Aug. 25, 2010

(University Place, WA) - USD incoming junior Alex Ching (Honolulu, HI) used a hot start in his first round match play today to advance to Thursday's second round. Ching defeated Denny McCarthy (Burtonsville, MD) 2&1 on the Chambers Bay Golf Course. After both players parred the opening hole (par 5, 542 yards), Ching went birdie, birdie, eagle, eagle to take a commanding 4-up lead through five holes. McCarthy, who plans to take his game to Virginia, rallied and pulled to within 1-down through 12 holes of action. Ching added another birdie on the par-4 13th hole (512) yards to go 2-up, then both players matched scores over the next four holes to give Ching the 2&1 win through 17 holes. Both players birdied the par-3 17th hole (246 yards). During Ching's early run he birdied the par-4 2nd (402 yards), birdied the par-3 3rd (190 yards), eagled the par-5 4th (568 yards) and eagled the par-4 5th (320 yards).

Ching will face Patrick Rodgers tomorrow. Rodgers, who downed Ricky Stout 3&2, will be entering his senior year of high school this Fall. This past June he won the Indiana State individual championship for high school players.

Gunner Wiebe (Denver, CO) dropped a hard-fought 2&1 decision to Richard Werenski (South Hadley, MASS; freshman at Georgia Tech). Werenski went 1-up after the first hole with both players matching scores over the next five holes. Wiebe parred the 508 yard par-4 7th to make the match all-square, but Werenski answered with a birdie on hole eight (par 5, 607 yards). Werenski pulled ahead to a 4-up lead before Wiebe rallied by winning holes 15 (par on par-3 246 yards) and 16 (birdie on par-4, 425 yards) to be just 2-down with two holes to go. The match ended on hole 17 after both players parred the par-3, 183 yard hole.