Hammer pounds out a couple of wins to reach U.S. Amateur quarterfinals

   There are just eight players left standing in the U.S. Amateur after two days and three rounds of drama on the iconic Pebble Beach Golf Links on northern California’s spectacular Monterey Peninsula.

   There was a little bit of everything at Pebble Thursday. Anybody who pays any attention to Division I college golf won’t be surprised in the least to learn that six of the eight survivors into the quarterfinals were playing college golf this spring, two of whom were playing on the final day in the Final Match of the NCAA Championship at Karsten Creek Golf Club in Stillwater, Okla.

   Still, the most intriguing player left in the bracket might be a guy who is still a few weeks away from taking his first swing as a college golfer, Cole Hammer, the Houston resident who will join the Texas program later this month.

   Hammer teamed up with one of his fellow junior buddies, Garrett Barber, to win the U.S. Amateur Four-Ball Championship in May at Jupiter Hills in Tequesta, Fla. He won the Western Amateur and reached the semifinals in his final appearance as a junior in the U.S. Junior Amateur last month at Baltusrol Golf Club in Springfield, N.J.

   He earned a piece of medalist honors in qualifying for match play earlier this week with a spotless four-birdie, no-bogey, 4-under 68 at Spyglass Hill in the second round.

   Hammer didn’t overwhelm his two opponents Thursday in reaching the quarterfinals. He just beat them and that’s all that matters. He claimed a 1-up win over Joshua McCarthy, a junior at Pepperdine from Danville, Calif., and then knocked off Zach Murray of Australia, 2 and 1.

   “My game has felt great this whole year,” the 18-year-old Hammer, No. 17 in the latest World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR), told the USGA website. “I felt due for something big this summer, kind of got it kick-started with the Four-Ball and then the Western Am. And I feel like I’m still playing that type of golf.”

   Hammer’s opponent in the quarterfinals is the true Cinderella story of this U.S. Amateur. Alex Fitzpatrick is a 19-year-old from England who was 14 when he carried older brother Matthew’s bag when big brother won the 2013 U.S. Amateur at The Country Club in Brookline, Mass.

   Fitzpatrick reached the round of 16 by edging Jesus Montenegro, a talented Argentinian, in 20 holes. It was more of the same in the afternoon as Fitzpatrick birdied the 19^th hole to oust McClure Meissner, a sophomore at SMU from San Antonio, Texas.

   The winner of the Hammer-Fitzpatrick match will get the winner of a quarterfinal match between Austin Squires and Viktor Hovland in Saturday’s semifinals.

   Hovland might be the most talented player among the final eight. The Norwegian, a junior at Oklahoma State, is No. 5 in the WAGR. He was the best player on the best team in college golf last season as he played a huge role in a dominating run to an NCAA championship for the Cowboys on their home course at Karsten Creek.

   The 20-year-old Hovland claimed a 2 and 1 victory over Harrison Ott, a sophomore at Vanderbilt from Brookfield, Wis. Thursday morning then had the easiest third-round match of the day when he rolled to a 7 and 6 victory over fellow Norwegian Kristoffer Reitan, Hovland’s high school teammate.

The 21-year-old Squires is carrying the banner for that level of college golf that’s a notch below the Okie States and the Vanderbilts. He is a senior at Cincinnati from Union, Ky.

   Squires pulled off a win over one of those power-conference guys in Thursday morning’s second round, knocking off LSU’s Luis Gagne on the 19^th hole. Gagne was the low amateur at this summer’s U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills.

   Squires then pulled out a 1-up decision over Andrew Alligood, a senior at North Florida from St. Johns, Fla., to earn his quarterfinal date with Hovland.

   On the top end of the bracket is another player who teed it up opposite Hovland and Oklahoma State in the NCAA Championship’s Final Match.

   Davis Riley, a 21-year-old senior at Alabama from Hattiesburg, Miss. who is No. 24 in the WAGR, cruised to a 5 and 4 victory over New Zealand’s Daniel Hillier, who shared qualifying medalist honors with Hammer, in Thursday morning’s second round before outlasting Mason Overstreet, a junior at Arkansas from Kingfisher, Okla., in 21 holes. Neither player was ever as much as 2-up in that tense battle.

   Riley’s quarterfinal opponent will be 18-year-old Devon Bling, a junior at UCLA from Ridgecrest, Calf. Bling pulled out a 2-up victory over Shintaro Ban, No. 10 in the WAGR who completed an outstanding four-year career at UNLV this spring. He then had to go 20 holes to get past Noah Goodwin, a sophomore at SMU from Corinth, Texas who captured the U.S. Junior Amateur title last summer.

   The winner of the Riley-Bling match will get the winner of a quarterfinal between Isaiah Salinda and Will Gordon in Saturday’s semifinals.

   The 21-year-old Salinda, a senior at Stanford from South San Francisco, Calif., claimed a 5 and 4 victory over Travis Phillips, a junior at Georgia from Inman, S.C., Thursday morning before edging Stewart Hagestad, the winner of the 2016 U.S. Mid-Amateur Championship at Stonewall from Newport Beach, Calif., 1-up.

   The 22-year-old Gordon, a senior at Vanderbilt from Davidson, N.C., earned a 3 and 2 win over Zhang Kai Bai of China in Thursday morning’s second round before being taken to the final hole in a 2-up victory over William Mouw of Chino, Calif., who will be a welcome addition to the Pepperdine roster in a few weeks.

   Just getting to the quarterfinals of a U.S. Amateur is quite a feat. For eight guys, the dream of winning the most prestigious prize in amateur golf is still alive.