Thursday, June 27, 2002
Youth shows mettle in Met golf
Fender, 18, tops legend Volpenhein
By Gary Estwick gestwick@enquirer.com
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Justin Fender faced a legend Wednesday and won.
Playing in his first Metropolitan Amateur Championship, Fender beat six-time champion Jim Volpenhein 2-up during the first round of match play at Terrace Park Country Club.
Fender, who will be a freshman on Xavier University's golf team in the fall, is one of several newcomers to advance to today's second round of match play.
“I can't say I was intimidated by him, because I knew if I played like I had the two previous days, I could beat him,” he said.
Like the other young golfers playing, the 18-year-old Fender was short on Met experience as well as match-play experience. But they picked up experience on the run.
University of Cincinnati senior Neil Lykins beat Dan Smith 3and2. Matt Cushman beat veteran Carl Tuke Jr. 1-up. And Ohio State junior Kevin Hall, formerly of St. Rita School for the Deaf, survived a playoff against 30th-seeded Chip Phillips.
Fender had no answer for their success.
“I don't necessarily think we're better golfers than them,” he said.
Volpenhein said the success of younger players had to do with survival of the fittest.
“They're skipping down the fairway and it's 100 degrees, and I'm dragging trying to keep up,” said Volpenhein, 42. “These guys are young and playing golf every day, and I get out of the office and try to compete. It's tough.”
It wasn't impossible, though. Todd Simmons, seeded 27th, beat No.6 Luke Underhill of Turpin High School 5and4. Simmons was the lowest seed to advance.
Match play starts at 7:30a.m. today. Eight golfers will play another 18 holes at 12:30p.m. in the quarterfinals.
Fender, who recently graduated from New Richmond High, will face David Allan at 8a.m. in the round of 16.
To get there, he birdied three of his first four holes and led by three shots after five holes. Fender's early lead gave him the confidence he needed in his first match play event. But Volpenhein didn't earn the nickname “Mr. Met” for nothing. He battled back to even after nine.
Just as his putts started falling, Volpenhein's luck reversed. He three-putted the 14th and Fender went up two after the 16th.
“I guess you don't win this many tournaments without having a lot of fight and that's one thing that I have,” Volpenhein said. “I made it a lot closer than it probably should have been. For that, I guess I feel OK, but nobody likes losing.”
With Volpenhein's exit, there are only two former champions remaining. Taylor Metcalfe, winner of the 1970 and '82 Met, beat Robert de Rojas 3 and 2. Defending champion Rob Gerwin II had the round of the day as he beat Jim Ebel 3 and 1. Gerwin shot 3-under.
“It was a great match and I'm glad to get by that,” he said. “I felt a little bit better about my game and hopefully tomorrow, we'll keep rolling with it.”
Just as Gerwin is peaking, the youngsters are becoming more familiar with match play.
“You can play off of your opponent,” said Cushman, also playing in his first Met. “If he makes a mistake, you can lay up or just play safe.”
Cushman beat Tuke with a short putt on the 18th.
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