BREAKING: Bobby Leopold Wins RI Amateur
Battling through rain and soggy conditions, Bobby Leopold won the 2021 RI Amateur Championship on Sunday evening at Kirkbrae Country Club.
Leopold beat Notre Dame star Andrew O’Leary 5&4 to win his third Amateur title in four finals appearances.
“Andrew is a stud, I mean he hits it steady. I knew I had to make birdies to beat him. Back in 2019, he got the better of me, it wasn’t so much revenge but I knew what I needed to beat him and I played flawless golf,” said Leopold after the round.
It is Leopold’s first title since 2014.
“This is special. I mean the first couple of times, not that you don’t appreciate it, but you don’t realize how hard it is. The last seven years, it’s been difficult, guys here are good, every time I go up against someone its a tough match. To me, this kind of validates practicing and playing. I still got it and I can still compete,” Leopold added.
For O’Leary, this is his second straight RI Amateur finals loss in his third straight appearance.
The Final Match
Due to course conditions from the rain, the first 18 holes were a little messed up.
The championship match teed off on the first hole and then played, two, 12-18, 10, 11, 3-9, in that order.
“We are both playing the same hole, we are playing each other so it doesn’t really matter. Andrew was fine with it, we knew we had to get it in, neither of us wanted to come back Monday,” Leopold said.
Over the first nine holes, Leopold took a four up lead on O’Leary, including an eagle on the third hole (12th hole at Kirkbrae) and a birdie on the 18th hole.
O’Leary cut it to four down on the back nine, however, Leopold won the par 3 ninth to take a commanding five up lead into the second 18.
O’Leary got it back to four down in the first two holes, but Leopold kept his foot on the gas, winning the seventh and eighth holes to go six up in the match with nine to play.
In the final nine holes, O’Leary won the 12th and 13th holes to cut Leopold’s lead to three up.
The match ended on the 32nd hole with Leopold making a birdie and O’Leary just missing his birdie put.
Silva Wins Medalist Honors
Earlier in the week, Kevin Silva took medalist honors with a two-day score of 10-under par.
Silva fired a 68 on the first day and a sparkling 6 6 on Wednesday to post a two-day score of 134.
He finished two shots ahead of Andrew O’Leary and three shots ahead of 2020 RI Amateur Champion Jamie Lukowicz.
He would lose to McKinley Slade in the round of 16.
Kirkbrae crew did a great job getting the finals done in one day. Conditions after all that rain made it look impossible to play. But the grounds crew did a tremendous job. Kudos to them
Bobby leopold and Andrew O’Leary are two great players and they put on a tremendous shoe all week. Congratulations to. Bobby on the win today