Knost Victimizes Vegas, Moves On

By Dave Shedloski

San Francisco – The turnaround was as stunning as it was decisive.

Playing the kind of steady and mistake-free game for which he strives, Colt Knost wore down Jhonattan Vegas in the semifinals of the 107^th U.S. Amateur Championship Saturday morning, erasing an early 2-hole deficit to register a 4-and-3 decision at Olympic Club.

Colt Knost gets enough loft on his ball while battling out of a greenside bunker on No. 7 Saturday. (John Mummert/USGA)

Knost, 22, the reigning U.S. Amateur Public Links champion, won five of the last six holes at Olympic Club’s Lake Course to storm into Sunday’s 36-hole final against Michael Thompson of Tucson, Ariz., who eliminated Beaumont, Texas native Casey Clendenon, 3 and 2. In running his match play winning streak to 11 straight, Knost has a chance to join Ryan Moore as the only players to win the APL and the U.S. Amateur in the same year.

"A lot of people said after the Public Links, ‘No one was there; you were the best player in the field,’ and all that," Knost said. "And I said, ‘Well, you still got to win it.’ And I think this week has really solidified my win there and showed that I’m a player that belongs here."

Knost did not bring his sharpest game to the semifinal against Vegas, but he was steady when it mattered, down the stretch when Vegas, who’d left a few chances to build a lead slip through his fingers, started making errors. Knost had two birdies and two bogeys, but generally relied on routine two-putt pars to subdue the long-hitting Vegas, 23, whose college eligibility at the University of Texas expired this spring.

"Honestly, I knew a little bit about his game; I knew he hits it a long ways and he’s not the most accurate driver. I didn’t feel like he would go all day without missing a fairway," Knost said. "I knew that he would make a mistake if I would just stay patient and let it happen. He played solid all day until the end."

Indeed, the momentum abandoned Vegas quickly after he lost the 10^th hole with a bogey after missing the green short and flubbing his third shot, leaving it in the rough. He saved par at 11 from the fringe, but didn’t make another until it was too late. Vegas found greenside bunkers on the way to bogeys at 12 and 13, and then hooked his tee shot into the trees at the par-4 14^th. He needed four to reach the green and ended up conceding Knost’s 6-foot birdie there.

Just like that, he was three down. Another lightning strike, and it was over.

At the short par-3 15^th, Knost calmly put it away with another 6-footer for birdie, finding the side door after Vegas two-putted for par from 25 feet.

"I just didn’t execute the way I should have been," said Vegas, a native of Venezeula. "Colt is a great player, and if I wanted to have a chance to compete again him, I had to play a lot better than what I did today."

Knost had not trailed in any of his previous four matches, and, in fact, had not lost the first hole until Vegas’ two-putt birdie from just off the green sent him 1 down. He then bogeyed the second to fall two behind but made up a hole at the third with a par to Vegas’ bogey, which resulted from yet another bunker shot.

Both men saw chances wasted until the pivotal back nine. Knost missed 4-foot putts at Nos. 4 and 6. Vegas left legitimate birdie chances at Nos. 8 and 9 short. The first, from 15 feet, came after his tee shot had hit the limb of a large tree that protects the right portion of the green. Vegas, as he walked up to his ball, took off his hat and waved at the branches.

But there wasn’t much to smile about after that. His miss at the ninth, from 10 feet, was his last realistic birdie chance. He didn’t hit another green in regulation until the 15^th hole.

"I had a few opportunities to take a good lead and get the momentum on my side, but I wasn’t able to do it," Vegas said. "The putt that I had on 8 and the putt that I had on 9 for birdie … and I just didn’t do it. If one of those two putts had gone in, I would have the momentum on my side going to the back nine. I didn’t execute, and I paid for it."

Knost was able to draw on his experience at the Public Links to tell himself to not panic. Eventually, as Vegas began to misfire, Knost was hitting his stride and finding his comfort zone.

"In the quarters and the semis at the Public Links I know I was 1 down at the turn both times. And I got down early in both of those," Knost said. "I think it was just weird because everybody going into the quarters was like, ‘You haven’t ever been trailing.’ Same thing here, and I came out and lost the first two holes today.

"But I just told myself, ‘It’s the same situation … and you came out on top on those two, so we still got a lot of golf left and stay patient and it will be fine.’"

And it was fine. Now he’d like to make a little history.

"I have thought about it," said Knost of the historic double accomplished only once previously. "Y’all tell me all the time that how Ryan Moore is the only guy that’s done it the same year. Like I said, he’s a great player. I’d love to be up there with him."

Colt Knost is 36 holes away from doing just that.

Dave Shedloski is a freelance writer whose work has appeared previously on www.usamateur.org.