Around the Green

After surviving a long 36-hole day on Friday, eight
players returned to Avery Ranch on Saturday morning for the quarterfinals of
the 2013 Public Links Championship. Matches began at 7:30 AM and featured some
very interesting matchups.

The first match of the morning had 18 year old Austin Duhon playing James
Glenn. Duhon took the early 1-up lead on the first hole when Glenn had to
settle for a bogey. Bouncing back quickly, Glenn leveled the match with a
birdie on the second hole and would eventually take the lead for the first time
with another birdie on the par 5, fifth hole. As demonstrated in his earlier
matches, once Glenn took the lead, he never gave it back. Glenn would go on to
win his third straight match 4 and 3. The Tyler native has not played the final
three holes at Avery Ranch since the qualifying round on Thursday. Craig Cyr, the
2009 Public Links Champion, also made quick work of his match closing out David
Cha 4 and 3.

The other two quarterfinal matches went all the way to the 18^th
hole. Lance Ester went to the 18^th with a 1-up lead over Albert
Miner and managed to halve the hole with a par to win the match. Tyler Thomas
had his hands full with Zander Winston in a match that went to the 18^th
with the two all square. Thomas came up short of the green in two and hit a
beautiful pitch to three feet for his par. Winston just missed his 20-foot par
putt to force extra holes giving Thomas the match.

The semifinal matches started promptly at 12:00 PM, giving the
players time to eat and rest prior to heading back out on the course. The first
match of the afternoon featured James Glenn and Lance Ester. Ester took a 1-up
lead on the second hole with a par, but quickly gave it back with a bogey on
the fourth. Ester then caught fire on the fifth and won four of the next five
holes to take a 4-up lead. Glenn tried to mount a comeback with a birdie on
twelve to get to three down. Ester, however, had other plans and won holes 14
and 15 to close out the match 5 and 3.

The second semifinal match of the afternoon featured Tyler Thomas
and Craig Cyr. Thomas has been hot all week, starting out the event as the
Medalist in the qualifying round. Cyr on the other hand has been in this
situation before and has proven to be a fierce competitor. Cyr took an early
2-up lead after birdies on two and three.
On the ninth hole, it looked like Thomas had a chance to cut into the
lead but Cyr made a 35-foot par putt to halve the hole and maintain his 2-up
lead through nine holes. Cyr kept the momentum going on the tenth hole with a
birdie to move to 3-up. The two then halved the difficult eleventh hole with
birdies. Thomas finally got one back on the fourteenth hole with a birdie to get
to 2-down with four holes to play. Running short on holes, the consistent play
of Craig Cyr proved too much for Tyler Thomas. The match ended on the seventeenth
hole with Cyr winning 2 and 1.

The final match for the 2013 Public Links Championship is set for
Sunday morning at Avery Ranch Golf Club. Craig Cyr has the chance to win the
event for his second time when he goes up against the 27 seed underdog, Lance
Ester. The final match will begin at 7:30 AM and live scoring will be provided
at www.txga.org.