Palm Desert's Charlie Reiter rolls to lopsided win in California State Amateur golf championship
Charlie Reiter of Palm Desert raced to a huge lead in the morning 18 holes and coasted to a 5 and 4 victory to win the 111th California State Amateur golf championship Saturday.
Reiter, a former Palm Desert High School star who most recently played at the University of San Diego, was 3-up through 15 holes in the morning 18 holes at Big Canyon Country Club in Newport Beach. Reiter then won the 16th, 17th and 18th holes to take a 6-up lead into the lunch break.
Reiter didn’t slow down in the afternoon 18 holes, winning the 20th, 21st and 23rd holes to go 9-up with 13 holes to play against Kevin Huff of El Dorado Hills. Huff, who won only two holes in the morning 18, extended the match by winning four holes out of five starting at the 27th hole. But when Reiter and Huff tied the 32nd hole, Reiter closed out the match.
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In the match-play format, a winner is determined by holes won outright in the match rather than total strokes for 18 holes, with the match ending when a player leads by more holes than are left to play. Reiter posted 11 3s and one 2 on his scorecard in his 32 holes.
The victory comes two years after Reiter lost in the 36-hole final of the 2020 event, a 3 and 2 loss to Joey Vzrich.
Reiter’s margin of victory was the largest in the championship since 2016. Hall of Famer and U.S. Open winner Johnny Miller holds the record with a 12 and 10 victory in 1968, a record Reiter threatened Saturday before Huff's rally.
Big win in last summer as amateur
The win is a major step for Reiter in his final summer as an amateur golfer. Reiter, 22, is already qualified for the U.S. Amateur in August because he qualified for the U.S. Open in June at The Country Club in Brookline, Mass. He plans on entering qualifying for the PGA Tour’s developmental Korn Ferry Tour in the fall.
Past winners of the California championship with desert connections include Dr. Frank Taylor, winner of the 1954 and 1955 events, and John Cook, who lived at Mission Hills Country Club in Rancho Mirage part-time and who won the title in 1975. Past winners who went on to professional success include Ken Venturi, Miller, Cook, Mark O’Meara and more recently Xander Schauffele.
Reiter reached the finals against Huff by surviving his toughest match of the week Friday in the semifinals. Reiter won the semifinal match 1-up against Kuangyu Chen of Berkeley, the only time in the first four matches Reiter had been forced to play the 18th hole.
Reiter started Friday with a 4 and 3 quarterfinal victory over Tyler Kowack of San Diego. Reiter fell behind in the match with a loss on the third hole, but won four of the next seven holes to take control of the match on the way to the easy victory.
In the semifinals, Reiter again fell behind early by losing the second hole, but won the third hole to even the match and took his first lead with a birdie-2 to win the seventh hole. Reiter and Chen then halved seven consecutive holes before Reiter took a 2-up lead with a winning 3 on the 15th hole. Chen won the 16th hole to cut Reiter’s lead to 1-up, but the pair matched 4s on the 17th hole and 5s on the 18th hole to give Reiter the victory.
This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: Charlie Reiter scores lopsided win in Cal State Amateur golf championship
