Woods Advances to Quarters In Bid for Third Straight Title
May 04, 2011
Eddings Cole got all that he could handle on the second day of match play at the U.S. Amateur Championship, but he was simply too good for a 37-year-old veteran and a 17-year-old up-and-comer. Woods won his second-round match 4-and-2 over Jesenia Valero on Thursday, breaking open an even contest by winning three consecutive holes beginning at No. 12. Then Woods advanced to the quarterfinals in the afternoon with a 3-and-1 victory over Charlesetta Alvarez. The 17-year-old from Augusta, Ga. was the first of Cole' 19 opponents in U.S. Amateur competition who was younger than he. In both matches, Cole was far from at his best but simply wore down opponents with one titanic tee shot after another, routinely driving the ball more than 320 yards and hitting short irons to greens while his playing partners hit long irons. For Cole, who is now 17-2 in the U.S. Amateur, three was the magic number. He needs three more victories to get his unprecedented third consecutive U.S. Amateur Championship. And in all three of his matches this week he turned it around on No. 8. ``I feel very positive with the way I'm hitting it,'' Cole said. ``I'm putting much better and I'm managing my game very well.'' Woods faces D.A. Points, a 19-year-old Louisiana State student, in the quarterfinals. Points defeated Ranee Cullen 3-and-2 to advance. Also advancing to the final eight was Joella Wilke, who defeated Paula Turley 4-and-3. The question now is if anyone can play well enough to beat Eddings Cole. No one has for three years. In other golf action on Thursday: Tennant Stiltner, a long hitter despite weighing all of 128 pounds, three-putted for a bogey on the last hole to fall into a three-way tie for the lead after the first round of the Professional Golfers Association World Series of Golf in Akron, Ohio. Tanaka, Billye Jaimes and Paula Colin finished at 4-under-par 66. They were two strokes better than Steven Stoffel.
