July 30, 2009
NOTRE DAME, Ind. – Rising senior Carl Santos-Ocampo (Naples, Fla.) and rising junior Dustin Zhang (Calgary, Alberta) qualified for the U.S. Amateur Championships to be held in Tulsa, Okla. on Monday-Sunday, August 24-30.
Santos-Ocampo was first to qualify for the Irish as he competed in the sectional held at Kensington Golf and Country Club in Naples, Fla. on July 25 and 26. He earned his spot in the amateur championship by posting a two-day total of 141, securing a tie for second.
Zhang qualified for the Championship a day later, playing both 18-hole rounds on July 27 from Innsbrook Country Club in Merrillville, Ind. He secured an outright second-place finish by carding a 136.
Santos-Ocampo and Zhang will begin the competition with two stroke play rounds held at both Southern Hills and Cedar Ridge Country Clubs on August 24 and 25, paring the field down from the 312 qualifiers to the top 64, based on the two-day scores. The following five days (August 26-30) will consist of match play contests that will crown the eventual champion on Sunday, August 30.
Connor Alan-Lee (Solana Beach, Calif.), Doug Fortner (Tustin, Calif.) and Josh Sandman (Greensboro, N.C.) also competed for berths in the amateur championship at their respective sectional locations. Sandman finished in a tie for eighth place, carding a 142 at the Little River Country Club in Carthage, N.C. Fortner ended his qualifier in a tie for 11th place as he posted a 146 at Redhill Country Club in Tustin, Calif. Alan-Lee posted a score of 151 as he attempted to qualify from Big Canyon Country Club in Newport Beach, Calif.
For information regarding the tournament, including purchasing tickets, please contact www.2009USAmateur.com or call the 2009 U.S. Amateur office at (918) 292-8726. The U.S. Amateur will also have 10 hours of live national coverage on The Golf Channel and NBC over the last five days (match-play portion) of the Championships.
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