Croton-On-Hudson, N.Y.--Playing in his first Met Amateur Championship, twenty-one year old Johnson Wagner of Garrison Golf Club continued his weeklong dominance by defeating 18-year old Jack Skirkanich of Rumson Country Club 6 & 5 in today’s 99^th Met Amateur Championship 36-hole final at Hudson National Golf Club in Croton-On-Hudson, NY.

After firing rounds of 68-67 to become the qualifying medalist by an astounding eight shots, Wagner proved he was going to be tough to beat on a course where he spend the last three summers caddying.  After an impressive win in 19 holes over 2001 U.S. Public Links quarterfinalist Mark Farrell of H. Smith Richardson in the quarterfinals and a 2 & 1 victory over three-time Met Amateur champion Jerry Courville Jr. of Shorehaven, it seemed as though Wagner’s storybook ending would come true.  “Being the qualifying medalist helped my confidence and made me realize that I could play with any of these golfers.  But my victory over Courville gave me a huge emotional lift and helped me stay calm today,” the senior to be at Virginia Tech said afterwards.

Skirkanich, in his bid to become the youngest ever Met Amateur champion, made his way to the final by defeating three-time Met Amateur runner-up Jon Doppelt of Fresh Meadow 2 up in the quarterfinals and 1999 champion Greg Rohlf of Wykagyl 4 & 3 in the semifinals.  “I had been struggling coming in to the tournament so it was encouraging to finally find my game and get that competitive felling back,” the soon to be freshman at Vanderbilt University said afterwards.

Unfortunately, Skirkanich was unable to keep his rhythm going and fell behind early in the 36-hole final, falling four down after four holes when Wagner birdied the par-4 fourth.  Wagner extended his lead to five-up when Skirkanich was unable to get up and down on the par-3 eighth.  He narrowed the deficit to four-down after he rolled in a 12-foot birdie putt on the par-3 12^th.  Wagner continued to stick to his game plan of hitting fairways and greens and forced Skirkanich to try and make birdies.  On the ensuing hole, Skirkanich launched his approach over the green and into a hazard to quickly give back the hole.  A bogey at the 15^th put him six-down, but the young New Jersey native refused to quit and rolled in a 25-foot birdie put on the17th.  But once again Skirkanich failed to capitalize and made bogey at the 18^th to go six-down with 18-holes to play in the afternoon.

“I just tried to wear him out by making pars and not making any big mistakes, “ the long-hitting Wagner said afterwards.  This proved to be true in the afternoon round, although losing the second to a birdie Wagner casually won the third and fourth holes with pars and extending his lead to seven-up.  The two played the next seven holes even, matching birdies on the 7^th, with Skirkanich unable to overtake Wagner.  He missed an opportunity to close out the match on the 12^th with a bogey, but Wagner quickly finished business on the next hole, the par-3 13^th, to close out the match 6 & 5.

“It was tough to come back after falling four-down after only four holes.  I played much better in the afternoon but just ran out of holes.  But what can I say, Johnson played great all week and deserved to win,” the runner-up conveyed afterwards.

As for the newly crowned champion, it’s back to work for the next couple of weeks but he will head to Bethpage Black, his second favorite course next to Hudson National, for the Met Open in three weeks.  There he we will look to become the only player other than George Zahringer III to capture both crowns in the same year.  When asked about duplicating Zahringer’s feat from 1985 Wagner smiled, “ Who knows?  George and I had a lot of fun playing together in the stroke play qualifying round.  Hopefully some of his magic rubbed off on me.”