Chris Williams breaks his own record at the Western Amateur Championship
Chris Williams entered the final phase – match-play event, of the Western Amateur Championship in style, as he broke his own record at the event with a 17-under par 271 after four stroke-play rounds.
Williams got off to a slow start on Monday and recorded an even-par 72. Thereafter, he picked up some pace and recorded back-to-back rounds of 66 prior to ending stroke-play event with a 67 on Thursday.
He was an entertaining entity at the Exmoor Country Club throughout the event.
He played well off the tee, from the fairways and his short game was also remarkable. Yet, he credited his two-footer for a par on the final hole as the best of all in the tournament.
"I knew what was going on and I tend to get pretty nervous at times," he said. "I certainly was there. It was impressive last year. But I guess this year it's even more impressive".
Williams’ playing partner for the final two rounds, Lorens Chan settled two strokes behind him and took the second spot on the leaderboard. Therefore, he also advanced to the second stage of the Western Am where he will face Pedro Figueiredo.
He praised Williams’ performance in the event and said that putting was like a piece of cake for him and he was brilliant at everything he did on the course.
"The guy is just automatic," Chan said. "He's firing at pins, and putting is so simple to him".
Chan was the youngest player in the field to qualify for the second stage of the tournament. He was accompanied by his mother, Linda, who carried her son’s bag during the final two rounds.
He told that he sometimes tried to carry the bag in order to give some relief to his mother. However, every time he did that, his mother insisted to take it back and asked him to focus on his game.
"I tried to (carry my clubs) a few times," said the incoming freshman at UCLA, "but she kept telling me just to focus on my game”.
In the meantime, two Australians, Daniel Nisbet and Matthew Stieger, were disqualified from the tournament after the Western Golf Association officials found Nisbet caddying Stieger for the final round.
The incident happened when Nisbet offered his services for his friend after completing his own round in Highland Park. According to the tournament rules, a participating player cannot caddy any other player in the field.
Therefore, the officials asked the players to pack up their things, creating at least one spot for other players to make it to the second round, as Nisbet qualified for the next stage before the disqualification.
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