Gross reaches quarterfinals of U.S. Amateur with a pair of match wins at Ridgewood

    Downingtown West junior Nick Gross, the reigning PIAA Class AAA champion, suddenly finds himself in some pretty rarefied air.

   After winning two matches in the 122^nd U.S. Amateur at The Ridgewood Country Club in Paramus, N.J. Thursday at age 15, Gross became the youngest player to reach the quarterfinals since C.T. Pan of Chinese Taipei did it, also at age 15, in 2007.

   Before that you have to go back to the greatest American amateur golfer ever, Bobby Jones his ownself, when he reached the quarterfinals as a 14-year-old at Merion Golf Club’s East Course in 19 and 16.

   “I know C.T. (Chung-Tsung Pan), I know the history of Bobby (Jones) and obviously he was one of the greats of the game, one of the … top five of all time,” Gross told the United States Golf Association (USGA) website. “But to hear something like that at this point in my career, I don’t put my name next to those two and to have something that puts my name next to those two is really special and something I’ll remember forever.”

   For the third straight match, Gross put together a sudden burst in the middle of the round over the A.W. Tillinghast design at Ridgewood to cruise to a 4 and 3 victory over Luke Potter of Encinitas, Calif., one of the prized recruits in the incoming class at Arizona State.

   In March at the prestigious 11^th Junior Invitational at Sage Valley Golf Club in Graniteville, S.C., Potter lost in a playoff while Gross finished fourth. In last month’s U.S. Junior Amateur at the Bandon Dunes Resort on the Oregon coast, Potter reached the quarterfinals for the second straight year before falling, 1-up, to the eventual champion, Wenyi Ding of China while Gross was knocked out in the second round of match play.

   But on this day, Gross got the better of Potter, who will exit the junior ranks after being one of its best players the last couple of years.

   Potter won the third hole with a birdie, but Gross gained the advantage by taking five with a bogey and six with a birdie. Potter drew even by winning the seventh hole with a par. Potter wouldn’t win another hole.

   Gross put a nose in front by taking the 10^th hole with a par. Then Gross ripped off three straight wins, taking the 12^th and 13^th holes with birdies and 14 with a par. Suddenly, he was 4-up with four holes to play.

   They halved the par-3 15^th with pars and it was over. For the second time in four years, the guy who had won the PIAA Class AAA Championship at the Heritage Hills Golf Resort in York County the previous fall was in the U.S. Amateur quarterfinals as Gross matched the accomplishment of Notre Dame senior Palmer Jackson in 2019 at the Pinehurst Resort.

   It won’t hit Gross until he starts planning his summer schedule for 2023, but he can skip local qualifying for next year’s U.S. Open. He’s exempt into sectional qualifying. No need to figure out where to qualify for the 2023 U.S. Amateur at the William Flynn design at Cherry Hills Country Club in Cherry Hills Village, Colo. He’s in.

   The waters get deeper in the quarterfinals, as you would expect. Gross will take on Dylan Menante of Carlsbad, Calif. and No. 8 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR) at 9:30 Friday morning for a chance to reach the semifinals.

   Menante transferred to North Carolina for his fifth year of college eligibility after helping Pepperdine capture the NCAA Championship in 2021 and make a run to the semifinals this year, both at Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale, Ariz.

   Menante pulled out a 1-up decision over Ohio State junior Maxwell Maldovan of Uniontown, Ohio in his round-of-16 match.

   Earlier in the day Thursday, Gross got past Chris Francoeur of Amesbury, Mass., who took his fifth of college eligibility at Louisville in the 2021-2022 season after being a four-year standout at Rhode Island, with a 3 and 2 victory in the round of 32.

   Gross got the jump on Francoeur by winning the first hole with a birdie, but Francoeur came right back by taking two and three with birdies to take a 1-up lead.

   Then Gross went to work. He won the fourth hole with a par, the eighth with a bogey and the 10^th with a par to take a 2-up lead.

   Francoeur cut his deficit to 1-down by winning the 13^th hole with a birdie, but Gross won 14 with a birdie and then closed out Francoeur by taking 16 with a par.

   The other half of Gross’ bracket will feature a heavyweight battle between Stewart Hagestad, who won the first of his two U.S. Mid-Amateur crowns in dramatic fashion at Stonewall in 2016, and Texas A&M fifth-year senior Sam Bennett.

   The 31-year-old Hagestad of Newport Beach, Calif., is No. 9 in the WAGR while the 22-year-old Bennett of Madisonville, Texas is No. 3.

   Hagestad reached his second U.S. Amateur quarterfinal in three years with a 2 and 1 victory over Australian Hayden Hopewell, who is No. 41 in the WAGR.

   Bennett reached the quarterfinals with a 4 and 2 victory over Arizona State senior David Puig, the Spaniard who is No. 10 in the WAGR.