Jeff Wilson earns U.S. Amateur medalist honors | Golf

UNIVERSITY PLACE — If you combine the ages of Jeff Wilson's playing partners during the first two days of the U.S. Amateur golf tournament, Wilson is still eight years older.

While most of the golfers in the event are college age or younger, the 47-year-old Wilson continued to steal the show, winning medalist honors for the two days of stroke play. The Fairfield, Calif., resident shot a solid 3-over-par 74 at Chambers Bay on Tuesday for a two-round score of 136. He earned the top seed among the 58 players who advanced to match-play competition by shooting a two-round score of 149 or lower.

Sixteen players tied for 59th at 150, and they will begin a playoff for the final six spots in the match-play field Wednesday morning.

Patrick Cantlay, an 18-year-old who is headed to UCLA, and Patrick Rodgers, 18, who will be a high-school senior in Avon, Ind., were tied for second, one shot behind Wilson.

Wilson had a seven-shot lead after his "once in a lifetime" 10-under 62 on Monday at The Home Course in DuPont, the second-lowest stroke-play score in the U.S. Amateur's 110 events. He finished with two consecutive eagles, then tossed and turned all night trying to figure out how to follow that performance.

Wilson, co-medalist in the 2000 U.S. Amateur at Baltusrol (N.J.), did just fine, giving his playing partners, 22-year-old Daniel Bowden and 17-year-old Sean Kelly, quite a two-day show.

"It's a lot of fun, and I see it as a challenge," said Wilson of competing against players much younger. "They just hit so much farther than I do. Sometimes I just shook my head at how far they were hitting it. We're taking different routes to the hole."

Wilson's routes proved the most efficient.

"It's nice to be able to hang the medal in the office, but the real tournament starts (Wednesday)," he said.

Last year's medalist was older than Wilson, with Tim Jackson earning the honors at age 50. He qualified again for match play this year, finishing tied for seventh. Players with local connections advancing to match play included ex-Washington Huskies star Nick Taylor (tied for 13th, 1 over), UW commit Cheng Tsung Pan (T-24, 2 over), Olympia's Cameron Peck (T-24, 2 over), Tacoma's T.J. Bordeaux (tied for 33rd, 3 over) and Olympia's Jarred Bossio (T-40th, 4 over). Once again, Chambers Bay was the much tougher of the two courses, with just two players breaking par Tuesday.

"I've got to say that this is a hard, hard golf course," said Wilson, who in 2000 was the only amateur to make the U.S. Open cut at Pebble Beach in California.

Among the notables among the 312 who started who did not advance were ex-Husky Darren Wallace, the 2009 Pac-10 champion; Andrew Putnam from University Place; Carl Jonson from Bainbridge; Sammamish's Kevin Penner; and South Korean Jin Jeong, the world's No. 2-ranked amateur and British Amateur champion.