State College, Pa. - August 26, 2005 - Penn State Nittany Lion golfer Mark Leon (Brampton, Ontario) holed a 36-foot birdie put on the final hole of Philadelphia's Merion Country Club to claim a 1-Up win over Kevin Chappell and earn a spot in the quarterfinals of the 105th United State Amateur Championships.

Leon, who was an All-Big Ten performer for Penn State and head coach Greg Nye as a senior last year, will face fellow Canadian J.C. Deacon in the quarterfinals today at 12:30 p.m. The match will air live on the Golf Channel.

The Ontario-native qualified for the event by winning his regional qualifier in Altoona in late-July. Since arriving in Philadelphia earlier this week, Leon has been superb. 308 golfers qualified for the Championships from over 9,000 who began the quest. Leon tied for 24th in stroke-play, a two-round tournament designed to narrow the field of 308 down to 64 for match play.

Leon won his first round match-play event 3-and-2 over Robert Riesen on Thursday. Friday, he downed former Navy standout Billy Hurley 1-Up before his thrilling win over Chappell propelled him to the final eight.

Should Leon win this afternoon, he would meet the winner of the Dillon Dougherty/Ryan Yip match in tomorrow's semifinals. His tee-time would be 9 a.m. The semifinals and championships will air nationally on NBC Saturday and Sunday from 4 to 6 p.m.

Live scoring of the event is available at http://www.usamateur.org.