FALLBROOK, CALIFORNIA (August 1, 2006) -- Teeing off in the second-to-last pairing Tuesday in the amateurgolf.com San Diego County Amateur, Amit Chopra of Newport Coast was 6-strokes behind. But Chopra, 35, started to see serious potential in his round as he reached 7-under-par for the tournament after 13 holes thanks to a blistering front nine 32 and two more birdies after the turn.

Chopra does numbers for a living, and sensing he might be close, he asked Paul Bush of amateurgolf.com how the tournament stood.

"Kelley is at 9-under," quietly replied Bush, who was working his first amateurgolf.com event.

Chopra responded by making birdie on Nos. 14 and 15, then closing his day out with three straight pars for a competitive course record round of 8-under-par 64. A magical round to be sure, one that has only been matched in practice rounds at the Golf Club of California by several PGA Tour professionals, according to Director of Golf Scott Bentley.

Brian Kelley of San Diego had nearly done the same the day before, firing a bogey-free round of 65 to take a 5-stroke lead over Gerry Simoni of Carlsbad into today's final round.

"My coach at Fresno State, Mike Watney, used to give us a dozen free balls for every bogey-free round," said Kelley, who just graduated after playing four years for Watney on the Bulldogs Golf Team. "When you have one of those days, you start thinking about it late in the round and it keeps you going."

Indeed, hitting driver-6 iron into 530-yard uphill par-5's (the 10th) and sinking the putt for eagle, then making 3 more birdies for a back nine of 31, as Kelley did on Monday, might keep you fired up as well.

Kelley came back with a solid round of 71 on Tuesday in the final round, despite a shaky start. He bogeyed No. 1 after finding trouble on the right off the tee, and bogeyed No. 3 to drop back to 5-under-par on the tournament. He used a four-straight-birdie tourniquet to stop the bleeding, however, posting a solid 35 on the front nine and widening the lead on his playing partners Andrew Bostrom (38) and Gerry Simoni (37). An even par back nine was capped off by a well-stroked 5-footer that, if not for Chopra's other-worldly round, could have easily been the winning putt. Kelley's playing companions, in fact, were sure the tournament belonged to him and were surprised to hear of Chopra's round.

As if to say "this isn't going to be your day" fate handed Kelley another blow in the parking lot, as he searched in vain for his car keys (he never found them, but fortunately his Mom came to the rescue).

Senior Champ Steve Pircher

Kelley will likely try the pro ranks soon, while Chopra will head back to his job in the finance division of Pimco with a story to tell on Wednesday. As is becoming customary in amateurgolf.com events when a course record is shot by one of our players, Chopra will soon receive a framed scorecard for his wall.

In the Senior Division, Steve Pircher of Manhattan Beach -- who recently passed the "age 50" milestone required for amateurgolf.com's Senior cutoff -- followed his recent 7-stroke victory in the Oceanside City Senior Championship with a 9-stroke victory here after posting a 4-over-par total of 148. Unlike the Oceanside event, where he trailed the field by three and won by seven due to a blistering final round of 66, Pircher was the front runner at 1-over-par going into today's final round.

"I got a bit tripped up closing out the round today, when I made triple-bogey at No. 6 (his 15th hole) when I tried to hit out of a hazard when I should have taken a drop," said Pircher. "But at the beginning of the day I knew 75 might do the trick and I finished up right on that number."

Net Winner Ryan Ehrlich (left) with Kurt Erikson (center) and Phil Hacker

John Vogel of Moorpark came back from a tough 84 on Monday with an 11-stroke improvement. His 1-over-par 73 moved him into solo second place at 157. John Jones of La Quinta finished in third at 161.

In the Net Division, Ryan Ehrlich's net 74 was good enough for a one stroke victory over Kurt Erikson of Carlsbad. Ehrlich, a 6.7 handicapper who made the trip in from Victorville for the event, was pleasantly surprised with the victory, after being hunted-down by the tournament committee in the clubhouse. Erikson shot a gross 75 on Tuesday to make a nice move up the leaderboard into second. amateurgolf.com "regular" Phil Hacker posted a 147 total for solo-third.

For complete results, please scroll down the page. Special thanks to The Golf Club of California for hosting the tournament, to the staff of amateurgolf.com and to all players for taking the time off from work to join us.

We look forward to seeing many of you at the North Orange County Amateur at Black Gold Golf Club on August 12 and 13. There are still spots available.

Click here for info.

Champion Amit Chopra (right) with Brian Kelley (center) and Gerry Simoni

Final results from the amateurgolf.com San Diego County Amateur, played at the 6850 yard, Par-72 Golf Club of California:

Pos	First	Last Name	City	State	Rd1	Rd2	Tot		Prize
1	Amit	Chopra	Newport Coast	CA	71	64	135		500	crs record
2	Brian	Kelley	San Diego	CA	65	71	136		300
3	Gerry	Simoni	Carlsbad	CA	70	71	141		225
4	Daniel	Wax	Pacific Palisades	CA	73	70	143		200
5	Freddy	Wolfe	Piedmont	CA	72	72	144		175
T6	Andrew	Bostrom	Phoenix	AZ	71	74	145		115
T6	Jim	Ream	Cerritos	CA	71	74	145		115
T6	Adam	Porzak	Poway	CA	72	73	145		115
T6	Mike	Leibfried	Rolling Hills	CA	76	69	145		115
T6	Mark	Scheibach	Bermuda Dunes	CA	76	69	145		115
T11	Bryan	Martin	Thousand Oaks	CA	73	74	147		75
T11	Dongha	Lee	Bradenton	FL	74	73	147		75
T13	Andy	Chao	San Diego	CA	76	73	149		50
T13	Brian	Kim	Yorba Linda	CA	79	70	149		50
15	Ryan	Bailey	moorpark	CA	75	75	150		50	cardoff
	Michael	Reese	Apple Valley	CA	73	77	150
	Louie	Pullen	ROANOKE	TX	79	71	150
	Andrey	Mindirgasov	Pacific Grove	CA	75	76	151
	David	Staszko	San Jose	CA	78	73	151
	Kris	Butkys	Thousand Oaks	CA	76	76	152
	E.J.	Kahn	Los Angeles	CA	77	75	152
	Joel	Fieri	San Diego	CA	78	74	152
	Danny	Min	Cypress	CA	76	78	154
	Shuhei	Matsuo	Malibu	CA	77	77	154
	Paul	Rice	Redlands	CA	74	81	155
	Rick	Shlemmer	Los Alamitos	CA	77	78	155
	John	Lorenzo	Laguna Hills	CA	81	74	155
	Steve	Batte	Las Vegas	NV	84	71	155
	Ali	Siam	Westlake Village	CA	79	77	156
	Bradley	Bossenbroek	La Mesa	CA	77	80	157
	David	Pichon	Camarillo	CA	77	80	157
	Jack	Kim	Porter Ranch	CA	84	73	157
	Brett	jerhoff	Cardiff	CA	78	81	159
	Christopher	Nieto	Gonzales	CA	80	79	159
	Patrick	Traughber	Long Beach	CA	80	79	159
	Michael	Kraft	Pacific Grove	CA	84	77	161
	Jeremy	Power	Las Vegas	NV	82	80	162
	Jonathan	Avedon	Los Angeles	CA	77	86	163
	Jin	Han	La Jolla	CA	85	79	164
	Matt	Brockmann	San Diego	CA	86	78	164
	Pete	Wlodkowski	Carlsbad	CA	82	83	165
	Mitchel	Yoshitake	Montebello	CA	80	87	167
	Andrew	Bishop	Poway	CA	84	83	167
	John	Merz	San Diego	CA	84	85	169
	Greg	Moss	Sherman Oaks	CA	83	89	172
	Robert	Cizek	Chicago	IL	86	87	173
	Christopher	Vance	Twentynine Palms	CA	95	79	174
	Ryan	Ozonian	Laguna Beach	CA	85	wd	wd
	Paul	Imondi	Tustin	CA	83	wd	wd
	Alexander	Resurreccion	Long Beach	CA	93	wd	wd
	Tony	LaMontagne	San Marcos	CA	81	wd	wd
	Tyler	Crawford	Rancho Mirage	CA	dns
	Patrick	Walker	San Clemente	CA	dns
	John	Holm	Chula Vista	CA	dq
	Ryan	Andrews	Rancho Mirage	CA	nc
	Jeff	Stewart	San Ramon	CA	wd/inj
		SENIOR DIVISION
Pos	First	Last Name	City	State	Rd1	Rd2	Tot		Prize
1	Steve	Pircher	Manhattan Beach	CA	73	75	148		200
2	John	Vogel	Moorpark	CA	84	73	157		125
3	John R	Jones	La Quinta	CA	81	80	161		75
	Dave	Sixt	San Diego	CA	80	82	162
	Gary	Alari	Cedar Glen	CA	80	93	173
	Dave	Patty	Newport Coast	CA	87	86	173
	Wayne	Spencer	San Bernardino	CA	93	84	177
	Henry	Stotsenberg	Murrieta	CA	88	wd	wd
	Greg	McMaster	Temecula	CA	dns
	Lloyd	Sappington	Rancho Santa Fe	CA	dns
		NET DIVISION
Pos	First	Last Name	City	State	Rd1	Rd2	Tot		Prize
1	Ryan	Ehrlich	Victorville	CA	68	74	142		200
2	Kurt	Erikson	Carlsbad	CA	74	69	143		125
3	Philip	Hacker	Martinez	CA	75	72	147		75
	Jeff	DeHart	Altadena	CA	73	76	149
	Andre	Fitzpatrick	La Mesa	CA	73	82	155
	Scott	Henrikson	Carlsbad	CA	82	78	160
	I. Joe	Ceniceros	La Mirada	CA	86	78	164
	Robert	Johnson	San Diego	CA	85	81	166
	Tom	Bruner	San Diego	CA	89	87	176
	Terence	Hsu	Irvine	CA	81	wd	wd

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