First One Seed to Take Home KC Match Play Trophy

Monday morning began with two semi-final matches between Jay Gregory vs Zach VanDolah and Greg Diederich vs Sam Parrot.

VanDolah and Gregory battled on the front nine, seeing five lead changes. With a birdie on the Par-3, 6th hole, Gregory gained some momentum, winning the next two holes as well to go 3 up through 8. VanDolah stayed the course and with back-t0-back wins on Hole 11 and 12, VanDolah saw the lead diminish to just 1 up heading into Hole 13. Some great play from both competitiors, but VanDolah couldn’t grab another birdie and remained 1 down heading into Hole 18. With two bogeys, VanDolah and Gregory halved the hole, securing the semi-final victory for Gregory, 1 up.

In the second semi-final match, Diederich got off to an early start with three birdies in five holes to go 3 up over Sam Parrott through 5 holes. Parrott got one back with a birdie on the Par-3, 6th hole followed by three straight halves. Parrott would get the lead to 1 up with a par on Hole 10, only to lost holes 12 and 14 and go back down 3 with four holes to play. Parrott’s much needed birdie on Hole 15 got him within two, but a missed birdie putt on Hole 17 would secure the win for Diederich, 2 and 1.

The 1 seed, Gregory, was set to face the 7 seed, Diederich. With a birdie on #1, Diederich grabbed a quick lead over Gregory. With some great shot-making and putting, Gregory would win the next four holes in a row with three birdies and a par. Gregory’s great playing kept Diederich from getting the match back on track and after winning Holes 7,8, and 9, the fate of the match was sealed.

With a win on Hole 13, Gregory clinched his first KC Match Play victory and the first as a #1 seed. Gregory played consistently well all weekend and despite some close matches, took care of the field convincingly. Congratulations to Jay on his much deserved victory and to Greg Diederich as well on a great weekend of play.

Thank you to everyone at Swope Memorial and all of our volunteers for persevering through all the weather delays and helping to finish the tournament a day late. Here’s to next year!

KC Match Play Field Down to Final Four after Day 3 of Competition

The Round of 16 was completed on Sunday Morning at Swope Memorial Golf Course after a day’s suspension due to thunderstorms in the area all day Saturday. Players resumed play at 7:00 AM Sunday morning and it didn’t take long to figure out our 8 Quarter-finalists.

The lower seed took 6 out of the 8 morning matches. 1 seed Jay Gregory punched his ticket to the quarterfinals after a tight 1 up victory over Jon Dold. 21 seed dispatched Garret Allen with a 3 and 1 victory and the other Allen brother, Colton, lost to Jim Gates, 9 seed, 3 and 2.

7 seed Greg Diederich beat 10 seed Parker Miller handily 6 and 5. Mark Terranova’s match play run came to an end Sunday morning after losing to Sam Parrott 2 up.

The line up for the Quarterfinals looked like this:

Jay Gregory (1) vs Jim Gates (9) – Zach VanDolah (20) vs Tim Barry (21) – Alex Downing (18) vs Greg Diederich (7) – Sam Parrott (19) vs Brad Welch (11).

Jay Gregory take care of business over Jim Gates with a 5 and 4 win. Zach VanDolah put Tim Barry away on the par-3, 16th hole with a par, winning 3 and 2. Diederich continued his strong showing with a 2 and 1 victory over Alex Downing. Parrott was the last player to secure his spot in the Semi-Finals with a clutch par save on the Par-5, 17th hole after a wayward tee shot to go on and win 2 up.

The Semi-Finals of the KC Match Play will continue tomorrow morning at 7:30 AM with the Finals to follow in the afternoon. It will be an exciting finish as no one left in the field has yet to win the KC Match Play Championship before.

Follow along with live scoring in Golf Genius using the ID: 19KCMATCH.

Day 1 of the KC Match Play Brings Upsets in Round of 32

The 104th Kansas City Match Play Championship began at Swope Memorial Friday morning with 18-hole stroke play qualifying to determine the 32 players to continue to match play.

The consistent breeze and thick rough made for tough conditions and the scores showed. Only four players carded a round under par: Ritch Nigh (-2), Jay Gregory (-2), Cameron Wiltse (-2), and Tanner Owen (-1).  The cut line was set at 77 (+5) with five players battling for two spots to advance to match play.

Luke Lutgen, Hank Simpson, Chris Beaubien, Jeff Mason, and Michael Armentrout all carded rounds of 77 and after two play-off holes, Lutgen and Simpson advanced to the Round of 32. Lutgen drew the 32 seed and Simpson the 31 seed to round out the field.

The Round of 32 began Friday afternoon and out of the 16 matches, the field saw 9 total upsets. Hank Simpson provided the biggest upset of the day as the 31 seed beating Cam Wiltse, the 2 seed with a 2 & 1 victory. Mark Terranova provided another big upset as the 30 seed taking out the 3 seed Ritch Nigh, 3 & 2. Terranova had a similar run in last year’s KC Match Play as the 32 seed defeating the 1 seed Park Ulrich.

Garret Allen as the 28 seed defeated Matthew Rau the 5 seed, 6 & 4 and the 27 seed Derryck Curchin took out the 6 seed in Clayton Moles 3 & 1. 21 seed Tim Barry had a close victory over 12 seed Patrick Roth, 1 up. 1 seed Jay Gregory’s match with 32 seed Luke Lutgen went the distance into 18 with Gregory winning 2 & 1.

The Round of 16 will begin Saturday morning at 7:30 AM. Follow along with the Golf Genius app with the code 19KCMATCH.

Read the 2019 KC Match Play Program here.