Walker Cup men reach semi-finals of first
USA amateur four-ball championship
USGA NEWS RELEASE
SAN
FRANCISO – Three pairs of mid-amateurs and a duo of highly-ranked teenagers all won two matches Tuesday to advance to the
semi-finals of the inaugural U.S. amateur four-ball championship at the
Olympic Club’s Lake Course, which has hosted five U.S. Opens.
The victorious veterans were led
by 2013 USA Walker Cup team members Todd White, of Spartanburg, South Carolina,
and four-time U.S. Mid-Amateur champion Nathan Smith, of Pittsburgh, who did not make a bogey in their two victories.
“I know that Nathan's been
through so much USGA-wise, so nothing's going to faze him,” said White,
who won the 2015 Azalea Amateur against a field that included many
collegiate players.
White, with 16 past USGA
championship appearances and Smith, with 33, defeated a side of brothers
– Jason and Todd Higton, of Fresno, California, 3 and 2, in the
quarter-finals after posting six birdies in a back-and-forth, 2 and 1
decision over Southern Methodist University team-mates Austin Smotherman
and Bryson DeChambeau in the second round.
Smith, 36, an investment advisor
and White, 47, a high school history teacher, will meet a pair of
18-year-olds – Sam Burns, of Shreveport, Louisiana, and Austin Connelly, of
Irving, Texas, ranked 6th and 10th, respectively in the World Amateur
Golf Ranking in one of Wednesday’s semi-final matches.
In the other semi-final pairing,
Sherrill Britt, 49, of West End, North Carolina and Greg Earnhardt, 46, of
Greensboro, North Carolina will meet Scott Harvey, 36, of Greensboro, North Carolina, and
Todd Mitchell, 36, of Bloomington, Illinois
Burns, who is a three-time
Louisiana high school champion and will attend LSU, and Connelly, who
captured the Jones Cup in February and will attend Arkansas, defeated
golf manufacturing engineers Matthew Simone, of Pittsburgh, and
Cory Bacon, of Cave Creek, Arizona 2 and 1, in the quarter-finals. Their
second-round victory came over Don Walsworth, of Leawood, Kansas., and Jon
Troutman, of Spring Hill, Kansas, 3 and 1.
Labels: Amateur Men