MORGAN HILL, Calif. (Jan. 14, 2018) -- After a morning that included a two hour delay due to thick, soupy fog at Coyote Creek Golf Club, a stacked field at the Silicon Valley Amateur made way to their respective tees at the Nicklaus designed Tournament Course, and off they went. Known for playing a few shots more difficult than its Valley counterpart, the Tournament Course proved a true test for some of the best collegiate golfers in California and beyond.

Thomas Hutchison, after posting a tournament low round of 64 yesterday, entered the day two shots ahead of his closest chaser, Dylan VanderVeer. The fact of the matter, however, is that it isn’t easy to follow an 8-under-par round, especially with loads of incredible talent at your heels. Hutchison would shoot 77 to finish at a very respectable 3-under par (64-77=141). But that total left him two shots out of the lead. VanderVeer, who plays his collegiate golf at St. Mary’s, was able to gut out a round of 73 which put him atop the leaderboard following regulation play (66-73-139).

Matching him at that number were fellow St. Mary’s Gaels Pavan Sagoo, and defending champion Connor Blick. The pair fired respective scores of 69 and 71 on the tournament course to punch their tickets into a three-way sudden-death playoff with fellow teammate Vanderveer.

The all-Gael grouping made their way to the 18th tee, where VanDerVeer was the first to tee off, followed by Blick, then Sagoo. Unfortunately for VanDerVeer, he would play himself out of the grouping with a bogey in the first of four attempts to crown a champion in sudden death.

With sunlight fading Sagoo and Blick would make pars and head to the eighteenth for the third time this afternoon, where they would repeat the trend of pars for a third, and fourth time, playing until daylight faded and no more golf could be played.

In a true display of class, the defending champion Blick and red-hot superstar to be Sagoo decided to share the honor as 2018 Silicon Valley Amateur Co-Champions.

Watch out for St. Mary’s College in 2018. It seems that they are set to make some noise this year in the WCC.

MID-AM DIVISION

Mid-Am winner Mickey Mahoney made an Albatross on Saturday

Mickey Mahoney was able to defend his title with style, shooting two consecutive sub-par rounds to finish with 141, good enough for a T-5 if he had played in the championship division.

In addition to taking home some hardware, the Carmel Valley resident made himself a memory he won’t forget on Saturday afternoon when he holed his second shot on a par-5, making an elusive albatross on Coyote Creek’s Valley Course.

WOMEN'S DIVISION

Women’s Champ Emily Sumner held off a Sunday challenge by Marie Dean

Emily Sumner was able to hold onto her overnight lead in the Women’s division, following an opening round 74 with a final round 81 and finishing with a tournament total of 155, good enough to best her opponent and playing partner Marie Dean by two strokes.

SPECIAL THANKS

Thanks to Coyote Creek Director of Golf Shawn McEntee and the entire team for making our weekend run smoothly, especially when fog set in on Sunday morning. And to all the collegiate players, and coaches for sending their teams making this feel like a big-time event -- we're honored. We'll be back next year, Jan. 12-13, 2019. Mark your calendars because we filled quickly this year!

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