The former U.S. Senior Amateur champions still left in the
field kept falling by the wayside during the long day of two rounds of matches
Tuesday at this year’s edition at Old Chatham Golf Club in Durham, N.C.
Only one was left when the quarterfinals were set and that
was the defending champion, Jeff Wilson of Fairfield, Calif.
The 56-year-old Wilson, who captured the title a year ago at
Eugene Country Club in Eugene, Ore., took out one of the former champions when
he claimed a 4 and 3 victory over 63-year-old Louis Lee of Heber Springs, Ark.,
winner of the 2011 U.S. Senior Amateur crown.
Wilson then rolled to another 4 and 3 victory over an old
California rival, 61-year-old Craig Steinberg of Agoura Hills, Calif. to
advance to the quarterfinals.
Wilson’s opponent in the quarterfinals will be Brady Exber
of Las Vegas, who knocked off a couple of pretty big names himself.
The 63-year-old Exber began the day with by making birdies
at the last two holes to edge 62-year-old Doug Hanzel of Savannah, Ga., the
2013 U.S. Senior Amateur champion who was one of the three co-medalists in
qualifying this week at Old Chatham, 1-up.
Exber then earned his quarterfinal date with Wilson by
claiming a 3 and 2 victory over 66-year-old Stewart “Buddy” Alexander, the
former Florida coach and winner of the 1986 U.S. Amateur.
“For me to beat Doug Hanzel and Buddy Alexander on the same
day, are you kidding me?” Exber, who has never advanced this far in 25 previous
USGA championship appearances, told the USGA website. “This is a very special
day for me and I mean it with the highest regard. I might not sleep tonight.”
It will be a battle of 55-year-olds at the top of the
bracket between Paul Jett of Southern Pines, N.C., the former superintendent at
the Pinehurst Resort & Country Club, and Roger Newsom of Virginia Beach,
Va.
Jett, the youngest player in the field, having turned 55
July 7, edged Bryan Norton of Mission Hills, Kan., 1-up in a round-of-16 match
Tuesday afternoon.
Newsome took out another of the qualifying co-medalists,
Michael McCoy of Norwalk, Iowa, 4 and 3, to earn his spot in the quarterfinals
opposite Jett. The 56-year-old McCoy was the second-oldest champion when he
claimed the 2013 U.S. Mid-Amateur crown.
Another North Carolinian playing in his home state,
56-year-old Steve Harwell of Mooresville, eliminated a legendary North Carolina
senior, 68-year-old Paul Simson of Raleigh and a two-time U.S. Senior Amateur
champion, in 20 holes, in a hard-fought second-round match Tuesday morning.
Harwell still had enough left to oust 62-year-old Kory Frost
of Trabuco Canyon, Calf., 3 and 2, in the round of 16 Tuesday afternoon.
Harwell’s quarterfinal opponent will be a Charlotte native,
62-year-old Rick Cloninger of McDonough, Ga., who rolled to a 5 and 3 decision
over Mark Knecht of Paducah, Ky. in his round-of-16 match.
The final quarterfinal match will pit 57-year-old Bob Royak
of Alpharetta, Ga. against 58-year-old Walter Todd of Laurens, S.C.
Royak pulled out a 2 and 1 victory over 55-year-old William
Mitchell of Roswell, Ga. while Todd claimed a 3 and 1 win over 55-year-old
Victor Minovich of Thornton, Colo. in Tuesday afternoon’s round of 16.
Earlier Tuesday, Royak took out the third qualifying
co-medalist, Dean Channell of Cary, N.C., 1-up, in a second-round match.
Wednesday morning’s quarterfinals will be followed in the
afternoon by the semifinals. The winners of the two semifinal matches are
scheduled to meet for the title in an 18-hole final Thursday.
The defending champion at the U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur at
Cedar Rapids Country Club, a Donald Ross design in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, is also
still alive heading into the quarterfinals as 52-year-old Lara Tennant of
Portland, Ore. cruised to a 4 and 3 victory over Paula Kuong of Wellesley
Hills, Mass. in a round-of-16 match Tuesday afternoon.
Tennant’s quarterfinal opponent will be 52-year-old Lynne
Cowan of Rocklin, Calif., who took out three-time U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur
champion Sarah Ingram of Nashville, Tenn., 4 and 3.
Tennant is trying to become the first back-to-back winner of
the event since three-time champion Ellen Port of St. Louis, who claimed two of
her three titles in 2012 and 2013.
Also on Tennant’s side of the bracket, 60-year-old Tina
Barker of Fairfield, Calif. will take on 53-year-old Patricia Ehrhart of
Honolulu, Hawaii in the other quarterfinal.
Barker began her day by halting the bid of 52-year-old Suzi
Spotleson of Canton, Ohio with a 2 and 1 victory. Spotleson often shows up in
the Philadelphia area to compete in the Women’s Golf Association of
Philadelphia Match Play Championship, winning the title in 2015. Spotleson
plays out of RiverCrest Golf Club & Preserve.
Barker won the seventh hole with a birdie and the eighth and
ninth holes with pars to turn a 1-down deficit into a 2-up advantage and held
on to beat Spotleson, who had a pretty nice week in Cedar Rapids.
In Tuesday afternoon’s round of 16, Barker ousted the
qualifying medalist, Martha Leach, the 2009 U.S. Women’s Mid-Am champion, 2 and
1.
Ehrhart, meanwhile, dominated Cheryl Grigg of Sea Island,
Ga., 6 and 5, to reach the U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur quarterfinals for the
third straight year.
Port appeared to have designs on a fourth U.S. Senior
Women’s Amateur title to go with her four U.S. Women’s Mid-Am crowns until she
ran into Australian Sue Wooster, the runnerup to Tennant a year ago at the
Orchid Island Golf & Beach Club in Vero Beach, Fla. The 57-year-old Wooster
pulled out a 1-up victory over Port.
Wooster was 1-down with two holes to play when she turned
the tables on Port, winning the 17th hole with a par and then
winning the match with a bogey at the tough 18th hole when Port
four-putted.
Wooster then reached the quarterfinals with a 2 and 1
victory over Tara Fleming of Jersey City, N.J. Fleming reached the semifinals
in her first U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur appearance two years ago at Waverley
Country Club in Portland, Ore.
“It was a real battle in the morning, to beat Ellen Port,
I’m just stoked,” Wooster told the USGA website. “She’s got game, you know? I
played good again this afternoon and Tara played some good golf to catch me
back to 2-up.
“I got it up and down on 16 and 17 to halve those holes, so
that was nice. I’ve got the speed of the greens down, hopefully that will
last.”
Wooster’s quarterfinal match will be an intriguing
international meeting as she will take on 56-year-old Laura Webb, the reigning
British Senior Women’s Amateur champion from Ireland.
Webb, in her first trip to the United States, rallied from 2-down
with six holes to play to reach the quarterfinals with a 1-up victory over Kim
Keyer-Scott of Estero, Fla. Webb never led in the match until she dropped a
12-foot birdie putt to take the 17th hole.
The last quarterfinal will pit Canadian Mary Ann Hayward
against Caryn Wilson of Rancho Mirage, Calif.
The 59-year-old Hayward, the 2005 U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur
champion, reached the quarterfinal with a 4 and 2 victory over Jane Fitzgerald
of Kensington, Md. Fitzgerald, a former Penn State standout, fell to Port in
the 2012 U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur final at Hershey Country Club’s West
Course.
The 58-year-old Wilson took out a former champion in
Canadian Judith Kyrinis, who claimed the title two years ago at Waverley, with a
3 and 2 decision to earn her spot in the quarterfinals.
Thursday’s U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur finalists should be
determined by the end of play Wednesday. The morning quarterfinals will be
followed by the semifinals in the afternoon.
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