Amaya wins Costa Mesa City Championship

As Austin Amaya walked up to the 14th tee on the Los Lagos course at Costa Mesa Country Club, he did his best to gather himself.

The 20-year-old from Yorba Linda had just bogeyed the past three of four holes and he felt as if he was in a funk, though he led the Costa Mesa City Championship.

He said it was if he opened the door for others to creep up the leaderboard. But over the next five holes, Amaya slammed the door shut with three key birdies to win the Championship Flight of the 43rd annual Costa Mesa City Championship, also known as the Will Jordan Classic, on Sunday.

He shot 65-69—134 for the victory, four strokes better than runner-up Willy Moffly (70-68—138).

“This gives me confidence going forward,” said Amaya, who played for one year at Santiago Canyon College and is planning to turn pro later this month. “The finishing stretch, those aren’t hard holes, but you still have to make birdies … This is fun. This is a good one to win because all my friends are here. It’s good to take them all down, especially a few of the local guys here.”

Amaya bogeyed Nos. 10, 11 and 13 to slip into a funk. But he snapped out of it with birdies on 14, 16 and 18.

The birdies on 16 and 18 were quite impressive. On the par-four No. 16, Amaya blasted a nice drive toward the right and then hit a sensational wedge shot uphill four feet from the cup.

On the par-five No. 18, with water on the left, Amaya again sent his drive to the right. He then hit it over the green, but nearly made a long putt for eagle when it lipped out and he settled for the birdie to finish three-under.

Moffly, an incoming sophomore at UC Santa Barbara, had the lowest score on Los Lagos Sunday, going four-under.

“I wasn’t hitting it very well this weekend and I didn’t hit it great [Sunday], but I made a lot of putts,” Moffly said. “It seemed like I had five putts over 15 feet. I thought I played well.”

Moffly nearly went five-under as his birdie putt hit the pin on 18 and bounced out to 20 feet. He ended up with one of his three bogeys.

He collected seven birdies on his final round, including holes 1, 5, 6, 10, 12, 13 and 17.

“It was a good day,” Moffly said. “It was a fun tournament. The courses were good, really tricked up pins. It made it a good challenge.”

Amaya led by one stroke after the first round when he shot five-under-par 65 on Mesa Linda. He played the final round with Kyle de Silva, who shot 66 on Saturday, and Ryan Indovina, who shot 67 on Mesa Linda.

Indovina (74 on Los Lagos), de Silva (74) and Nico Mendoza (69-71) tied for third at 140.

Indovina is a former Orange Coast College standout, de Silva is an incoming junior at Cal State Fullerton, where Mendoza will be a senior.

Amaya and Mendoza both had played at Santiago Canyon. Amaya said Cal State Fullerton was also interested in him. Overall, Amaya just didn’t enjoy college and has been anxious to pursue a career in golf.

“It just didn’t work out,” Amaya said of the recruiting process with Cal State Fullerton.

During this past weekend at Costa Mesa Country Club, everything seemed to fall into place for Amaya.

He did admit to feeling nervous after being the first-round leader.

“Everyone wants to attack pins and come after you when you’re leading,” said Amaya, who birdied six holes on Los Lagos. “I came out a little slow. I had par on the first two par-five holes. But I shot three-under on the front nine.”