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Andrew Black wins TPC 3&2 over Matt Brock
Youth was the order of the day in the Chattanooga TPC at Council Fire on Saturday, but in the end, experience won out. Not that Andrew Black, who won two matches to earn his first TPC title and Pro Golf Superstore/www.chattanoogatpc.com Chattanooga Player of the Year honors, is a grizzled veteran. Black, who completed his college golf career at Tennessee last spring, just turned 23. But in a field that contained two high school seniors and UTC junior Matt Brock, Black was by far the most experienced player. Neither of Black’s matches left the 16th hole. In the morning, Black dispatched Cleveland High School senior Nick Bailes, 3 and 2. In the afternoon, Black won by the same score over Brock, who defeated Notre Dame senior Chris Gilliland, 4 and 3, earlier. "I played solid golf today," Black said. "I had a goal of not losing a hole to a par. And for the most part, I stuck to that." For the first five holes, Brock gave Black all he could handle. Brock took an early 1-up lead with a birdie at the par-5 2nd hole, and after Black squared the match with a birdie at No. 3, Brock went one up again with a birdie at the par-four 5th. After that, things began to unravel for Brock. He hooked his tee shot at the 583-yard, par-5 6th hole, and although he had no problem getting back to the fairway, Brock was left with about 170 yards for his third shot. Black, meanwhile, bashed a drive into the middle of the fairway, and decided to get aggressive. "When I saw that Matt had about 170, I decided to have a go at it, get it close to the green and make him make a birdie to beat me," Black said. Black pulled out his 3-wood and unleashed another towering shot that landed about 10 yards short of the green. Brock pulled his approach left, and Black pitched to about two and a half feet. When Brock couldn’t save par, he conceded Black’s putt. Brock missed the green again at the par-3 No. 7 hole and Black won with a par to go 1-up. Black’s birdie at No. 8 gave him a 2-up lead. Brock wasn’t finished yet. His approach at No. 9 landed within tap-in range as he trimmed Black’s advantage to 1-up at the turn. Black quickly took control of the match. He made par at No. 10 to bogey for Brock and went 2-up, then took a 3-up lead at No. 11 when Brock bogeyed the par-5. Brock could have dug himself out after Black bunkered his tee shot at the par-3 12th, but he followed Black into the sand. Neither player could save par. Brock had Black in another tight spot at the par-5 13th, but lipped out a four-footer for birdie. Both players parred No. 14, and Brock had a chance to make things interesting if he’d made a six-foot par-saving putt at No. 15 after Black bogeyed. Again, Brock’s putt lipped out. "A couple of those short putts could have made the difference," Brock said. "On 13, that putt just broke a little more than I thought it did. I thought I’d made it at 15." So did Black. But when Brock’s putt spun out, Black knew all he had to do was drive the ball straight at the par-4 16th. After Black two-putted from about 35 feet and Brock couldn’t make birdie from about 30 feet, the match was over. The TPC victory was the first for Black, a three-time winner of the Chattanooga Metro. "The first and last time I’d played in this tournament was when I was a senior in high school," Black said. "I always had school the last four years. It’s a good feeling to win." Black had no trouble remembering his first-round opponent from four years ago. It was Neil Spitalny, who knocked Black, then a senior at East Ridge High School, out in the first round. Suffice to say Black was a little worried last week when he saw he had drawn Spitalny again in the first round. Black got past Spitalny 5 and 4, then held on to beat former Tennessee teammate Kevin Law in the quarterfinals. In winning the tournament, Black wrapped up city player-of-the-year honors. Had Law won last week’s Tennessee Mid-Amateur (and Black not won the TPC) or had Lex Tarumianz won the U.S. Senior Amateur (in which he made the quarterfinals), Black would have lost out on the honor, but he played consistently well all year, and proved once again he deserved the Player-of-the-Year title. "It’s been a good year," said Black, who has one more semester of classes and a spring-time internship to earn his degree in sports management. Though Black is going to earn his degree, his career goals don’t have anything to do with his field of study. "I want to play golf for a living," Black said. "That’s the goal. But to do that, I’m going to have to tighten up just about every area of my game." ###
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