Seeing the end result of each match play showdown is often a little misleading. Of course, you can always say who was the winner and who was the loser, but you are not really know how well it is played. Not all wins 3 and 2 are equal.
A closer look at Jonathan Yaun’s 9 and 8 victory over Friday’s Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen in Round 16 of the North & South Amateur, however, reveals this truth: Yaun played tremendously well. Like an out of body experience, good. During the first nine holes in Pinehurst no. 2, the second year in Liberty he won every hole (not a typo), making the equivalent of seven birds along the way and transforming what would have been a 28 (!).
A miserable par on the tenth hole for one half ended the game. You have to try Neergaard-Petersen, an emerging Oklahoma State youth who seemed to play a respectable equivalent of two on a 10-hole par and was immediately invested.
Probably the most famous 9 and 8 game win of all time was Tiger Woods who beat Stephen Ames with that score in the 2006 WGC-Accenture Match Play first round. You may remember that Ames made the unfortunate mistake before the game. to make an inverted blow to Woods, stating “anything can happen, especially where he is hitting the ball” when asked about his prospects for a first round. And in turn ensure that there would be no disturbance in the first round.
To his credit, Yaun did not squander the lopsided victory, gaining a 20-hole victory over Turk Pettit in the quarterfinal game on Friday afternoon.
Yaun competes against Georgia Tech’s Tyler Strafaci in the semi-finals on Saturday morning with the 18-hole championship game scheduled for the afternoon.
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