Jim Young of AmateurGolf.com contributed to this story

SAN FRANCISCO – Mitchell Hoey of the Saint Mary's Golf Team made it all the way to the final of the San Francisco Golf Championships on Sunday, before coming up just one hole short in match play.
 
Hoey advanced through five rounds of match play to make the finals at the prestigious SF Championships. The San Francisco City Golf Championship, known affectionately to Bay Area golfers simply as "The City," was first played in 1917 and has been played every year thereafter, making it one of the longest consecutively contested amateur tournaments in America.
 
With roughly 600 players annually, The City is also one of the last large municipal tournaments in the country. Competition takes place at TPC Harding Park and Lincoln Park golf courses where in keeping with tradition the ball is played down regardless of the weather.

For 33 holes and nearly eight hours, Foothill High senior Brandon Knight and Hoey engaged in a tightly-contested final. The two combatants were separated by more than one hole just once and that came early in the match when Knight won holes five and six to take a 2-up lead. Hoey bounced right back with a win on the seventh and from then on, the two friends from the East Bay kept were neck and neck on a clear and cool day on the bluffs overlooking Lake Merced.

Following Hoey's win on the seventh, the two players were never separated by more than a hole in a grinding and tense championship match that neither player could take by the horns.

After trading pars on the 33rd hole, Knight and Hoey went to the short par-4, 16th hole, a terrific match-play hole that tempts fate and punishes wayward drives. Hoey, who was fighting with his driver all day, pushed his tee shot to the right of the large cypress trees. Knight, who was steady off the tee all day, followed with a textbook tee shot that left him just 89 yards to the flag.

Knight was first to play, leaving Hoey to ponder his options with his caddy and Saint Mary's teammate Jonathan Curran, a redshirt junior from Scottsdale, Ariz.

Knight hit a gap wedge short of the hole and watched as the ball took one hop and momentarily hung on the edge of the cup before disappearing into the hole for an eagle two and a 1-up lead.

"I had 89 yards into the wind and I think I played it at 95 and I was a little undecided whether to hit a hard sand wedge of an easy gap wedge. I hit the gap wedge and it came off perfectly. I pulled a lot of wedges today and wanted just one good one to put the pressure on him a bit. It took one hop and then hung on the hole for a bit before dropping in."

Stymied by the trunk of a large cypress tree, Hoey had no other option than to take the gut punch, pick up his ball and head to the 17th tee.

The last two holes were halved with pars, with Knight calmly rolling in a three-footer on the last to join a list of distinguished City champions that includes former major champions Ken Venturi, Bob Rosburg and George Archer.

"Mitchell had a real hot putter going in the morning and I was fortunate to be only 1 down at lunch. We halved a few holes with birdies in the afternoon and I think I shot a bogey-free 66 to his 69."

Knight and Hoey counter punched all day until the Colorado-bound Knight threw what turned out to be the deciding haymaker on the 34th hole. Hoey took the loss in stride.

"Brandon is friend and a heck of a player," said Hoey. "I didn't have my best stuff off the tee today and I was grinding a lot just to stay in the match. I was happy to be 1 up at lunch and I have to give a lot of credit to my caddy and teammate Jonathan Curran for keeping me in the present the entire match. It was a lot of hard work today, to say the least. I was just grinding for pars."

Hoey will return to Harding Park with his Saint Mary's teammates on Thursday as the Gaels take part in The Goodwin hosted by Stanford.
 
The City has been a springboard for many amateurs who have gone on to play professionally.
Past Champions include U.S. Open Champion Ken Venturi, PGA Champion Bob Rosburg, Masters Champion George Archer and U.S. Women's Open Champion Juli Inkster.
 
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