Around the Green

Justin Kaplan Wins Texas Mid-Amateur Match Play

HOUSTON – Justin Kaplan, from Houston, won the Texas Mid-Amateur Match Play Championship on Sunday at Lakeside CC with an impressive 3 & 1 victory against Arlington’s Ted Waldrip in the Championship Match.

Kaplan was never down during Sunday’s Championship Match. Justin went up early but eventually gave away his 2-up lead. He regained control of the match with back-to-back birdies on holes 12 and 13. The match ended 3 & 1 on the 17^th hole with a par putt concession from Waldrip.

Justin had a simple mind set coming into the championship. “My whole mentality for the week was to ‘grind it out’. I didn’t play as well as I wanted to but I hit the shots that I needed to hit. Ted is a great player and you need to be able to grind it out against him. He made some clutch par putts on the back nine.” Justin works at the Houston office of Chicago Title Commercial, a commercial real estate firm.

Waldrip didn’t have one last upset in him for the final match of the Championship. “I just couldn’t get it close enough to the hole today. It’s really hard to win a match when you only make one birdie.” Waldrip is a senior staff electrical engineer for Lockheed Martin.

Both players have earned exemptions into this year’s Texas Mid-Amateur Championship. This year’s championship will be contested at Royal Oaks Country Club in Dallas.

For complete results of the Match Play, click here.

For more information on the 2015 Texas Mid-Amateur Match Play Championship, click here.