Ledgeview's James Lepp Wins
Fourth Straight BC Amateur


Lepp secures his place in history by becoming the first man to win four straight BC Amateur titles

by Brad Ziemer
Vancouver Sun
Saturday, July 16, 2005

VICTORIA -- James Lepp wasn't quite ready Friday afternoon to reflect on the significance of his latest golfing accomplishment. History be damned. Lepp was looking for his swing, the one that seemed to desert him en route to becoming the first player to win four straight B.C. Amateur championships.

"I'm always so focused on how I am playing and I was in a bad mood all day because I was just hitting it like crap," said Lepp, always his toughest critic.

"It's obviously fun to win a tournament and looking back on it at some point I'll be like, 'wow, I won four B.C. Ams in a row.' But right now I'm kind of thinking about my game. Some of those bad shots I hit are kind of bothering me and I'm wondering what I can do to fix it."

Lepp had to draw upon his Houdini-like short game on more than one occasion Friday at Gorge Vale Golf Club to secure a four-shot victory over 20-year-old James Allenby of Langley.

After a smooth start to his round -- he was 3-under through his first four holes -- Lepp's game came off the rails. He double-bogeyed the par-4 seventh hole after driving it left and then attempting to hit a low hook around a tree that instead went straight into a bush. Lepp continued to battle a balky driver the rest of the way and it almost cost him big time on the par-4 12th hole, when he drove it left into thick brush.

After spending several minutes considering his options, Lepp decided to play a rather dangerous shot. Facing his ball, he managed to one-hand it out into the rough. From there, his six-iron came up short-right. He then chipped in for one of the most remarkable pars you will ever see. Allenby then missed a 10-foot birdie putt to leave Lepp's five-shot lead intact.

"I was looking at bogey, maybe double, if i don't get up and down and he was looking at birdie so that could have changed everything," Lepp said. "Instead we tie the hole." Two holes later, after missing the green on the par 3 14th, Lepp chunked his chip, prompting his grandmother to say, "Oh, James."

That brought a big smile to Lepp's face and he made a nice up and down for bogey.

Allenby cut his lead to three when he birdied the par-5 15th hole and looked like he might get to within two, but missed a five-footer for birdie on the par 3 16th. That was the story of the day for Allenby, who couldn't get a putt to drop all day.

"I just didn't make enough putts," Allenby said. "I pulled that putt on 16. But I feel fine. First loser is great."

Lepp, who ended things with a 30-footer for birdie on No. 17, realized he was fortunate to escape with victory.

"He missed that one on 16, which was huge," Lepp said. "It would have been two-up with two to play and I wasn't looking too good with my game at that point. That was a huge miss of his and I'm sure he would have liked to have had some of those other putts back."

Lepp, who won last month's NCAA Championships and passed up a spot in the U.S. Public Links tournament to play here this week, joked that his game wouldn't have been any match for Michelle Wie, who lost in the quarter-final of the Public Links on Friday.

"With the game I have right now I'd be scared to play her," Lepp said. "She looked unstoppable there. It would have been scary to play her."

Lepp opened the tournament with two straight rounds of 66 before firing a one-over 73 on Thursday. He closed with a two-under 70 to finish at 13-under 275. Allenby shot a final-round 71 to finish at nine-under. That was two strokes better than Kent Eger of Invermere, who fired a four-under 68 to finish at seven-under and in third place. That trio will be joined on B.C.'s Willingdon Cup team at next month's Canadian Amateur in Nova Scotia by 20-year-old Stephen Thomas of Vancouver. Thomas shot a three-over 75 Friday but his one-under total secured the last team spot by one shot over Summerland's Greg Machtaler.

"This has been a long time coming," Thomas said. "I've always felt like my game was good enough and it's finally happened this week so I'm pretty pleased."

CHIP SHOTS: Thirteen-time champion Doug Roxburgh closed with a one-under 71 to finish at eight-over and tied for 25th place ... Next year's B.C. Amateur will be held at Golden Golf Course.

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© The Vancouver Sun 2005