17-year-old Wichita golfer Asher Whitaker becomes youngest Kansas Am winner in 97 years
It may sound like a lot of pressure for a 17-year-old to win the Kansas Amateur Match Play championship, but Asher Whitaker isn’t the typical 17-year-old golfer.
The junior-to-be at Kapaun Mt. Carmel High School has played in high-stakes tournaments all over the country this summer and is no stranger to performing under pressure.
That experience paid off on Sunday when Whitaker won four holes down the stretch to close out the 36-hole championship match against Alex Downing in a 2-and-1 victory at Sand Creek Station.
At age 17, Whitaker’s accomplishment had not been seen in the Kansas Am in nearly a century, as the youngest winner in the event’s 112-year history was Fred Salmons, who won the 1925 title at Wichita Country Club as a 16-year-old.
The finals were a back-and-forth affair between the high school junior and Downing, a Lee’s Summit, Mo. native and 2006 graduate from Buena Vista, an NCAA Division III school in Iowa.
The first 18 holes saw each golfer win five. The two traded runs that left the match tied entering the afternoon session. Downing was in control early in the second round, holding a 2-up advantage after 28 holes.
That’s when Whitaker made his move. He birdied hole No. 11 and No. 12 to win each to tie up the match, then took the lead when Downing double-bogeyed hole No. 14. Another bogey by Downing on hole No. 16 gave Whitaker a two-hole advantage with two holes remaining and the Wichita native closed out the match with a par on the par-3 No. 17.
It marked the second straight year a Wichita native won the Kansas Am title, as Whitaker followed Cooper Schultz, the Andover native and current K-State golfer whom Whitaker had to defeat in Saturday’s semifinals to advance.
This story was originally published July 24, 2022 at 4:09 PM.
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