Match Play Results: 1st Round ; Quarterfinals ; Semifinals ; Finals
Stroke Play Qualifying Results
Brown and Cutrell Survive
(L to R) William Betts, David Brown, Arnie Cutrell, and Sean Knapp
warming up on the range for the semifinals
Dallas, PA – It was no surprise to see three of the final four competing for the 2012 R. Jay Sigel Championship. Two of them were former champions and the third a 2-time runner-up. It was however, a surprised to see eighteen-year-old William Betts of Logue Vue Club vying for a chance to win his first event in PAGA events.
Arnie Cutrell of Greensburg Golf Club, would face Sean Knapp in the first semi-final match of the day. Cutrell, a 3-time champion, would come into the semifinal match seemingly untested in his previous two matches. Cutrell would go to work quickly on putting Knapp against the ropes.
Cutrell would take the lead early on 1, when Knapp had to settle for a bogey six.
On 2, Knapp stuck an iron shot within five feet while Cutrell had a daunting forty-foot putt. Cutrell took his time to read the line and stroked in a bogey saving putt and put the pressure squarely on Knapp’s shoulders. Knapp would push his putt just by the hole and be forced to two-putt, settling for a halved hole.
A birdie on four for Cutrell and a bogey for Knapp would quickly be reciprocated on six when Knapp made birdie and Cutrell bogied giving Cutrell a 1-hole lead. On the eighth Knapp would struggle on the green again carding a bogey five which would put Cutrell 2-up going to the turn.
On 10, Knapp would leave his shot to the right of the fairway just short of the long weeds. Knapp would make a gorgeous recovery shot to put him on the green a long way from the pin. Cutrell was on the green and poised to go three up. After Knapp stroked an impressive seventy footer to within five and fall just short of halving the hole.
After 10, Cutrell ran away with the match. After going 4-up on twelve and 5-up on thirteen. The par 5 Fourteenth gave Knapp a little bit of hope after he crushed a 3-wood from the fairway to put him on the green in two and Cutrell was forced to give him the eagle to put him 4-down. Cutrell would play the fifteenth conservatively and make par giving him the match and a shot at the championship.
Cutrell would face the winner of the David Brown and William Betts match. Brown, of St. Clair Country Club and the 2010 champion, used a first hole birdie to go 1-up on Betts. On 4 & 5, Betts would show his inexperience and go 3-down after a couple shots got away from him off the tee.
The seventh hole was impressive for Betts. Sitting 150-yards out and 2 down he made a beautiful shot to put him within 3-feet and go one down. Brown would regain his two hole lead on the ninth with a clutch fifteen foot birdie putt to put him 2-up going to the turn.
On 11, Betts would again putt his way back into the match by two putting from fifty-feet away to take the hole and go 1-down. After 11, Brown would start to play golf. He took 12 & 13 to go 3 –up after a legnthy search for a ball on the thirteenth by Betts, which was found in the high grass. The fourteenth, Betts would struggle again but scramble to halve the hole and remain 3-down. Brown would finish the young and upcoming Betts off on sixteen when Betts hooked his tee shot into the bunker and have to settle for a bogey 5. Brown then would have a chance to trade strokes with former 3-time champion Arnie Cutrell.