Wichita State golfer advances to Kansas Amateur finals for second year in a row

For the second straight summer, Michael Winslow has reached the final of the Kansas Amateur Match Play Championship.

The current senior on the Wichita State men’s golf team finished runner-up to Wichita native and teammate Zach Sokolosky last year. The two met again on Saturday in the semifinals with Winslow rallying late to win 1-up.

Winslow will face Olathe native Will King, a junior on the Kansas men’s golf team, in a 36-hole final on Sunday at Topeka Country Club. Winslow is the first repeat Kansas Amateur finalist since Sam Stevens appeared in three straight finals from 2013-15.

A trio of Wichita natives advanced to the quarterfinals of the 64-player bracket on Saturday, including Sokolosky (Andover), Cooper Schultz (Andover Central) and Asher Whitaker (Kapaun Mt. Carmel). Schultz was the 2021 Kansas Am champion, while Whitaker won the title in 2022 .

Schultz, a K-State senior , was dialed in for the quarterfinals, defeating Overland Park’s Griffin Mott, 6 and 5, while Sokolosky, a recent WSU graduate, prevailed in a tight match with Whitaker, an incoming freshman at Oklahoma, 2 and 1. Whitaker erased a two-hole deficit to square the match following No. 14, but Sokolosky birdied the par-5 No. 15 and Whitaker bogeyed No. 17 to close out the match.

Both semifinal matches featured some of the highest-quality golf of the week, as all four golfers proved themselves worthy of being named champion.

Schultz won three of the first five holes against King, highlighted by an eagle on the par-5 No. 5, but the KU rival squared the match by the 10th hole. The match was still knotted following the back-nine, as King emerged victorious with a birdie on the first sudden-death playoff hole.

Meanwhile, Sokolosky maintained an advantage for the majority of the match against his Shocker teammate. Facing a two-hole deficit with four to play, Winslow won three straight — with birdies on No. 15 and No. 17 — to rally for victory.

Kansas Amateur Match Play Championship results

Quarterfinals: No. 1 Cooper Schultz, Wichita, def. No. 24 Griffin Mott, Overland Park, 6 and 5; No. 5 Will King, Olathe, def. No. 4 Easton Johnson, Kansas City, 5 and 4; No. 10 Michael Winslow, Overland Park, def. No. 2 Alex Springer, Olathe, 5 and 4; No. 6 Zach Sokolosky, Wichita, def. No. 3 Asher Whitaker, Wichita, 2 and 1.

Semifinals: No. 5 Will King, Olathe, def. No. 1 Cooper Schultz, 19 holes; No. 10 Michael Winslow, Overland Park, def. No. 6 Zach Sokolosky, Wichita, 1 up.