Golf: Big Canyon’s own DuBois qualifies for U.S. Senior Am match play

After a shaky first round, Big Canyon Country Club member and Newport Beach resident Don DuBois knew he had to play better Sunday if he was going to advance to the match play of the U.S. Senior Amateur.

DuBois waited until the final hole to make certain he advanced, draining a 30-foot birdie on No. 18 to avoid a playoff and move on to Monday’s match play.

“It didn’t need to be that stressful, but it was,” said DuBois, who shot a one-over-par 73 to finish at four-over 148 on his home course. “I had a good idea that 147 or 148 was going to be good. I just couldn’t get it close to the hole today.”

But getting a big number on a hole would have been disaster, so DuBois couldn’t take any risks.

“I had to be patient,” DuBois said. “I was hitting the ball well, so I knew if I had a couple of good things happen I would be all right.”

With family, friends and members of the club following him, the first day was a little stressful for DuBois.

“The first nine holes I think there were some nerves,” DuBois said of his Saturday round of 75. “I shot four over that first nine so yeah, I think I was a little nervous. I settled down after that.”

Sunday’s round started rough as well. DuBois made bogey on holes 6 and 9 and was six-over making the turn.

“I bogey 6 and missed a short putt on 9 so I was two-over going to the back,” DuBois said. “I knew I had to shoot at least one-under on the back just to get in the playoff.”

When he reached the par 5 18th hole DuBois was still a shot away from avoiding the playoff, but again played conservatively.

“No, I knew this was a three-shot hole and if I made par I would take my chances in the playoff,” DuBois said.

His third shot landed to the left of the hole about pin high. DuBois calmly drained the long birdie putt.

“That made it a lot easier,” DuBois said. “I don’t have to come back and now it starts all over with match play.”

Another golfer who wasn’t sure he was going to make it, but for a different reason was Alan Fadel. The Toledo, Ohio resident is glad he made the trip. He shot rounds of 70-67 to take medalist honors.

“This is a dream come true,” Fadel said. “I’ve been in them since I was a kid and never come close.”

Fadel had to withdraw from last week’s U.S. Mid-Amateur with a gastrointestinal virus and was still a little shaky coming into this week’s U.S. Senior Amateur.

“My wife was apprehensive about flying out here,” Fadel said. “I had another attack on Tuesday.”

First-round leader Tim Jackson followed up his 66 with an even-par 72 and finished one shot behind Fadel to be the No. 2 seed going into match play.

“You shoot six under [on Saturday] and you’re just trying to get in a good frame of mind and try to stay aggressive,” Jackson said. “I was a little tentative off the tee on 10. I started off shaky. Bogeyed the first two [holes] and then just settled down and made a bunch of pars and I birdied one and two. And played really well on my last nine. I had good short birdie putts on just about every hole.”

Two-time winner Kemp Richardson of Laguna Niguel shot a second round 78 but still managed to advance to match play.

Fifteen players will return to the course to play for 13 spots to round out the top 64. They will play at 7:15 a.m. and then match play begins approximately one hour later.