Mark O'Meara

Mark O'Meara, 22, of St. Charles, Ill., was four under par for 29 holes as he defeated John Cook, the 1978 Champion, 8 and 7, in the final match. The Championship was played at the Canterbury Golf Club, Cleveland, Ohio, under a revised format. Two hundred eighty-two players competed at the Championship site. They played 36-holes stroke play to decide the 64 qualifiers for match play. Two golf courses-Canterbury and Shaker Heights Country Club-were used for the qualifying stage.

Bob Clampett, of Carmel, Calif., was the medalist with a course-record five under par 66 at Canterbury and a two under par 68 at Shaker Heights. His 36-hole total of 134 established a record qualifying score. Sixty-five players had scores of 146 or better, the lowest 36-hole cut-off score in the history of the Championship. Thirteen players tied for the final 12 spots for match play and played off. Clampett was eliminated in the third round by Gary Hallberg in a 21-hole match. O'Meara qualified with 142, one over par. He defeated Kel Devlin, 4 and 3; Hal Sutton, 1 up; was one under par in a 3 and 2 victory over Tom Carlton; rallied from a two-hole deficit with four to play to defeat David Ogrin with a par on the 20th hole; and won, 3 and 1, over Joe Rassett in the semi-finals.

Cook qualified with 140, one under par. He was one under par in defeating Robert Wrenn, 3 and 1; one over in defeating Wayne Player 1 up; two under in a 26-hole match against Lennie Clements, the longest extra-hole match of the week; three under in a 4 and 3 decision over Gary Hallberg, the 1979 NCAA Champion; and even par in the semi-finals against Cecil Ingram, whom he defeated, 5 and 3. Cook had a chance to become the 16th two-time Amateur Champion and the first to successfully defend the title since E. Harvie Ward, Jr., in 1956.

Cook won two of the first four holes in the final match and then lost the next five holes-only one to a birdie-and O'Meara took a 3-up lead. With two holes to play in the morning round, O'Meara had a two-hole lead. He birdied the 17th and parred the 18th to take a 4-up lead at lunch. O'Meara had a morning round of 70, one under par, and Cook had 74.

In the afternoon, they halved the first four holes with pars. O'Meara won the fifth through the seventh holes with birdies and the eighth hole with a par to take an 8-up lead with 3 holes to play. Cook won the 10th with a birdie, but O'Meara ended the match with a birdie on the 11th hole. He played the 11 holes of the afternoon in three under par. O'Meara hit 24 of 29 greens in the match and missed just three fairways. Entries jumped to a record 3,916, surpassing by 881 the previous high of 3,035 in 1978.