Goldstein, Young Win 2022 Clark County Amateur Titles
Josh Goldstein (Championship) and Dennis Young (Net) claimed titles at the 2022 Clark County Amateur. The tournament, the SNGA’s fourth and final major of the year, was held Nov. 19-20, 2022, at Boulder Creek Golf Club. –By Bill Bowman, LasVegasGolfInsider.com
Championship
An eagle on the par-5 11th hole in the first round helped turn his round around and was an early spark that helped Josh Goldstein win the title in the Championship Division.
Coming to that hole, Goldstein was one-over-par through his first 10 holes with three birdies and four bogeys.
Goldstein, who teaches cello out of his home in Las Vegas, said the eagle got his game moving in the right direction.
“That eagle saved my round a little,” Goldstein said. “I had a lot of back and forth early in the round and the eagle helped me focus a little more.”
Goldstein, who won the 2022 Nevada State Match Play Championship in July, said it’s nice to get back in the winner’s circle.
“Since Anthem’s been closed (for a greens renovation project) it’s been a little rough to get practice time in,” Goldstein said. “This weekend I just went out and tried to hit the best shots I could.”
The first day, that didn’t always work out.
“It was a little windy the first day and some of those bogeys were because of mis-clubbing,” Goldstein said. “And my short game didn’t help me recover with those mis-clubbed shots.
He did get his game back on track.
“Today was different,” he added. “It was warmer, my swing felt a little better and I didn’t put myself in any bad spots. I also made two or three nice par-savers that helped keep my round together that I didn’t make yesterday.”
Goldstein added that finishing the season with a win in a major was a good way to wrap up the year.
“Between work and the golf course being closed, my game hasn’t been quite as sharp as last year,” he said. “But I managed to get a few good tournaments in there.”
Championship
Josh Goldstein, 71-68—139
Tanner Johnson, 75-67—142
Marco Trstenjak, 74-68—142
Net
Dennis Young made it two-for-two in the Clark County Amateur tournaments–first by winning the Senior Division Net Amateur title earlier in the week and following that up with the regular Net Division title over the weekend.
Young, who lives in Northern Nevada, joined the SNGA so he can travel to Southern Nevada to play tournament golf when the weather turns bad up north. He’s been playing SNGA events for the past five-plus years.
This week it paid off well.
He said both titles came as a shock but he was impressed with his play all four days.
It was his play over the final four holes the first day of the Net event that were out-of-this-world. In those four holes he was six-under-par with an eagle, a net birdie, a natural birdie and a net eagle to not only turn his mindset around but also get him back in contention.
“That was shocking,” he said of his four-hole stretch. “I drove the ball very well in that stretch and I hit back-to-back-to-back-to-back shots very close and that just doesn’t happen. I had about eight feet on 15, then I hit it to about a foot on 16. I thought I made it on 17 and it wound up about a foot away and then I had about three feet on 18. It was phenomenal.”
He said he’s sure that stretch of great play didn’t happen by accident.
“I wasn’t playing great,” he said of his first 14 holes. “But I’m one of those that thinks when you play enough competitive golf that it’s going to turn around with the next swing.”
This time it did.
“A stretch like that makes you wonder why you can’t do that every time,” he said with a laugh. “It was one of those magical feelings you don’t get often enough.”
He said he had the same kind of battle in Sunday’s final round.
“It was kind of like Saturday,” he said. “It was nothing special on the front nine.”
On the back he had three straight birdies down the stretch–one natural and two net–to wind up with a three-stroke win.
“I really shocked myself,” he said. “I haven’t done a lot of winning so to do this well in two tournaments back-to-back is really something. It was completely unexpected.”
Net
Dennis Young, 68-75—143
Jay Ship, 73-74—147
Jeffrey Gilliame, 73-75—148
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