News Release

For Immediate Release: September 22, 2008

Headline: Three Local Senior Golfers Advance to Match Play at the 2008 U.S. Senior Amateur Championship

NORTON – Three Bay State golfers advanced to Match Play at the 2008 U.S. Senior Amateur Championship, which is being held from September 20-25 at Shady Oaks Country Club in Fort Worth, Texas.

Joe Keller (Osterville, MA), Paul Murphy (Arlington, MA) and Alistair Catto (South Hadley, MA) – all outstanding local senior golfers who earned a berth into Championship Proper after either qualifying locally or being exempt – made the cut this past weekend by shooting a score of 11-over par 153 or better.

Keller, who is coming off an impressive victory at the 2008 New England Senior Championship, was the Bay State's top qualifier with a score of 7-over par 149. The Oyster Harbors Club member and former Massachusetts Senior Champion posted a 4-over par 75 on day one and followed that up with a 3-over par 74 to earn a spot in the Match Play portion of the event.

He went on to win three matches to advance to the quarterfinals. Along that impressive route, he dispatched of impressive competition. He first defeated Ray Womack from Burlington, North Carolina in the first round on Monday. He went on to knock off 1991 U.S. Amateur champion Mitch Voges, 5 & 4 and 2007 USGA Senior Amateur runner-up Sam Farlow, 1 up. Keller's title run came to an end in the quarterfinals, however, when he was defeated by George Zahringer of New York, 2 & 1. The match was all square through 14 holes before Keller suffered two straight bogies.

Murphy was another standout for the Bay State contingent as he won two matches at this year's event. The Charles River Country Club member set a positive tone early as he found a way to defeat Bill Ploeger of Columbus, Georgia, who won this event in 1999. He went on to beat Carey Watson of Coral Springs, Florida, 3 & 1. Unfortunately for Murphy, he next faced John Grace, a former host club member and 17-time club champion at Shady Oaks. Murphy battled hard but eventually fell by a score of 4 & 3.

Catto, meanwhile, is no stranger to this event as he advanced all the way to the quarterfinals of this event in 2007. This time around, he made sure that he would have another chance at the title by firing a qualifying score of 9-over par 151. In his first match, Catto attempted to battle back from an early 5 Down through five holes deficit but failed to finish the come-back attempt as he fell by a score of 3 & 2. Cotton was on fire from the start as he drained an 85-foot putt to win the first hole of that match!

Other local qualifiers who missed out on Match Play this year were Paul Nunez (Wilbraham, MA), Cy Kilgore (Marblehead, MA), Ray Richard (Bourne, MA), Del Kinney (Great Barrington, MA) and Bill Barry (Hampden, MA).

Other Tournament Notes… provided to us by the USGA:

Although he missed Matc h Play this year, Barry had a seasoned caddie on his bag. Jack Kearney, who plays of Elmcrest Country Club and who earlier this year advanced to Match Play at the U.S. Mid-Amateur Championship, served as caddie for Barry during the first two rounds of play. Kearney has played in numerous USGA Championships, including the 1997 U.S. Mid-Amateur when Barry served as Kearney’s caddie.
Ray Richard , 58, spent three days on an erupting volcano while stationed in Iceland with the U.S. Navy in 1973. Richard shoveled lava off building roofs so they would not collapse.

Congratulations go out to all local qualifiers on a job well done!

For complete U.S. Senior Amateur Championship coverage, visit the event's web site at www.senioram.org.