The seedings for the Round of 32 matches have been determined for the 33rd Mid-Amateur Championship held at Loxahatchee Club in Jupiter. After 36 holes of stroke play qualifying, 32 players have advanced to match play and matches are currently underway.
After round one, on October 9th, there was a tight race at the top of the stroke play leader board. Jaime Girardi, of New Port Richey, shot the low score of the day with a two-under par 70. Girardi was followed by RJ Nakashian, 2014 Mid-Senior Champion, in second place with a one-under par 71. In third place was Matthew Salane, of Jacksonville, who fired a one-over par 73. Tied at fourth place, with a score of 74, was Stephen Anderson and Jon Veneziano, who just returned from the USGA State Team Championship held at French Lick Resort, in Indiana. Tied at 9th place with a score of 76 was Don Bell, the current leader in player rankings, TJ Shuart, and Rick Woulfe.
Round two began with an early shotgun start to finalize the top 32 players that would proceed to the match play portion of the championship. Matthew Salane came out strong and fired a lights out round of seven-under par 65 to advance from third to first place with a 138 total. Salane, stroke play medalist, claimed the number one seed by two strokes over RJ Nakashain and Jaime Girardi. Girardi fell from first to tied for second with a second round score of 69, tournament total 140. Don Bell moved from tied for ninth place to tied for fourth place with John Wegmann and Stephen Anderson with a total 146.
There was a sudden death playoff for the 31st and 32nd seed between five players tied at 14 over-par after round and two. Kelly Goose was the first to move on to match play as the 31st seed followed by Steve Carter who would finish in the 32nd spot. Carter will face off against number one seed, Matthew Salane in the first round matches.
The round of 32 Match Play begins at 2:00, Friday October 10th. The final results of the Mid-Amateur Championship will determine the 2014 Player of the Year. Don Bell leads the points rankings by 4,508 points over Jon Veneziano. The Mid-Amateur Champion will be awareded 5,000 points to finalize the points list. Click here for a look at the player of the year rankings and here to view the point system for the Mid-Amateur.
