Moore Refuses to be Beaten

By Dave Curtis – The New York Post

August 23, 2004

When it’s typed up and aligned just so and stuck in the PGA Tour media guide someday, Ryan Moore’s resume may rank among the best in the book.

His 2-up win over Luke list in yesterday’s 36-hole U.S. Amateur final at Foot Golf Club
capped an amazmg summer in which he dueled college and amateur golf’s premier players and never lost.

Yesterday’s victory gave Moore wins in each of the the last five tournaments he’s entered. He is the fifth person and fourth man to win two United States Golf Association titles in the same year.

He’s the first man to win both the U.S. Amateur and the U.S. Amateur Public Links crowns. He’s the first man to win the Us. Amateur and NCAA Division I titles in the same year since Tiger Woods in 1996. And he’s the first man to win medalist honors at an Amateur and take the event since Woods in ’96.

“It’s something I haven’t really been able to step back and look at yet,” said Moore, who starts his final year at UNLV next week. “But this is the goal. You think you can do it, but when you actually do it, it’s amazing.”
The sensational season ended with maybe the best rally of Moore’s life. Trailing by as many as four holes during the match, he stood two down with five holes remaining before his strong play, and some gaffes from List, delivered the title.

Gorgeous short iron shots at the 33rd and 35th holes (the 15th and 17th of the afternoon round) led to birdies, the last of which gave Moore a lead he would not surrender.

“On the back side, I knew I needed to turn it up a notch and make some birdies,” he said. “That’s pretty hard to do, and Luke was playing such a solid round.”

List, though, couldn’t keep his game together for the full 36 holes. His four foot putt at the 26th hole spun out of the hole, and he yanked a drive out of bounds at the 29th, when Moore closed to within one.

That stretch forced the 19-year-old Vanderbilt sophomore to pop a Pepcid. Although his stomach settled enough for him to win the 31st hole to go back up by two, his solid short game went sour under the stress of Moore’s magnificence.

“Ryan played great,” List said. “He just stuck the pressure on me. He really hit some great shots, some clutch shots to do it.”

List’s late failures stunned a crew of students and faculty from The Baylor School, the Tennessee boarding school from which he graduated last June. Accompanied by their coaches, the boys and girls’ golf team flew yesterday morning from Chattanooga to Westchester Airport on Lear jets, then took limousines to Winged Foot and arrived an hour into the match.