Some pretty good players still in with a chance to make match play in U.S. Amateur

   You scan down the list of 300-some players battling for 64 spots in match play at a U.S. Amateur and you realize what a daunting task it really is.

   If you can get there, then it’s match play and anything can happen. A measure of how hard it is just to get into match play can be found in a trio of players who will be teeing off Wednesday morning in a 13-for-8 crapshoot to get into that final 64.

   One of them is Texas senior Scottie Scheffler of Dallas. He has been one of the very best players in college golf the last two seasons. He was the low amateur in the U.S. Open, finishing tied for 27^th at 1-under 287 at Erin Hills.

   He almost certainly will be  a member of the U.S. team when the Walker Cup is held at Los Angeles Country Club next month. But Wednesday he will be fighting for his life after opening with a solid 1-under 69 at Riviera Country Club Monday before falling back with a 75 at Bel-Air Country Club Tuesday.

   His 144 total left him hoping he can get grab one of those eight spots that will be up for grabs in Wednesday morning’s playoff. That’s what it took, 4-over, just to get into a playoff to maybe get a chance to make match play. It’s a tough crowd.

   NCAA champion Braden Thornberry, a junior at Mississippi, is in the same boat after shooting 2-over 72 at both courses.

   Florida state senior Harry Ellis of England added a 1-over 71 at Riviera to his opening-round 73 at Bel-Air and is the mix as well. All Ellis did earlier this summer was win The Amateur Championship at Royal St. George’s Golf Club, so look out for him if he makes it into match play.

   At the top of the leaderboad, Hayden Wood, who was a sophomore on a really, really strong Oklahoma State team last spring, fired a spectacular 6-under 64 at Riviera Monday and added a 3-under 67 at Bel-Air Tuesday to easily win medalist honors at 9-under 131.

   Wood is the son of 1977 U.S. Junior Amateur champion Willie Wood, who made a living on the PGA Tour and occasionally pops up on a PGA Tour Champions leaderboard now and again.

   The runnerup was Norman Xiong, who helped Oregon reach the final match in defense of its NCAA Championship as freshman last spring. Xiong of San Diego matched Wood’s opening-round 64 at Riviera and added an even-par 70 at Bel-Air for a 6-under 134 total.

   Michael Graboyes, the Cornell senior and Ivy League champion who earned his ticket to the U.S. Amateur in a qualifier at Stonewall, came up just short of joining that gang in the playoff. Graboyes of Wachtung, N.J. fired a solid 1-over 71 at Riviera Tuesday after opening with a 74 at Bel-Air to finish a shot out of the playoff at 5-over 145.

   Stewart Hagestad, a Newport Beach, Calif. native who won the U.S. Mid-Amateur at Stonewall in dramatic fashion last summer, also came up just short of reaching match play. Hagestad, the low amateur at the Masters, had a second-round 74 at Bel-Air after opening with a 72 at Riviera for a 6-over 146 total.

   His opponent in the final at Stonewall, 2014 U.S. Mid-Amateur champion Scott Harvey of Greensboro, N.C., added a 78 at Bel-Air to an opening-round 74 at Riviera for a 152 total.

   Penn State senior Cole Miller, who will be one of the top returning players in college golf this season, couldn’t recover from the hole he dug for himself with a 78 Monday at Riviera. The former Northwestern Lehigh standout, matched par at Bel-Air with a 70 in the second round, but his 148 – with a snowman in each round – wasn’t good enough.

   Nathan Smith, the four-time U.S. Mid-Amateur champion from Pittsburgh, opened with a 73 at Bel-Air, but a second-round 77 at Riviera left him at 150.

   Ben Cooley, who helped Penn win the Ivy League title in 2015 and survived a 4-for-1 playoff at Stonewall, looked good after an opening-round 72 at Bel-Air Monday, but could  do no better than an 80 at Riviera in the second round for a 152 total.

   Arizona junior Dylan Stein, the medalist in the qualifier at Stonewall from Flemington, N.J, rebounded nicely from an opening-round 83 at Riviera with an even-par 70 for a 153 total.

Connor Schmidt, the former Peters Township standout who had a solid freshman season at Drexel, opened with a 76 at Bel-Air and added a second-round 80 at Riviera.

   Another player who advanced out of the Stonewall qualifier, William & Mary junior David Hicks of Cape May Court House, N.J., opened with a 79 at Riviera and added an 82 Tuesday at Bel-Air for a 161 total.

   Not sure how this happened, but Chris Crawford, the former Drexel standout who has qualified for the U.S. Open the last two years and had high hopes for this U.S. Amateur, was disqualified after an opening-round 73.