Crofton resident takes title at Chartwell Josh Eure is scheduled to undergo laser surgery on Wednesday. His doctor shouldn’t be surprised if he doesn’t show up.
Playing a tournament for the first time in glasses, the 21-year-old Crofton resident captured the 91st Maryland Amateur. In the 36-hole title match Sunday at Chartwell Golf & Country Club, Eure was laser sharp in toppling 2010 champion Sean Bosdosh of Clarksburg 3 and 2.
“The glasses are 1-0 in golf tournaments,” Eure said. “I’m gonna hang these up next to the trophy.”
The victory was an appropriate conclusion for Eure, a senior this fall at Arkansas, who opened Thursday with a 7-under par 64, which matched the best competitive round at the 51-year-old Severna Park club. In seven tournament rounds, Eure was a cumulative 15-under par.
On Sunday, Eure played the first 23 holes in 5-under, giving Bosdosh few opportunities to cut into the lead. When Bosdosh, a junior at Maryland, closed the first 18 trailing 5 down, he got a pep talk from his father, acclaimed teaching pro Steve Bosdosh.
“He told me Tiger [Woods] was six down and won the U.S. Amateur,” Sean Bosdosh said. “He said ‘You can do the same thing.’?”
Bosdosh played the first four holes of the second 18 in 3-under par and still couldn’t whittle the lead of Eure, which reached 6-up on two occasions.
“He played outstanding,” Bosdosh said. “It was a lot of pressure knowing that he wasn’t going to make mistakes, and when he hit a bad shot he always recovers.”
Eure’s lone stumble came when he made bogeys on the 24th and 26th holes of the day. Bosdosh took advantage, making pars on both holes and a birdie in between. In taking three straight holes, Bosdosh sliced a 5 down deficit to 2. But he gave one back on the first hole of the final nine, three-putting from 10 feet.
“That kind of stalled his momentum a little bit,” Eure said.
Bosdosh looked in position to get it back on the next hole, a 161-yard par 3, as Eure pulled his drive into tall grass, then took a drop as the ball was plugged. But he followed with two stellar shots — a chip to within 15 feet, then a clutch putt for par to halve the hole.
Eure remained steady until the 33rd hole, where he failed to save par from a deep bunker. Bosdosh made a six-footer for par to stay alive. But 2 down with three holes left, Bosdosh chunked a wedge from the fairway and missed a 20-footer for par, allowing Eure to clinch.
Bosdosh wasn’t the only former Maryland Amateur champion Eure had beat on his way to the title. In the quarterfinals on Saturday morning, Eure outlasted 2008 winner Mike Mulieri in 19 holes.
Eure, the only three-time winner in the history of the Maryland Junior, called Sunday’s win his biggest of his career.
Now the big question: Surgery or not?
“I’m still pretty set on it,” Eure said.
