Golfers came from across the country to compete in the Memorial Amateur at Carmichael's Ancil Hoffman.

The tournament's winner, as it turns out, lives around the corner.

John Catlin, a Carmichael resident, Jesuit High School graduate and crowd favorite, made clutch putts – a 20-footer for birdie on No. 17 and a five-footer for bogey on No. 18 – to shoot a final-round par 70 Monday to tie Cody Robinson (67) after 54 holes.

Catlin, a 20-year-old sophomore at New Mexico, beat Robinson, a 19-year-old Discovery Bay resident and Washington State sophomore, by five shots in a three-hole playoff that quickly became anticlimactic when Robinson opened with a triple bogey.

Starting the day tied for fourth, two shots off the lead, Catlin led by two shots after playing the front nine in 2 under. He bogeyed No. 16 to bring six players within two shots of the lead, but his birdie on No. 17 meant all he needed to win was a final-hole par.

He needed all the grit he could muster to make a bogey.

Catlin pulled his tee shot left into the trees about 240 yards from the green on the long par-4. Even though he had an opening and the distance to reach the green, he opted to lay up about 25 yards short and rely on his short game.

"I wanted to take (out of bounds) right and the bunkers out of play," he said. "I felt that was my best chance to make a par."

Catlin sent his chip shot over the back of the green, leaving him a decidedly more difficult and delicate second chip to a back hole location.

"I wasn't nervous. I just hit it too hard," he said. "When I hit it, I said, 'Man, you nuked that.' "

A tentative fourth shot left him a downhill five-footer for a bogey. He didn't know exactly where he stood in relation to the field, but he had a sense.

"I didn't know that the putt was for a tie, but I knew that if I missed it, I wasn't going to win," Catlin said.

He poured it into the middle of the cup.

That earned him a playoff berth against Robinson, whose 67 was the day's best round by two shots and vaulted him from a tie for 11th. Robinson, playing two groups ahead of Catlin, had some 18th-hole drama of his own after a poor drive was followed by a 130-yard wedge to tap-in range for a closing par.

His playoff performance wasn't so clutch. Admitting to nerves – "This is the first time I've been in contention to win an amateur event" – he sent his tee shot on the first playoff hole, the 195-yard, par-3 ninth, well right of the green.

Two weak chip shots later, Robinson still hadn't reached the green. His putt for double bogey resulted in a brutal 360-degree lipout.

"I was worried about adrenaline, so I tried to baby a 4-iron – that didn't work out," he said. "Then I got cute with two chips."

Catlin played the three playoff holes 1 over; Robinson was 6 over.

Niall Platt, a Notre Dame freshman from Santa Barbara, closed with a 69 to finish third, a shot back. He lipped out a 20-foot birdie putt on No. 17.

Del Oro High junior Austin Smotherman finished with a 71 that featured 17 pars to tie for fourth with Cameron Park's Jake Johnson (72), a Sacramento State junior.

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