Miami Beach, Fla. - The 43rd edition of the Mid-Amateur took place this week with 88 players traveling from near and far down to South Beach to La Gorce Country Club. La Gorce was a
great host this week, with perfect conditions, difficult greens and blistering winds. After 119 grueling holes in the heat, Jake Sherwin overcame Ty Capps in the championship match 2 & 1 to be crowned the Mid-Amateur Champion. Here is how it happened.
Stroke Play Seeding
During the first round, four players saw a share for the lead after heavy winds caused difficult scoring conditions. Among those were Jake Sherwin, Carl Santos Ocampo, Jordan Elsen and Anthony Brodeur. Although these players highlighted the field on day one, the only thing they were focused on was making it to the match play portion of the tournament after round two. Sherwin's round of four birdies and two bogeys put him into a comfortable position to make it to match play.
Day two consisted of round two of stroke play, followed by the cut to 32 players who went on to match play. Sherwin continued firing on all cylinders with a bogey free round of 67 (-4). The round of the morning however was brought to you by Sherwin's eventual opponent in the championship, Ty Capps, who fired 66. Jumping 40 spots on the leaderboard was Ty Gulliksen, who moved his way inside the cut line with a 67.
Round of 32
With match play beginning, the fun was just about to start. Jake Sherwin lost his first hole against Cameron Hedge. It wound up being the only time Jake Sherwin would trail in a match all week. He won the second and third hole, and it was just the start of his dominance. a 5 & 4 win moved him to the round of 16.
Another highlighted match was between the defending champion Jay Halverson and Mike Finster. Finster being a seasoned veteran with the FSGA, took the defending champ 21 holes and took him down, despite missing a short putt on the 20th hole to end it.
Ty Capps also had a difficult round of 32 match taking on Jonah Wasserstrom. Wasserstrom was no match for the bomber from Palm Coast, who won 5 & 3.
2023 Amateur Champion Marc Dull was taken out by Michael Basinski 5 & 4.
Round of 16
Jake Sherwin and 2007 Amateur Champion Matthew Galloway took the golf course at 7:30 AM on Friday morning. Like previously mentioned, Sherwin never trailed in a match after the first hole of his first, but this was as close as it could have gotten. The two players were back and forth the whole front nine, but Sherwin was able to steady the ship with halving every hole from the 12th on.
Ty Capps took on Jordan Elsen in a match that saw 20 holes. Unfortunately, on the second playoff hole, Elsen's tee ball found the left out of bounds, causing Capps to cruise in and win the hole with a bogey to move on and face a familiar opponent.
Quarterfinals
2023 & 2024 Two-Man Shoot-Out Champions and 2023 & 2024 Foursomes Champions, Tyler Gulliksen and Ty Capps know each other's game extremely well. Saturday afternoon they had the chance to put it to the test. Capps took his best friend Gulliksen the distance after rattling off four straight birdies from 10-13 to win 4 & 3.
"It is hard playing your best friend," says Capps. "You want them to succeed but you also want to beat them".
Jake Sherwin's dominance continued with a 5 & 4 victory over Frank Alafoginis. Sherwin's continued excellence on the front nine gave him a four up lead through nine, where he was able to cruise into the clubhouse to get ready to face Austin Collins in his semifinal match.
Semifinals
Sunday morning rolled around, where the field was going to get cut down from four to one by the end of the day. Jake Sherwin was going up against Austin Collins, while Ty Capps was facing Alex Slaton. In arguably the match of the tournament, Sherwin vs. Collins wound up going to the 18th hole, despite Sherwin's lead of 4 up thru 7, they stood on the 18th tee all square. Despite building momentum to get it back to all square, Collins's tee shot hit a tree left on 18, which forced him to lay up short of the green. Sherwin made a calm par and advanced to the finals, where he awaited his opponent.
Capps's match against Alex Slaton was much more one sided than the one in front of them, with Capps winning 3 & 2. With a two up lead standing in 15 fairway, Capps stuck his second shot on the par 5 to about 7 feet, enough to be conceded after Slaton found the penalty area. All he needed was a par on 16 and he was on to the championship match to face Jake Sherwin.
Championship
With only two players remaining, the tournament was about to be decided. After four grueling days of golf, Jake Sherwin and Ty Capps faced off. Sherwin got off to a fast start, with a birdie on two, a 15 footer made for eagle on three and a bomb on 4 four birdie to give him a three up lead through four. A three putt by Capps on the 7th left Sherwin with a familiar lead to the morning match. After Capps narrowly missed his birdie on 8, they headed to the 9th where Sherwin hit his approach into the front bunker, heading to the back nine 3 up.
A birdie on the drivable par 4 12th gave Sherwin his four up lead back. However, Capps won two of the next three, doing all he can to scratch and claw his way back. After halving the 16th hole, it came down to 17, where Capps was unable to make his long birdie putt. All that was needed were two putts from 15 feet, and he was crowned the 43rd Mid-Amateur Champion.
"It means a lot, this is a really cool event. I have come close at the Match Play and the Mid-Am a couple years ago. To win this one, it feels special," Says Sherwin. "My son Wyatt is eight months old, this is the longest I have been away from him. I am looking forward to bringing him some hardware".
Not only did Sherwin only trail for one hole, he went wire-to-wire to become the medalist. This week was a true performance of dominance by the Estero native as he went on to win his first FSGA Championship.
