U.S. Amateur back on track as rain-softened Oakmont eases up in Round of 16
After two rounds of stroke play and three of match play, eight players of the 312 originally in the field have weathered the storms this week at Oakmont and advanced to the quarterfinals of the 121st U.S. Amateur.
Dangerous weather in the area for the third consecutive day on Thursday pushed the completion of the Round of 32 to Friday morning. The Round of 16 immediately followed, with the first five matches all ending before the 17th hole on the rain-softened course outside Pittsburgh.
Despite losing the first hole, Oklahoma State’s Brian Stark earned the biggest margin of victory with his defeat of Grayson Blunt, 6 and 5. Austin Greaser wasn’t far behind. The North Carolina junior never trailed in his match against Clemson’s Jacob Bridgeman that ended on the 14th green, 6 and 4.
“I think the rain last night and all this week has really softened this course up and made it a lot more gettable. You can attack a lot of pins that you probably wouldn’t be able to get after if it was playing like it usually does,” explained Greaser. “Just got to take advantage of it, because if you don’t, somebody will. Just trying to throw some darts, make some putts, and see where it lands.”
After defeating his Texas teammate Parker Coody earlier in the morning, Travis Vick got out to a 2-up lead through three holes on Jose Islas and never looked back, winning 3 and 2. In one of the surprise results of the morning, Georgia Tech’s Ross Steelman earned a 3-and-2 win of his own over Florida’s Ricky Castillo, one of the favorites remaining in the bracket.
One of four players to finish last night, James Piot earned a second consecutive 4-and-3 win, this time taking down UC Davis’ Thomas Hutchison.
Things got interesting on the bottom half of the bracket, where the last three matches each went the full 18 holes.
Matthew Sharpstene led just twice in his match against Van Holmgren, on the 10th hole and the 18th. A semifinalist at last year’s U.S. Amateur at Bandon Dunes, Sharpstene made par on the last hole to earn the 1-up victory.
Nick Gabrelcik’s duel with Hugo Townsend was the lone match to go to extra holes. Gabrelcik, a three-time winner as a freshman last season at North Florida, never trailed but lost a 1-up lead on the 18th hole due to a clutch birdie from Townsend. The rising sophomore for the Ospreys got the job done on the first extra hole after stuffing his approach shot inside three feet for birdie.
The runner-up in 2018 at Pebble Beach, Devon Bling was 3 up through 12 holes but lost five of the last six holes, including the decisive 18th to lose by one to Davis Chatfield.
“Honestly, like 3 down here I feel like isn’t that much. It can go so quick. Almost did for me my Round of 64 match,” said Chatfield. “I just stuck to my game plan. I made it simple. Fairways and greens will most of the time do you pretty well out here. Just lucky to capitalize on some of the mistakes he made on the back. He made a couple bogeys. I just parred my way in and got it done.”
The quarterfinals began shortly after the early matches of the Round of 16 concluded. With more dangerous weather in the evening forecast, the plan is to complete the quarters, or as many holes as possible, on Friday.
