Aug. 4, 2005
NOTRE DAME, Ind. – Notre Dame rising sophomore Eddie Peckels (Pinehurst, N.C./Pope John Paul II (Fla.) HS) battled back from early deficits to win both his second- and third-round matches on Thursday at the 105th North and South Amateur Championship in Pinehurst, N.C. Peckels, who was the 59th seed in the 64-man match play bracket, advances to Friday’s quarterfinal round where he will play third-seeded Dane Burkhart at 8 a.m. EDT (7 a.m. EST/CDT in South Bend) on the famed Pinehurst No. 2 course that recently played host to the U.S. Open. Burkhart will be a senior at South Carolina-Aiken this fall and he is the reigning NCAA Division II medalist, having helped USCA claim the national championship back in May.
Peckels looked to be in trouble in his morning match against 38th-seeded Andrew Lanahan, trailing the LSU senior-to-be by two holes at the turn. However, Peckels showed impressive resilience to pull even in the match on the back side of the course and eventually pull out the match by winning on the second extra hole (20 holes).
With little time to recover, Peckels returned to the links Thursday afternoon to take on No. 11 Dan Walters. After Walters took an early lead with a par at the fifth hole, Peckels came right back on the next hole with a par to square the match. The Irish second-year standout then took his first lead on the 11th hole and never looked back, registering a 2 & 1 victory over Walters, a rising senior at Division II power Rollins (Fla.) College.
Peckels’ advancement to the quarterfinals of the North and South Amateur is one step better than Irish rising junior Cole Isban (South Bend, Ind./Mishawaka Marian HS) did last year when he reached the third round before bowing out.
With a victory in Friday’s quarterfinals, Peckels would move into the semifinal round on Saturday against either second-seeded Jake Grodzinsky of Duke or No. 23 seed Sean Moore of Wake Forest. Grodzinsky was the medalist during the 36-hole stroke play qualifier earlier this week, posting a seven-under par 143.
Two other Notre Dame golfers didn’t fare as well as Peckels on Thursday. Incoming freshman Josh Sandman (Greensboro, N.C./Southeast Guilford HS) won his second-round match in the morning, defeating Chattanooga sophomore-to-be Gordon Strother, Jr., by a 2-up count. However, Sandman’s tournament then came to an end with a third-round 3 & 2 loss to Burkhart. Meanwhile, Isban fell in the second round to Alabama incoming freshman Matt Swan, 4 & 3.
— ND —