There wouldn’t be any late-round heroics this time for Jack Perry.
Valencia’s Nick Delio made sure of that in the final of the Southern California Golf Association Match Play Championship on Wednesday at Sandpiper Golf Club.
Delio eagled the first hole of the final round and never fell behind in beating Santa Barbara’s Perry 3 and 2 to successfully defend his title.
“I played great all week; this course fits my eye,” said Delio, a 20-year-old senior at Cal State Northridge and the 2008 California Amateur champion. “I’m really happy to defend and confident in my game right now.”
The sixth-seeded Delio, who outlasted Kevin Marsh on the 21st hole in the semifinals, won Nos. 10, 11 and 12 to open a 4-up lead in the afternoon final.
For Perry, the No. 12 seed and youngest player in the field at 18, the result was his second straight runner-up finish in an SCGA event. Last month, he finished second in the SCGA Amateur Championship at La Cumbre Country Club. He also finished second in a playoff for the CIF State Individual title in June.
“I’m disappointed at another second-place finish, but I didn’t give it to him; he won it with how well he played,” the Northwestern-bound Perry said. “I look forward to coming back and playing again next year.”
Perry, who helped Santa Barbara High win its first CIF State championship, won tight matches all the way to the final. He defeated San Bernardino’s Scott Clayton (19 holes), Tustin’s Doug Fortner (1-up with a birdie on No. 17), Sherman Oaks’ Greg Moss (1-up with a birdie on the 18th) and Riverside’s Kevin Fitzgerald, the California State Amateur co-medalist, (1-up) in the semifinals.
Delio, the 2010 NCAA Southwest Regional Championship, didn’t reach the 15th hole until his morning semifinal match. He defeated Los Angeles’ Tony Behrstock in the Round of 32, 6 and 4, before ousting John Adams of San Clemente (5 and 3) and Sam Yi of Northridge (6 and 4).
In his semifinal against Dos Pueblos grad and U.S. Mid-Amateur champion Marsh, Delio rallied from a two-hole deficit with birdies on No. 16 and No. 18 to square the match. He beat Marsh with a birdie-3 on the 21st hole.
