Hovland wears down Hammer, will face Bling in U.S. Amateur final at Pebble Beach

   Viktor Hovland will be trying to be the first Norwegian to win the U.S. Amateur at the iconic Pebble Beach Golf Links Sunday, but not the first Oklahoma State player to do so.

   With the coach of the reigning NCAA champion Cowboys, Alan Bratton, on the bag, Hovland was just too tough in wearing down incoming Texas freshman Cole Hammer, 3 and 2, in one of Saturday’s semifinals.

   Hovland’s opponent in the scheduled 36-hole final will be UCLA sophomore Devon Bling of Ridgecrest, Calif., who grinded out another 1-up victory over Pac-12 rival Isaiah Salinda, a senior at Stanford from South San Francisco, Calif.

   Hovland will be trying to become the fifth Oklahoma State player to win the U.S. Amateur, a list that includes Peter Uihlein (2010), Scott Verplank (1984, Labron Harris Jr. (1969) and Bob Dickson (1967).

   Hovland, No. 5 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR), reached the final with a remarkable eight birdies in the 16 holes the match lasted. And he probably needed every one of them because Hammer, who has been remarkably consistent in match play all summer, just kept coming.

   Hammer, who reached the semifinals of the U.S. Junior Amateur at Baltusrol Golf Club in Springfielkd, N.J. last month, hit it out of bounds off the tee at the second and lost the third to a Hovland birdie to quickly fall 2-down.

   But he kept battling back to even the match, the last time with a birdie on the 11^th. Hovland, however, proceeded to birdie out. It was a little welcome to the Big 12 message from Hovland to Hammer.

   Again, though, Hammer, No. 17 in the WAGR, hardly backed down. He halved two of those five holes with birdies of his own.

   “The wind wasn’t blowing as hard and the greens were a little softer, so the conditions were definitely conducive to making birdies,” Hovland told the USGA website. “But you’ve still got to hit the shots and you’ve got to make the putts.

   “I think we fed off each other a little bit. He made a putt and then I answered, if not the same hole, then on the next hole. It was a really good match.”

   Bling wasn’t bad himself, making seven birdies to hold off Salinda. Bling made five birdies in a stretch of seven holes, including at eight, 10, 11, 12 and 14. But much like the Hovland-Hammer match, birdie only got Bling a half on two of those holes as Salinda also made birdie.

   The birdie at 14 gave Bling a 2-up lead and he parred the final four holes to hold on, Salinda drawing within 1-down with the last of his six birdies at the 16^th.

   The way Hovland is playing, you might be tempted to see Bling as overmatched in this final, but anything can happen in match play. Hovland has been behind for exactly one hole in his five matches. But Bling has been remarkably resilient all week on northern California’s Monterey peninsula.