(Thursday, September 16, 2010) Santa Rosa, Cali. – Derek Berg of Duvall, Erik Hanson of Kirkland, and Michael Haack of Bellevue completed play today at the 9th USGA State Team Championship at Mayacama Country Club in Santa Rosa, California, representing the state of Washington, in a tie for 10th place at 6-over par 433. The team was tied for the lead after the opening round but struggled a bit in the second round to fall into a tie for 12th place and then rebounded with a good finishing round today to move up into a tie for 9th place.  The scoring format counts the best two out of three individual rounds per team on each of the three days.

Leading the squad today was Berg who carded a final round of 1-under par 70.  On his round today, Berg recorded two birdies and three bogeys on the front nine for a 1-over par 37, but he again finished strong with a two birdies and a bogey free back nine for a 2-under par 33.  Berg finished the tournament at 5-over par 218.

Hanson’s score of 2-over par 73 today again counted towards the team score.  After turning in 1-under par 35, Hanson made bogeys at holes 10, 11, 14, and 16 before finishing with a long birdie putt at the finishing hole for a 3-over 38. Hanson also recorded a 54-hole total of 5-over par 218.

Haack, who led the team yesterday with a 3-over par 74 followed it up again today with a 74.  A bogey free effort on the front nine with a birdie on the par-4 8th hole was good for a 1-under par 35.  On the back nine Haack had a tough stretch of holes from 11 to 13 and finished with a 4-over 39.  Over the week, Haack played consistently and finished at 8-over 221.

The team from Georgia won the championship.

Final results can be found on the USGA website at www.usga.org.

Players were selected to represent the state of Washington based on their year long standings (August 2009 – August 2010) on the WSGA Performance Points List with Berg, Hanson and Haack being the state’s top-3 point earners.  As per NCAA rules, college golfers are not eligible to compete in the USGA State Team Championship.

Berg, earned top honors with 465 points with an impressive resume including, ’09 Pacific Northwest Mid-Amateur (Runner-up), ’09 U.S. Mid-Amateur (Round of 32),’10 Oregon Open (Champion), ’10 Washington State Amateur (Top-5), ’10 Rosauers Open (Top-5), and the ’10 Pacific Coast Amateur (Top-30),.

Hanson was the second with 310 points which he accumulated at the ’09 Pacific Northwest Mid-Amateur (Top-5), ’09 U.S. State Team Championship (Top-15), ’09 U.S. Mid-Amateur (Round of 32), ’10 Pacific Northwest Master-40 Amateur (Champion), ’10 Washington State Mid-Amateur (Runner-up), ’10 Pacific Northwest Amateur (Round of 64), and the ’10 Royal Oaks Invitational (Top-5).

Haack finished in third place with 170 points, accumulated from the ’09 Pacific Northwest Mid-Amateur (Champion), ’10 Washington State Mid-Amateur (Champion), and the ’10 Washington State Amateur (Top-20).

While Haack is making his State Team debut, Berg was on the ’09 team and Hanson was on the ’03, ’05, ’07, and ’09 teams with the state’s best finishes coming in 2007 and 2009 where they finished in a tie for 8th place out of 51 teams.

A Jack Nicklaus design, Mayacama Golf Club opened in 2001 on the former estate of “Peanuts” comic strip creator Charles M. Schulz. The club is located 65 miles north of San Francisco in the heart of wine country.

This is the 9th USGA Men’s State Team Championship and the first USGA Championship to be conducted at Mayacama Golf Club. The competition, as well as the Women’s State Team Championship, grew out of the Association’s centennial anniversary in 1995. USGA officials believed that a new championship, one in which each state could be represented by amateur, non-college golfers, was an appropriate way to cap the USGA’s year-long birthday celebration. The competition proved to be such a success that the Association decided to continue conducting the championship biennially.