Golf: DuBois defeats Clement to advance

Don DuBois used a little home-course advantage to win his first round of match play, Monday at Big Canyon Country Club.

The Newport Beach resident and member of the host site for the U.S. Senior Amateur scored a 2 and 1 victory over David Clement of Henderson, Ky. to advance to the second round.

“It was a close match,” DuBois said. “We both hit it solid.”

DuBois lost the first hole to Clement when he couldn’t get up and down from the greenside rough, but evened the match on the next hole.

“I hit good drive and 4-iron on the par 5 and he actually hit it out of bounds so I got it right back,” DuBois said. “He missed about 10 footer for par on the next hole.”

Two holes later the match was all square again when Clement knocked in a 15-foot birdie putt, but again DuBois took the lead three holes later on No. 8 utilizing a little local knowledge.

“He hit a bad drive and was in a bad spot,” DuBois said. “After hitting a good drive, I hit it to the left side. You can’t miss it right there, the pin was back right. So I got my four and got out of there.”

The two traded pars for the next four holes, but DuBois had a chance to increase his lead on the short Par 3, 12th hole.

“That was a good swing, an aggressive swing,” DuBois said. “I hit a hard wedge from 137 yards and went right at the flag, but I couldn’t make the 7-footer.”

On the 14th hole DuBois started to struggle, three-putting and leaving Clement an opportunity to square the match, but Clement missed his short par-saving putt as well.

“That was huge for me,” DuBois said. “He could have squared the match. It was game on anyway but anytime you are in a 1 up match anything can happen.”

Clement did square it on the next hole when DuBois made his second consecutive bogey, failing to get up and down from the greenside bunker.

“I thought I hit a nice little cut hybrid on 15 because you don’t want to short side yourself on that green, but didn’t cut it enough and landed in the bunker,” DuBois said.

It didn’t take long for DuBois to get the lead back. On No. 16 he took advantage of Clement’s drive hitting a tree on the Par 5 554-yard hole. The third shot of DuBois came to rest about 27 feet from the cup, which he rolled in for birdie.

“I knew he had a tough up and down,” DuBois said. “I made that one putt and that was big.”

DuBois would have an even more important putt on the 17th hole when he was facing a 4-foot par putt to win the match, something he was able to accomplish.

“I thought I hit a good first putt but I left it short and had that dangerous 4 foot putt but I was able to knock it in,” DuBois said. “If he makes his putt I’ve got a really nasty putt to stay 1 up going to the last hole.”

Instead DuBois was able to get congratulatory hand shakes from his daughter and about 20 members who were following his match.

DuBois will face Bryan Norton of Mission Hills, Kan. who defeated Randy Reifers 4 and 3. They start at 9:45 a.m.

“He’s a really good player, probably one of the best in the field,” DuBois said. “I feel pretty good going into [Tuesday’s] match. It is going to be a hard match.”

In some of the other matches, Laguna Niguel resident and two-time winner, Kemp Richardson lost to Rick Cloninger 2 and 1. Medalist Alan Fadel squandered a 4 up lead, but came back to defeat Stephen Fox 1 up.