SENIOR THROUGH, STEWART, LEWIS HELD UP BY BAD WEATHER

By COLIN FARQUHARSON
Colin@scottishgolfview.com
The GB and I Walker Cup duo of Michael Stewart (Troon Welbeck) and Tom Lewis (Welwyn Garden City) were unable to complete their second qualifying rounds last night in the US amateur championshipship because bad weather delayed the start of the day's play by just over three hours at Erin Hills, Wisconsin.
Stewart, who had a one-under-par 71 over the championship course on Monday, is two under par overall after completing nine holes of the shorter Blue Mound.
Level par is reckoning to be the maximum 36-hole aggregate at least to get into the play-off which will be necessary to reduce the number of qualifiers to the required figure of 64.
Lewis, who also had a 71 over the longer course (7,660yd) on Monday, is level par with nine to play at Blue Mound.
A third GB and I Walker Cup player, Jack Senior (Heysham) is almost certainly through to the match-play stages after returning a 73 over the big course for a total of two-under-par 140. He had a 67 over Blue Mound on Monday.
But the fourth GB and I player in the field, Stiggy Hodgson (Sunningdale), is on the sidelines with a pair of 73s for 146.
Danny Keddie (Belton Park) is unlikely to make it after a 74 over the Erin Hills course, two over par then and now four over par with holes still to complete at Blue Mound.
Another Englishman, Luke Joy, can write off the rest of the week. He had a 78 over Erin Hills on Monday and is five over par for the tournament during an unfinished round at Blue Mound.

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START OF MATCH-PLAY STAGES DELAYED

FROM THE USGA WEBSITE
By Pete KowalskiSixteen-year-old Beau Hossler of Mission Viejo, California and collegiate players Blayne Barber, 21, of Lake City, Florida, and Ben Geyer, 19, of Arbuckle, California, posted 7-under-par 36-hole totals of 135 to share the lead for stroke-play medalist honours at Tuesday’s weather-delayed 2011 U.S. Amateur Championship.
Hossler qualified for the 2011 U.S. Open at Congressional Country Club but missed the cut shooting, 76-77. He is a junior at Santa Margarita High School and played in his first U.S. Amateur in 2009 at age 14. He made seven birdies and three bogeys in shooting 4-under-par 66 at the par-70, 6,622-yard Blue Mound Golf and Country Club.
“I really hit the ball well,” said Hossler, who was the stroke-play medalist at the 2011 U.S. Junior Amateur. “I knew coming in this would be a good tournament for me because it’s difficult and I feel very comfortable under difficult conditions.”
Barber, a redshirt sophomore at Auburn University who represented the USA at the 2011 Palmer Cup, shot 67 at Blue Mound. Geyer, a junior at St. Mary’s College in California, posted seven birdies and one bogey at the 7,760-yard, par-72 Erin Hills course for a 6-under-par 66, which tied Mike Ignasiak, 45, of Saline, Michigan, for the best score there in stroke play.
The trio was among the 157 players who waited out a 3hr 40min weather delay in the morning and then completed their second stroke-play qualifying rounds Tuesday afternoon.
None of the players in the afternoon wave completed their second rounds, including defending champion Peter Uihlein, 21, of Orlando, and two of the three first-round leaders: Blake Biddle, 19, of St. Charles, Illinois, and Gregor Main, 22, of Danville, California.
Biddle had completed 12 holes at Blue Mound and was unofficially three under par for Tuesday’s round and eight under par through 30 holes.
The second round was suspended due to darkness (at 7 p.m. at Erin Hills and 7:15 p.m. at Blue Mound), and will resume at 7:30 a.m. (local time) Wednesday.
Following any necessary play-off to reduce the field to 64 players, the first round of match play will begin at a time to be determined.
Hossler, who led his high-school team to a fourth-place finish in the California state tournament, has been using his competitive season as a classroom.
“It’s been great,” he said. “Even though I haven’t had the practice sessions that I normally have because I have been so busy, the tournament experience has made me a lot more comfortable on bigger stages like this one. I was a little intimidated when I played this a couple of years ago but now I feel very comfortable and I know a lot of the guys here. I can learn from those types of guys.”
Geyer, who is playing in his first U.S. Amateur but competed earlier this summer at the 2011 U.S. Amateur Public Links, credited his putter for his scoring.
“When I was three under after eight with a bogey, that was pretty good,” Geyer said. “The first five holes I had birdie putts inside 20 feet and only made two of them. I knew I was hitting the ball well. That putt where I lipped out for par on six was a good putt. From there, I started putting well.”
Barber admitted to using the stroke-play medal as an incentive to keep playing well after a 68 at Erin Hills on Monday.
“I tried to keep focused on that because I didn’t want to get complacent and start playing defensively,” Barber said. “I don’t know what it’s going to take, but I was thinking, ‘Just go out there and try to be the medalist. But whatever happens, happens.’ At least if I was pushing for that, match play was going to happen, be an end result of that.”
The 2011 U.S. Amateur Championship consists of 36 holes of stroke play followed by six rounds of match play, with the championship scheduled to conclude with a 36-hole final on Sunday