ELMSFORD, N.Y. (August 8, 2009) – The final match of the 107th Met Amateur Championship at Hackensack Golf Club in Oradell, N.J., will be a matchup of a young phenom and a seasoned veteran, as 54-year-old John Ervasti of Sleepy Hollow will take on 16-year-old Cameron Wilson, the 2009 Carter Cup champion. On a beautiful day at one of the top courses in New Jersey, the four semifinalists entertained spectators with some of the best golf of the week.

The first semifinal match of the day was between Ervasti, who tied for second at the 2008 MGA Mid-Amateur, and David Weisfeld of Fenway, a quarterfinalist at the 2009 Westchester Amateur. It was Ervasti who got things rolling early by winning the first hole. He held a 1-up lead through the first five holes before extending that margin to 2-up after the sixth. After losing the seventh hole, Ervasti bounced back with wins on the 13th and 14th. Weisfeld fought back as he birdied both the 15th and 16th holes, cutting the deficit to 1-down. After matching pars with a pair of threes on the 17th, Ervasti closed out the match on 18 after Weisfeld narrowly missed his birdie putt.

 

“I feel great,” said Ervasti. “I’ve had to play 36 holes every day this week, and I was considering playing before the match this morning,” he joked. Ervasti, who has never played with Wilson, said that his game plan will not change for the 36-hole championship.

“I just have to go out there and play my game. There’s no need to get bogged down worrying about the status of the match, just control what I can and hopefully good things will happen.”

The second semifinal was a matchup between Wilson, who won the Carter Cup-MGA Junior Stroke Play Championship this past Wednesday at Baltusrol Golf Club, and Sean Curtin of Orange County CC, a quarterfinalist at the 2009 Westchester Amateur.  On the match, Wilson stated that both players “got off to a pretty rough start. I got down early, but made a few good putts and was able to get to 3-up through seven holes.”

However, Wilson could not maintain the advantage as Curtin managed to close the gap and go into the turn 1-down. After birdieing the 10th to go 2-up, he held on to that lead until a win at the 16th closed out the match.

“Overall it was pretty topsy-turvy,” said Wilson. “We pretty much bogeyed all the same holes on the back nine and neither of us got into a good rhythm.”

Curtin had similar feelings on the match. “After birdieing the 8th and 9th holes, I had a string of missed opportunities and a few lip-outs. Things just didn’t really come together.”

Wilson is aiming to become the youngest champion in the history of the Met Amateur, a record currently held by 2006 and 2008 champion Tommy McDonagh (17 years old in 2006), also of Shorehaven. He would also join the illustrious list of Shorehaven members to win the Met Amateur, including McDonagh and Jerry Courville Sr. and Jr., who have a combined seven Met Am titles between them. Ervasti is looking for his first MGA title

Sunday’s 36-hole final will begin at 7:30 a.m., and you can follow all the action with live scoring on mgagolf.org.