As No. 16 seeds go, Sean Dale was no first-round patsy in the Western Amateur Championship.
He was no quarterfinal cream puff either.
And Dale was certainly no semifinal-round softy.
You want a 16 seed, go see Jackson State, Florida A&M, North Carolina A&T, Rider, Liberty, Howard or Mississippi Valley State in basketball’s NCAA Tournament.
In amateur golf, a 16 seed is just a number, not a power ranking. It’s the product of one bad hole or one bad round in stroke-play qualifying.
That was Dale’s story, a 4-over-par 76 in third round of qualifying dropping him to the cut line for match play but hardly representative of a guy who ranks 16th in the Scratch Players World Amateur Rankings and 13th in the USA Collegiate D-I rankings.
Jordan Niebrugge was well aware of Dale’s credentials when they met Monday in the conclusion of a match-play final that began early Sunday afternoon only to be delayed three times before being suspended until Monday morning.
There was talk at the Sweet 16 dinner Friday night about how top-seeded Patrick Rodgers, the record-setting medalist who was at 18-under par following 72 holes of stroke play, might have his hands full with a guy who was the last of four men to survive a playoff for the 16th spot.
Dale, 23, from Jacksonville, Fla., said he heard about an exchange between Rodgers and tournament host Warren Stephens, founder of The Alotian Club.
“Patrick came up to Mr. Stephens, and he said, ‘Normally you get rewarded when you get the No. 1 seed.’ ”
Dale spent the weekend outplaying his seed, beating No. 1 Rodgers, No. 9 Tyler Dunlap and No. 4 Kramer Hickok until Monday, when Niebrugge found a way to beat Dale - jumping out early in a 10-hole format and not leaving him time to come back.
Each of Dale’s previous matches followed a pattern of him being tied or trailing early, then coming on strong on the back nine.
“I always get off to a slow start,” said Dale, a recent graduate of North Florida University. “I used the back nine to rally all week.”
There was one problem with that formula Monday morning when the final resumed at 7 a.m. in air so thick it muffled the sound of chirping birds.
There was no time for Dale to fall behind and rally with the match tied and 10 holes to play.
Dale awoke to a missed 10-foot par putt to fall one behind on No. 9. A birdie by Niebrugge on the 430-yard 10th hole staggered him. And when Niebrugge rolled in another birdie on the par-3 11th to go 3 up in a matter of less than 25 minutes, Dale was listening for the bell.
“It happened real quick,” Dale said. “At 12, I turned to my caddie: ‘Jesus, that happened fast.’ ”
Dale steadied himself by halving the next three holes before birdieing the 475-yard 15th to draw within two holes.
“It was tough to get momentum,” Dale said.
When he finally got the honors at the 205-yard par-3 16th, he overswung with a 6 iron, leaving himself 50 feet and two not-so-gentle slopes to reach the pin.
Dale tried to call on the memory of a 45-foot birdie putt he rolled in to turn his semifinal match with Hickok on Sunday.
But this was a more difficult putt, slipping 4 feet past. Niebrugge lagged his putt to tap-in range, and Dale’s attempt at extending the match lipped out.
“Hats off to Jordan,” Dale said. “He was the better golfer today.”Quotable
“This is the most spectacular venue. I promise you, we’ll be back real soon.”
- Jim Bunch, Western Golf Association official at Monday’s trophy presentation
“We look forward to you coming back sometime. Maybe not real soon, but soon.”
- Warren Stephens, The Alotian Club founder, in remarks at Monday’s trophy presentation
“I’m glad Mr. Stephens turned the air on for us.”
- Tournament runner-up Sean Dale, about the 90-degree weather during the tournament’s run By the numbers
6◊Weather delays caused by lightning
or thunderstorms 15◊Number of matches played to determine champion 138◊Holes played by champion Jordan Niebrugge 13,000◊Approximate number of patrons and volunteers who attended during the tournament
Sports, Pages 22 on 08/06/2013