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This year's tourmament was held in Rochester, NY at Oak Hill Country Club. Kuchar came into the tournament as the favorite after winning last year's Amateur. Molder came in trying to make a name for himself after playing in Kuchar's shadow all of last year even though he had a lower scoring average than the junior. The first stage of play involved stroke play, the purpose of which is to cut down the field to 64 players for match play. Molder and Kuchar both got past this part of tournament not in spectacular fashion but enough to get to the field of 64 with Kuchar shooting a one-over par 70 in the first round. Also making the field of 64 was Charles Howell, an Augusta native who now plays at Oklahoma State. Match play was where the competition heated up as the format became "win the match or go home". Play became more aggressive as the objective was to win the hole, not to maintain a low score, which enabled aggressive play with less penalty.
Kuchar came out on fire defeating his opponent 8 and 7 which means he was eight holes up with seven to go closing his opponent out on the eleventh hole. Molder had a tougher time winning one up but came through in the clutch birdying 14,15, and 16 to capture the lead and hold on to it. Both players ran through the round of 32 onto the round of 16. Kuchar was matched against Sergio "El Nino" Garcia, the Spanish wonderkid who won the British Amateur.
There was much hype around the match since it was the U.S. champ versus the European champ, a smaller version of the much treasured Ryder Cup. Unfortunately, Kuchar fell 2 and 1 in a match that teetered back and forth with several heartbraking birdies made by the players. Techs last hope, Molder, also fell 5 and 4 to eventual champion Hank Kuehne. Even so, both players represented Georgia Tech well finishing among the top 16 amateurs in the nation.
With Molder and Kuchar anchoring the squad, Tech is in very good position for another great season. Kuchar was honored with the Fred Haskins Award which goes to the outstanding collegiate player of the year at GT's first football game. Similarly,Molder also received an award at halftime honoring him as being the Jack Nicklaus Player of the Year.
However, these are not the only players on team, as Tech as several other talented guys who were insturmental in last year's success. Wes Latimer is a talented sophomore who had a very impressive rookie campaign last season which was overshadowed by Molder. Junior Carlton Forrester quietly put up the third best stroke average on the team last year. It was his year long consistency which proved to be one of the biggest factors in the Jackets high rankings. Senior Mike Pearson rounds out the talented crew.
Experience should be no problem as this bunch saw a lot of golf last year. Look for the Yellow Jackets atop the rankings once again in 98.