PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. – Rising junior Maverick McNealy of Stanford added another victory to his growing resume on Friday by winning the 112th NCGA Amateur Match Play Championship at Spyglass Hill Golf Course. The 21-year-old Portola Valley, California, native defeated 32-year-old Matt Cohn of San Francisco, 6 and 5, in the 36-hole final.
McNealy, the NCAA Player of the Year in 2015, won six individual tournaments for the Cardinal this past season -- the most in the country -- and was named to the United States Walker Cup team on Monday.
He had a brilliant week at Spyglass, capturing the 36-hole stroke play qualifying on Monday and Tuesday by five strokes. Entering Friday’s final, he was a combined 25-under par through 92 holes.
With his father, Scott, handling the caddie duties, McNealy found himself in an unfamiliar position on Friday morning. For only the second time in the tournament, he trailed when Cohn birdied the par-4 second hole. McNealy quickly equalized with a birdie at the 155-yard, downhill par-3 third.
Cohn, a tutor and college admissions consultant who played college golf at Oklahoma and reached the semifinals last year, regained the lead with a birdie at the 197-yard par-3 fifth hole. McNealy pulled even with a par at the par-4 sixth and never trailed again in the early seesaw match.
The duo halved the next three holes with pars and were all square at the turn. McNealy surged ahead by winning the par-4 10th with a par and the par-5 11th with a birdie. After tying the next two holes with pars, Cohn cut the deficit in half with a birdie at the par-5 14th, then they tied the 15th and 16th holes with pars.
McNealy took a 2-up advantage with a birdie at the short par-4 17th, then won the par-4 18th with a par to earn a 3-up cushion at the lunch break.
In the afternoon session, McNealy claimed the par-5 first hole with a par to climb 4-up, lost the second to a birdie, then won the third with a par. His lead was trimmed to 3-up when Cohn won the fifth hole with a par, but McNealy got it back with an eagle at the par-5 seventh. Cohn won the tough par-4 ninth with a birdie, but McNealy still owned a 3-up cushion with nine holes remaining.
He added to his lead with another eagle at the 11th, then won the par-3 12th to stretch his advantage to 5-up. McNealy closed out the match with a par at the par-4 13th hole.
McNealy, the second-ranked amateur in the world, was a combined 7-under on the day. During one stretch, he went 83 consecutive holes in match play without making a bogey.
