And then there were four.
And, not surprisingly, they are all top college players who will battle
it out Saturday in the semifinals of the U.S. Amateur at The Riviera Country
Club in Pacific Palisades, Calif.
Doug Ghim is still in with a shot to give Texas a sweep of
the U.S. Women’s Amateur and the U.S. Amateur in consecutive weekends. The
senior from Arlington Heights, Ill. pulled out a 2 and 1 victory over Connor
Syme of Scotland in Friday’s quarterfinals.
Ghim will face a tough opponent as he bids to join Sophia
Schubert, who won the U.S. Women’s Amateur down the coast at San Diego Country
Club last weekend, and bring another of the most prestigious trophies in
amateur golf back to Austin.
The 21-year-old Ghim will battle 21-year-old Theo Humphrey
of Greenwich, Conn., a senior at Vanderbilt, in Saturday morning’s semifinals.
The other half of the draw features a battle between Mark Lawrence Jr. of
Richmond Va., a junior at Virginia Tech, and Doc Redman of Raleigh, N.C., a
sophomore at Clemson.
Ghim survived a tough test in a second-round match against
Sohith Theegala, a junior at Pepperdine from Chin Hills, Calif. Thursday
morning. Ghim, No. 7 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking, had to go to the 19th
hole before getting past Theegala. In the round of 16 Thursday afternoon, Ghim
claimed a comparatively easier 3 and 2 victory over Joey Vrzich of El Cajon,
Calif., who will start his college career at Nevada in a couple of weeks.
But there really are no easy matches in the U.S. Amateur
and, as if to prove that point, Ghim hooked up with Syme, No. 13 in the World
Amateur Golf Ranking, in Friday’s quarterfinals.
Ghim put a nose in front of Syme when he made a birdie at
the 10th. Another birdie at 13 gave him a 2-up advantage. Syme won
the 14th hole with a par to cut his deficit to 1-down. They both
made a mess of the par-3 16th, but Ghim a little less so, winning
the hole with a bogey to go 2-up with two holes to go. They halved the par-5 17th
and Ghim was in the semifinals.
Humphrey, a member of a very strong Vanderbilt team that was
the top seed in match play in the NCAA Championship at Rich Harvest Farms, had
to rally to claim a 1-up decision over Arizona State sophomore Chun An Yu of
Chinese Taipei.
The 20-year-old Lawrence earned a 3 and 2 decision over
Dawson Armstrong, a senior at Lipscomb from Brentwood, Tenn. Armstrong’s
individual title in the College Grove Regional last spring lee Lipscomb to an
unlikely berth in the NCAA Championship at Rich Harvest Farms.
The 19-year-old Redman pulled out a 1-up decision over
Travis Smyth of Australia, who was bidding to make it two straight Aussie U.S.
Amateur winners after countryman Curtis Luck took the title a year ago.
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