Conway finishes second

Steve Conway, a Newport Beach resident, shot 4-under par, 284, to

finish in second place in the 104th Southern California Golf

Association Amateur Championship on Sunday at Torrey Pines Golf

Course.

A senior-to-be at UCLA and a graduate of Rancho Santa Margarita

High, Conway finished two strokes behind Bruins teammate Roy Moon,

though he pressured Moon with a pair of birdies on the final two

holes of the 72-hole tournament, played on the south course at Torrey

Pines.

Conway was tied for seventh after the first two rounds (72-74),

but came back to the forefront with a 69 in each of his last two

rounds.

After making nine consecutive pars to open his round Sunday, he

finished with birdies on 17 and 18 to put some pressure on Moon, who

was playing one group behind Conway.

“I was leaving all of my putts short on the front nine,” Conway

said on the SCGA Web site. “So I changed my putting stroke a little

and everything began to drop.”

But Moon was solid at the finish as well. He crushed a 305-yard

drive on the 524-yard, par-5 finishing hole and then hit the center

of the green on his second shot. He two-putted for birdie and a

two-stroke victory over Conway.

“He’s as good a putter as anybody out there,” Conway told the San

Diego Union-Tribune about Moon. “But he’s always struggled with his

driving a little bit. But that drive he hit on 18 -- that’s not the

same Roy as two years ago.”

Conway was a different player over the weekend compared to the

first two days of the tournament. He played the final 36 holes in

6-under par, including a 3-under par 33 on the back side on Sunday

for his final score.

As a junior at UCLA, Conway averaged 71.2 strokes in 34 rounds. He

won two tournaments, the Western Intercollegiate and the Cleveland

Classic. He also finished in the top 10 six times and the top 20

eight times. Overall, 18 of his 34 rounds were under par and he shot

13 rounds under 70.