For the second weekend in a row, a Texas golfer will be
playing for a U.S. Amateur championship.
Last week at San Diego Country Club, Sophia Schubert won the
U.S. Women’s Amateur title, playing nearly flawless golf in taking down
Stanford’s Albane Valenzuela, No. 3 in the Women’s World Amateur Ranking, 6 and
5 in the scheduled 36-hole final.
Sunday, Longhorns senior Doug Ghim of Arlington Heights,
Ill. will try to make it a Texas two-step as he takes on Clemson sophomore Doc
Redman in a scheduled 36-hole final at The Riviera Country Club in Pacific
Palisades, Calif.
The ascendancy of college golfers is a relatively recent
development in the long and storied history of these two championships, but no
school has ever been able to boast the holders of both the Robert Cox and Havemeyer
trophies at the same time.
Ghim, No. 7 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking, was in
control throughout and held on for a 2 and 1 victory over Vanderbilt senior
Theo Humphrey of Greenwich, Conn. in one of Saturday’s semifinals to book his
ticket to the final.
Redman, one of the survivors of a 13-man playoff for the
final eight spots in the match-play bracket, parred the familiar 18th
hole at Riviera to claim a 1-up decision over Virginia Tech junior Mark
Lawrence of Richmond, Va. in the other semifinal.
The 21-year-old Ghim, the Big 12’s Player of the Year in
2016-2017, built a 4-up lead on Humphrey by winning the sixth with a birdie,
the eighth with an eagle, the 11th with a conceded eagle and the 12th
with a par.
Humphrey battled back by winning the 14th and 16th
holes with pars, but he was in too deep a hole to get out of. When the two
halved the par-5 17 with pars, Ghim was through to the final.
“It’s something you dream of,” Ghim told the USGA website.
“To be playing well means a ton to me. I don’t take lightly how significant it
is to be playing out there (Sunday) and having a chance to be in the history
books. The great champions of this game all started here. It’s crazy to think
about it.”
Ghim will be bidding to become the third Texas Longhorn to
claim the U.S. Amateur title, joining David Gossett, the 1999 winner, and
Justin Leonard, the 1992 champion.
Redman of Raleigh, N.C. also got the early jump in his match
with Lawrence, winning the third, fourth and fifth holes to turn a 1-down
deficit to a 2-up advantage.
He stayed in front until the par-5 17th when both players
reached the green in two by bombing a 3-wood from more than 240 yards away.
Lawrence was just inside of Redman and got a great read from Redman’s eagle try
and did not miss, sending the match to the 18th hole all square.
Lawrence’s approach to the 18th went to the back
of the green and he just couldn’t control the speed as his putt trickled to the
front fringe, not far from where Redman’s approach had finished. Redman was
able to get a routine two-putt par and Lawrence couldn’t get his par putt to
fall.
Redman will be trying to become just the second Clemson
golfer to win the U.S. Amateur. The Tigers' only champion was the large man with the remarkable
touch around the greens, Chris Patton, who joined Bobby Jones, Dottie Porter,
Ben Hogan, Gary Cowan, Lee Trevino and Justin Rose in the marquee list of
champions at Merion Golf Club’s East Course by winning the 1989 U.S. Amateur at
the classic Hugh Wilson layout in the Ardmore section of Haverford Township.
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