Craig Steinberg of Van Nuys, 3 and 2, in another afternoon match.

For Steinberg, a 35-year-old optometrist, the feeling was all too familiar. Vanier, 42, beat him in the semifinals in 1982 and went on to win the tournament.

Steinberg made a hearty rally in the morning round to defeat Steve Peterman of Cupertino, 2 and 1. Peterman was 4 up through six holes before Steinberg pulled things together.

Steinberg, the two-time defending Southern California Golf Assn. champion, couldn’t quite repeat the feat against Vanier, who was 4 up through seven holes.

Vanier, a stockbroker who played at Stanford with Tom Watson, was 2 up entering the par-5 14th, yet Steinberg found himself in prime position to trim the lead even more. Steinberg was faced with a 35-foot putt for a birdie and Vanier was off the green in three, staring a bogey in the face.

However, Steinberg three-putted for a bogey and Vanier got up and down to save par to move 3 up with four holes to play. Steinberg walked off the green and told his wife, Robin, “I just lost the match.”

“That was the killer,” Steinberg said of the three-putt. “That was the match, right there.”

Corby Segal of Burbank, a Cal State Northridge product, was eliminated in the morning round, 4 and 3, by Jim Skinner of Berkeley.

Segal lost the first three holes on the front nine, pulled even at the turn, then lost the first three holes on the back nine.

Wi defeated Victor Zayas Jr. of San Diego, 4 and 3, in the morning.