July 14, 2006

BREMERTON, Wash. -- Former Wolf Pack golfer Casey Watabu advanced to the final of the 81st annual U.S. Amateur Public Links Championships, being held July 10-15 at the par 72, 7,061-yard Olympic Course at Gold Mountain Golf Club in Bremerton, Wash.

Watabu defeated Tim Feenstra of Lynden, Wash., on the 20th hole in the semifinals Friday afternoon. He birdied the 20th hole while Feenstra bogeyed the hole giving Watabu the victory. Watabu held a one hole advantage after 17 holes of play but his par on 18 coupled with Feenstra's birdie squared up the match. Both golfers parred the 19th hole but Watabu went on to take the match on the 20th hole. Feenstra, a third-team All-American this year, just completed his senior year at Western Washington.

Watabu now advances to play Anthony Kim of Traverse City, Mich., in Saturday's 36-hole match play championship final. Kim, an all-conference and all-region selection who was one of three finalists for the Ben Hogan Award at the University of Oklahoma this year, defeated Kevin Larsen of Santa Barbara, Calif., 6 and 5, in his semifinal match.

Watabu, never trailed in his quarterfinal match Friday morning, defeating Daniel Im of Fullerton, Calif., 3 and 1. He took the lead for good with a par on the 11th hole and closed it out with a birdie at the 17th. Im just concluded his sophomore season at UCLA and won the 2006 Pacific-10 Conference individual championship.

A native of Kapaa, Hawai'i, Watabu downed Joseph Prince of Chula Vista, Calif., the 2006 NAIA national champion at Point Loma Nazarena University, in the third round, 3 and 2, and Oklahoma freshman Jesse Schutte in the second round by the same score. He defeated Raymond Sheedy, a Florence, Ore., native who earned all-conference honors at UNC-Charlotte, in 22 holes in the first round after finishing 43rd in stroke-qualifying play.

Former Wolf Pack standout John Cassidy also competed in the tournament. After carding two rounds of two-under 70s to finish fifth in stroke-qualifying play, he defeated Brandon Pike of Huntington, Ind., and Indiana University, 4 and 3, in the first round of match play before falling to Kane Hanson of Detroit Lakes, Minn., and Drake University, 2 up.

Watabu and Cassidy just completed their senior years at Nevada, leading the Wolf Pack to its first NCAA Championships appearance in 16 years. Watabu tied for first at the NCAA West Regional, while both players earned second-team All-Western Athletic Conference honors this season.

A total of 4,739 contestants entered the 2006 U.S. Amateur Public Links Championships with the winner earning a gold medal and custody of the James D. Standish Jr. Cup for one year. The winner also receives a 10-year exemption from sectional qualifying for the U.S. Amateur Public Links Championship, an exemption from local qualifying for the next three U.S. Open Championships, exemptions from sectional qualifying for the 2006 U.S. Amateur and the 2006 U.S. Mid-Amateur, if otherwise eligible, and an invitation to compete in the next Masters Tournament, if still an amateur.

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