Detroit Golfer David Byrne Qualifies For U.S. Amateur Championship

Aug. 4, 2008

UDM golfer David Byrne continued his sizzling summer play by winning a qualifier to earn a spot in the 2008 U.S. Amateur Championship field.

Byrne - who captured his second straight Ontario Match Play Championship in June and followed with a sixth-place finish at the Ontario Amateur - won his 36-hole U.S. Am qualifier at the Trump National Golf Club in Westchester, NY with a one-under-par total of 141 after rounds of 71 and 70. That gave him a five-shot victory over John Ervasti and six-stroke margin over Patrick Pierson as all three golfers moved on to the national amateur championship.

The 108th U.S. Amateur will be held at Pinehurst - site of the 1994 U.S. Senior Open and both the 1999 and 2005 U.S. Opens - in North Carolina. The 2008 U.S. Amateur field will play 18 holes each on the historic resort's famed No. 2 and No. 4 Courses on Aug. 18 and 19. The top 64 qualifiers will advance to match play one day later, with the national champion decided on Aug. 24. The U.S. Amateur is the USGA's oldest event.

Coincidentally, Byrne has already played Nos. 2 and 4 this summer as he qualified for match play at the North and South Amateur Championship.

A two-time All-Horizon League golfer entering his junior year at UDM, Byrne is the fourth different Titan to qualify for the U.S. Amateur in the last nine years. He follows Mark Sommerfeld (2006 and 2007), Kyler Murphy (2005) and Adam Walicki (1999 and 2002).

The U.S. Amateur will be one of two national competitions for Byrne this summer. Along with teammate Jeff Clarridge and 2008 UDM graduate Mark Sommerfeld, he'll also tee it up at the Canadian Amateur Championship, Aug. 11-14 in Lethbridge, AB. It will be Byrne's straight appearance in the Canadian Am after he reached the Round of 16 in match play last summer.

--Story provided by the Detroit office of sports information