The USGA and the R&A formally announced Wednesday their intention to roll back the distance golf balls can travel. The rollback goes into effect January 2028 for elite competitions and for everybody come January 2030. The decision, part of the governing bodies’ Distance Insights Project, comes after some three years of “Notice and Comment” in which the USGA and R&A accepted feedback from golf’s stakeholders.

“Governance is hard. And while thousands will claim that we did too much, there will be just as many who said we didn’t do enough to protect the game long-term,” said Mike Whan, CEO of the USGA. “But from the very beginning, we’ve been driven to do what is right for the game, without bias. As we’ve said, doing nothing is not an option—and we would be failing in our responsibility to protect the game’s future if we didn’t take appropriate action now.”

The specifics, first reported by Golf Digest, involve the test for the Overall Distance Standard. The governing bodies are increasing the swing speed at which golf balls are tested from the current standard of 120 mph to 125 mph without changing the distance limit of 317 yards (plus a three-yard tolerance) with a launch angle of 11 degrees and 2,200 rpm of spin. In layman’s terms, according to the USGA and R&A, the effect could be a distance loss of nine to 11 yards at the PGA Tour or DP World Tour level, five to seven yards for the LPGA/LET and between five yards or less for everyday players.

All golf balls submitted to the USGA for conformance during or after October 2027 will be evaluated using the new protocol. In other words, if everyday golfers want to continue using longer golf balls in 2028 and 2029, they will be older-model balls. There was no mention in the Notice of Decision how one would be able to tell what is an old conforming ball and what is a new conforming ball other than comparing it to the conforming list. However, John Spitzer, the USGA’s managing director of equipment standards, said approximately one-third of balls currently on the conforming list would still be conforming under the new protocol, primarily two- and-three-piece balls with ionomer covers.

The change in speed and the fact it affects all golfers are significant departures from the governing bodies previous stance. In 2022, the speed being looked at was 125 mph but that was amended in March 2023 to 127. However, also at that time the proposal was stated as a Model Local Rule impacting elite professional golfers only. Said Whan at the time, “We don’t see recreational golf obsoleting golf courses any time soon.”

So why the change to include everybody? The governing bodies say the move to a universal rollback was the result of feedback during the Notice and Comment period triggered in March after the announcement of the proposed MLR. In a note to all industry stakeholders, the USGA and R&A conveyed that, “While we previously proposed a targeted change to only elite golf, we have incorporated feedback from a broad range of stakeholders/players who stressed the importance of unification in the game of golf, mainly the importance of maintaining a single set of playing rules and a single set of equipment standards. This feedback clearly indicated that an across-the-game solution with deferred implementation is the preferred solution.”

Exactly how much distance regular golfers will lose, however, remains a bit grey since the one to five yards mention on Wednesday by the governing bodies doesn’t quite jibe with a USGA published report in June 2022. Although they stated similar numbers, there also was this on the testing of a shorter ball.

“In testing with the NP-500 … participants reported a perceived distance reduction of about 4.9 percent (210 yards compared to a 221-yard self-reported average). This is consistent with expectations based on laboratory testing.” In other words, not quite one to five yards. Still, Thomas Pagel, the USGA’s chief governance officer, told Golf Digest everyday golfers should rest easy.

“It’s five yards at most and likely limited to your driver,” Pagel said. “I don’t want to minimize people’s feelings or concerns about losing even a yard. We all have those concerns. We all want that extra yard or two. But just put this in the practical senses of this would mean, you know, 222 yards instead of 225. And you do have the ability to move tees up. You do have the ability to play forward tees. I would just say trust in the process. Over the next six years, I think we’ll find that the sky hasn’t fallen, the game is still going to be healthy.”

Perhaps just as important as the decision on golf balls, it appears the governing bodies are not quite done putting a governor on distance. Included in the note to stakeholders were two additional areas being looked at. The first is expanding testing of submitted drivers to keep tabs on “CT Creep,” which is drivers getting springier over time due to use, leading to the possibility of a conforming club becoming non-conforming. This is not a change, per se, and does not impact everyday players.

The next item, however, is to continue its research into the forgiveness of drivers at the elite level, which could lead to reductions in moment of inertia (which mitigates distance loss on mis-hits), driver-head size or both. Although the language was aimed solely at elite players, as we have seen with the ball rollback decision, things have a way of changing.

Image: Supplied

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The short answer is no—nor can you remove recently repaired grass or tamp down grass in a divot hole to ensure it won’t impact your next shot. You also can’t repair a pitch mark or any other uneven surface on your line if it’s off the green. All of this is covered in Rule 8.1 and comes with the general penalty for a violation (loss of hole in match play or a two-shot penalty in stroke play). To be clear, you can remove loose impediments on your line of play, but if it’s something like a weed, and it’s growing, plucking it out of the ground is a penalty.

Albeit rare, this rule is even violated by professionals. Annika Sorenstam was penalised at the 2006 LPGA Championship for removing some sod in a divot hole that was deemed to improve conditions affecting her next stroke.

So now that you know you can’t go full greenskeeper on the land in front of your shot, here are a few things to remember about this rule:

1. It is not a penalty if it’s unlikely your actions on the line of play would give you a potential advantage in playing your next stroke. For example, there’s a divot hole several yards in front of you on your line of play that you repair before hitting a 150-yard shot into the green.

2. It is still a penalty if you improve conditions on your line of play for a particular type of shot, even if you opt for a different type of shot that would not have been impacted by the improvement. For example, going with a lofted wedge shot instead of that bump-and-run in the scenario that began this article.

3. It is not a penalty if you repair damage on the putting green (Rule 13.1c(2)) regardless of whether your ball is on or off the green. So if you’re worried about that pitch mark on the green impacting that bump-and-run you’re about to hit, go ahead and repair it.

Main image: microgen

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Stewart Hagestad reacts to a putt during the 2021 Walker Cup Match. Sam Greenwood

Nick Dunlap, the newly minted US Amateur champion, already had secured his spot on the US team that will take on Great Britain & Ireland in the 49th Walker Cup. On Sunday, the bulk of the team was selected for the honor to compete on the Old Course at St Andrews, September 2-3.

At the conclusion of the US Am, the USGA announced at Cherry Hills Country Club that Nick Gabrelcik, Austin Greaser, Stewart Hagestad, Ben James, Dylan Menante and Preston Summerhays would join the players already selected — Dunlap, David Ford, Gordon Sargent and Caleb Surratt. (Michael Thorbjornsen had earned his place on the team but had to withdraw because of a back injury).

“I am beyond excited to have our full team set as we begin to prepare for the Old Course,” said US captain Mike McCoy.

GB&I is set to announce its team on Monday.

A brief look at each of the six players picked on Sunday:

• Hagestad, 32, of Newport Beach, California, is the only non-college player on the team. He has been a member of three winning US Walker Cup teams (2017, 2019, 2021) and reached the quarter-finals of both the 2022 and 2020 US Amateurs. He has played in 26 USGA championships, including two victories in the Mid-Amateur.
• Summerhays, 21, of Scottsdale, Arizona, reached match play in this week’s US Amateur, falling in the Round of 64. The Arizona State product has played in two US Opens and won the 2019 US Junior. He comes from a famed golf family based in Utah, with his father, Boyd, works as an instructor for Tony Finau among others.
• Greaser, 21, of Vandalia, Ohio, was runner-up to James Piot in the 2021 US Amateur, played in the 2022 Masters. The fifth-year senior at North Carolina also won the 2022 Western Amateur.
• Gabrelcik, 21, of Trinity, Florida, is a rising senior at the Universeity of North Florida who made the semi-finals of the 2021 US Amateur at Oakmont. He won the Southern Amateur this summer.
• James, 19, of Milford, Connecticut, advanced to the quarter-finals of this week’s US Amateur. The rising Virginia sophomore won the 2023 Phil Mickelson Outstanding Freshman Award and was a First-Team Ping All-American.
• Menante, 22, of Carlsbad, California, is the first North Carolina player to finish in the top 10 in both an NCAA regional (T-6) and the NCAA Championship (T-4) in the same season. The fifth-year senior transferred last year from Pepperdine, where he was twice named West Coast Conference Player of the Year. He reached the semi-finals of the 2022 US Amateur.

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It is a moment that will eventually be lost to time. When Nick Dunlap’s US Amateur victory at Cherry Hills Country Club is recalled in the decades to come, the conversation will turn to him matching Tiger Woods as the only men to win both the US Junior and US Amateur. Considering there have been 123 editions of the senior edition, that is a rare and remarkable feat.

As Dunlap humbly noted after he had beaten Neal Shipley, 4&3, by making 12 birdies over 33 holes on a toasty Sunday outside of Denver: “I think it’s only a third of what he’s actually done.” He is right, of course, with Woods having captured each of the two titles three times — all before the 19-year-old Dunlap was born.

Elite company ? pic.twitter.com/NApypxjTbB

— USGA (@USGA) August 21, 2023

There were plenty of times in Woods’ six championships that he was on the verge of being eliminated, and those aren’t noted much, just as Dunlap’s horrible start in this championship and what happened to change it will be forgotten.

In this case, it shouldn’t be, given the nature of Dunlap’s turnaround and the way he played so splendidly for the next six days.

A triple-bogey. A double-bogey. Five-over par through seven holes. That’s the way Dunlap will remember how he started the tournament.

Last Monday at Colorado Golf Club, which co-hosted the two stroke-play rounds, Dunlap opened the tournament with a birdie, but on the third hole he somehow managed to hit the wrong ball and, including a two-stroke penalty, made a triple-bogey.

The World’s No. 9-ranked amateur from the University of Alabama then compounded the damage with a double-bogey at the fifth and a bogey at the seventh. At five-over through seven, Dunlap was in a huge crater, considering only 64 of the 312 competitors in the field reaching the match-play portion after 36 holes.

“Whenever you get off to a rough start,” Dunlap explained in an NBC interview broadcast on Sunday, “the round could be over like that, in a snap. You don’t know what happened and you shoot and you’re out of the tournament.”

"I just learned that anything is possible as long as you put your mind to it.”

Nick Dunlap’s fighting attitude carried him to victory at the 123rd #USAmateur. ?

— USGA (@USGA) August 21, 2023

Lucky for him, he had one of the savviest caddies in all of amateur golf on his bag. Jeff Curl, 44, once aspired to be a professional golfer like his father, Rod, who won once on the PGA Tour. Injuries kept the younger Curl from that dream, but he got to know Dunlap as a young kid at Greystone Golf & Country Club in Birmingham, Alabama.

Curl was on Dunlap’s bag for his 2021 US Junior win, and in the early rough going in the first round at CGC, the looper knew what his player needed. On the page for the eighth hole in the yardage book, Curl wrote: “This can be an amazing story if you let it happen.”

Dunlap said the words shook him out of whatever funk he was in.

“For whatever reason, something clicked. I snapped out of it,” Dunlap said.

Did he ever. Dunlap birdied the next two holes and made four more in the rest of the round to shoot even-par 72. He backed that up with a 70 the next day at Cherry Hills, tied for 38th, beat World No. 1 Gordon Sargent in the first round of match play, and won four more matches to reach the final against Shipley.

In tears as he spoke after Sunday’s triumph, Dunlap said of Curl: “Honestly, there’s no chance I’m standing here [without him]. He was a part of the US Junior, and he’s part of this. I told him one of my main goals was to make history. For him to be alongside me, it means the world, man.”

Standing near where Dunlap was celebrating with his family and teammates at Alabama, an emotional Curl said: “I didn’t quite get to where I wanted to be in golf, but to help Nick and others, there’s nothing better. It is the greatest feeling. I wouldn’t trade it for anything I’ve done, or to have gone further, in this moment.”

For much of the day, the final lived up to the anticipation of Dunlap, who’d won back-to-back big events this summer, facing Shipley, the 132nd ranked amateur who had three runners-up in prestigious events of his own.

Pittsburgh native Shipley, 22, who was trying to be the first Pennsylvanian since Arnold Palmer to win the US Am — on the layout where Arnie captured the 1960 US Open — had become a crowd favourite, thanks to his long hair, demonstrative play and the stunning shot he hit into the 17th hole on Saturday to close out his semi-final.

Sunday’s play got off to a roaring start when both birdied the first and Dunlap tacked on birdies at Nos. 2 and 5 to go 2 up. But Shipley answered with a birdie at 6, and in a flurry at the end of the first 18, Shipley tied it with a par at 15, Dunlap made a birdie on 16, and Shipley answered with a short-range birdie at 18.

The play was so stellar that the two combined for 11 birdies, including concessions — Dunlap with six and Shipley five.

With each golfer having played more than 100 holes in the week, the afternoon was not as sharp and was defined by a couple of birdies by Dunlap and miscues by Shipley.

There were a couple of classic match-play twists. Early on the front nine, Dunlap badly missed three fairways, but he won two holes while Shipley scuffled in the rough and bunkers. Both players hit the green on the 25th hole, but Shipley three-putted to give Dunlap a 3-up lead, and Dunlap widened the margin to four with a birdie at the 28th.

Shipley, who missed a short birdie putt at the par-3 30th hole, still had a bit of life when Dunlap missed the green and butchered the 31st. But Shipley hooked his approach badly on the next hole, lost and fell back again to 4 down.

Dunlap closed out the match at the par-3 33rd hole when they both made par.

Shipley, who has one season remaining at Ohio State, was clearly disappointed, but was upbeat about how he played and the consolation prize he receives—an expected invitation into the 2024 Masters as well as a spot in next year’s US Open.

“It’s pretty crazy. It’s the stuff of dreams to be doing what you’re doing, to do what I’m doing this week,” Shipley said. “Just glad I took time to soak it in every day and really enjoy it. This is likely my last Amateur, and just a really cool week and something I didn’t initially think I’d have the opportunity to do.”

Soon, Dunlap will start his sophomore year at Alabama, and he’ll no doubt be welcomed as a hero. As it is, Crimson Tide coach Jay Seawell was on hand, as were four of Dunlap’s teammates who got up early in the morning to fly in for the final.

“It’s hard to put into words,” Seawell said of his pride in Dunlap. “I think he said it best. The greatest part of being coach is to get to come along and see what nobody else sees … the hard work, the want to, the grind, the blood, sweat and tears.”

The weight of the victory will always come back to matching Woods in history. That is all the more meaningful for Dunlap, who says he has from a young age idolised the 15-time major winner.

“Just to be in the same conversation with Tiger is a dream come true and something I’ve worked my entire life for,” Dunlap said. “It’s hours and hours that nobody sees to try to get to this point and try to win this tournament. It’s just unbelievable.”

This was an amazing story, and Dunlap let it happen.

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The proposed rollback of the golf ball by the USGA and the R&A is now moving to its next, and perhaps most definitive — and potentially most contentious — stage.

The deadline for companies, golf associations and individuals to file documents with the USGA and R&A on a proposed rule that could essentially roll back the ball for elite male professional events like the US Open and Open Championship passed on Monday, and while the ruling bodies have not made public any of the comments they received, they apparently received plenty.

The USGA released a statement to Golf Digest on Thursday that reads: “The close of the comment period marks another important step in a thorough and inclusive governance process for golf. We’re grateful for the insightful feedback we’ve received across the game. It’s now our job, in partnership with The R&A, to thoroughly review this latest round of information we’ve received. One thing is clear‑there are many who care about golf’s future as much as we do, and all voices play a critical role as we determine the best path forward. We anticipate providing further direction on this topic in the coming months.”

The distance issue has been a front button topic for the R&A for the last five years, culminating in an announcement in March seeking comment from any and all constituents on a proposal to institute a new testing procedure for golf balls. That new test could be used to create what’s called a Model Local Rule, which is basically a stipulation that an event or tour could put in place for its participants. This particular stipulation would raise the swing speed used for testing balls for conformance in specified events from 120 miles per hour to 127 miles per hour. That could reduce driving distances by as much as 20 yards. The USGA and R&A have stated firmly they would plan to implement such a rule at their respective open championships, and they have stated that “the MLR is intended for use only in elite competitions and, if adopted, will have no impact on recreational golf”. As proposed, it would go into effect beginning in 2026.

Recently, both the PGA Tour and the PGA of America released statements saying they will not support the proposed rollback MLR. As well, several manufacturers contacted by Golf Digest have expressed their disagreement with the need for any such MLR on golf ball distance, off the record. However, no statements or documents on the comments they’ve received have been made public by the ruling bodies, and it appears the next step is several months away. That next step could be a decision to go forward with the proposed MLR, to pull back from any proposed distance-related changes, or to adjust any of the specifics in the current proposed ruling or testing process, thus beginning another notice and comment period.

According to the USGA’s official process for making equipment rule changes, comments will be published on the USGA and R&A websites, although “appropriate controls will be in place to prevent comments from being published without the submitter’s permission”. Under the terms of the process, “The USGA and The R&A will consider all comments equally, whether or not the submitter gives permission for the comments to be published.”

USGA’s Mike Whan. Rob Carr

While the official guidelines for the equipment rulemaking process stress transparency, it is also clearly stated that the final decision rests with the USGA and the R&A. The leaders of both organisations, USGA CEO Mike Whan and R&A CEO Martin Slumbers, have been clear that a change to distance at the elite level of men’s golf is required. Whan said in announcing the proposed MLR in March: “You want to critique the USGA and the R&A over the last 20 years, on: ‘Why didn’t you do this five, seven, 10 years ago?’ Fair comment, and we’ve taken that on, too. But taking another 10 years off, looking the other way and saying: ‘Distance is great, everybody is excited, and of course [distance] is going to grow by more than a yard a year for the next 20 years, and we all know it but we’ll just turn the other cheek’? Well, that would be a shame.”

The PGA of America’s memorandum to the USGA on the MLR, which was co-signed by eight other PGAs worldwide, called for the ruling bodies to pause and reconsider the “unintended consequences” of the proposed change. “We fear that the proposed changes could seriously interrupt the current momentum in the game and be fundamentally damaging and detrimental in the long run. We are also very aware that there are sets of data that conflict with the R&A and USGA materials … We would ask that the R&A and USGA firstly extend the consultation period to allow a review of the conflicting data being presented and for more data to be gathered to prove or disprove if change is indeed required.”

Currently on the PGA Tour, the average driving distance is 299.8, 0.2 yards ahead of where it was this time a year ago. While that marks the fifth time since 2015 that the average declined or was less than a yard, four other times that increase was 2.5 yards or more. If it finishes at that number, it would be 12.4 yards ahead of where it was in 2013. As well, the percentage of drives 320 yards or longer was about seven per cent 10 years ago. Today, it is 19.45 per cent. Conversely, according to data provided by Arccos, the GPS stat-tracking app that’s recorded more than 750 million shots, the average drive for the average male golfer dropped by half a yard from 2018 to 2022 to 226 yards.

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The sunlight was fading and the Round of 16 matches were winding down on Thursday evening at Cherry Hills Country Club. After a long day, the few fans left seemed sleepy.

Then a surprise guest, Bryson DeChambeau, started doing the things that only he can do, and the buzz was back. Kids and adults gathered around the famous first tee, where in the 1960 US Open, Arnold Palmer drove the green from 346 yards away for an opening birdie in the final round that fuelled his comeback from seven shots to beat Jack Nicklaus.

As both a US Amateur and US Open champion, DeChambeau appreciates his USGA history, and he played in the 2012 Am here, shooting 67 in the opening round of stroke play before being eliminated in match play. So, there he was, in rubber-soled shoes, shorts and a T-shirt, hammering balls with a blond-headed persimmon club.

US Amateur fan Bryson DeChambeau tries to go for the Cherry Hills first green from the Arnold Palmer tee with a persimmon. pic.twitter.com/WIOTJRZuoG

— Tod Leonard (@Todleonardsd) August 18, 2023

Of course, DeChambeau was like a dog after a juicy steak. He very badly wanted to reach the green — so much so that after it first seemed like he would just hit a couple of balls, he kept asking for more. And more.

Honestly, we lost count of how many swings he took, but he really seemed to love one ball better than most. “Can’t do better than that,” he said. The problem was, nobody could see more than 350 yards in the low light.

And still … Bryson asked for another ball and promised to do show off his “long drive swing.” The coil was unbelievable.

Finally, DeChambeau was done, drawing pats on the back from the small gallery, and then he got on the back of a golf cart because he had to see if he’d reached the green. He missed it … just barely, as Golf Channel showed him finding the ball in the rough in front of the green, posing for a photo while kids circled it.

On a memorable day for so many reasons, Bryson’s cameo will rank up there.

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The beauty of the scene at Cherry Hills Country Club on Thursday evening, as the last four holes in the last match of the US Amateur’s Round of 16 played out, was that no one wrote the script. They wouldn’t have dared to. It was too unbelievable.

A horrible break on a shot that hit the top of flagstick. A holed-out approach. Then, in something out of the scene from “The Legend of Bagger Vance”, the last hole was played in near-darkness, with the 18th green illuminated by floodlights raised by the USGA.

And there wasn’t an end with closing credits, because Auburn rising senior John Marshall Butler overcame hitting his tee shot into the water on the 18th by striping his third-shot approach to three feet to save par and force extra holes in the match that was set to resume at 8am local time on Friday.

This was already the most watchable match of the afternoon, with Paul Chang, an unranked club golfer from the University of Virginia and the most improbable story in recent USGA history, and battled back and forth with Butler, with Chang losing three different leads.

We'll see you tomorrow!

The absolutely thrilling Paul Chang vs. John Marshall Butler match will resume Friday morning on the 19th hole. #USAmateur pic.twitter.com/g9TZLOby9o

— USGA (@USGA) August 18, 2023

But that was only the appetiser to the crazy last four holes. At the par-3 15th, with the match tied, Chang’s tee shot tracked the pin too well and the ball hit the top of the flagstick and kicked back off the front of the green. But Chang made an impressive up-and-down for par to tie the hole.

Then on the par-4 16th, the golf gods rewarded Chang when his approach took a hop and jumped into the hole for an eagle that gave him a 1-up lead.

ONE BOUNCE AND IN

Paul Chang takes a 1-up lead with this incredible eagle hole out on 16. #USAmateur pic.twitter.com/mUOMR6TEQl

— USGA (@USGA) August 18, 2023

But it was back to tied when Butler responded with an approach on the par-5 17th to less than a foot a couple of feet for birdie.

This match! ???@AuburnMGolf John Marshall Butler pulls the string and nearly trickles it in! #USAmateur pic.twitter.com/lbYnj3UJyV

— USGA (@USGA) August 18, 2023

That brought the match to the 18th in quickly fading light. Sunset in the Denver area was 7.54pm, and that’s about the time they teed off. Butler appeared to hit an excellent tee shot, but his ball rolled out into the water. It seemed as bad a break as Chang’s at 16.

It looked over, with Chang simply needing to make par from the fairway. But Butler produced a stunning shot, hit ball landing on the green and rolling to three feet below the hole. Chang ended up making a nervy two-putt, and when Butler holed out his putt at 8.12pm, he let out a whoop and yelled: “C’mon!”

Butler said in the aftermath, “I’ve worked so hard for this moment, and you can’t really do anything except go out there and just try to play golf. I’ve put in the work. I’ve busted my butt, honestly, so just trying to stay out of my own way, not be too hard on myself. Get a bad break like the one on 18 or 16 where he holed out, just unbelievable stuff.”

“We both didn’t play our best, but down the stretch we both turned it on, as you can see,” Chang said. “His birdie on 17 and that par on 18, those were incredible, just incredible.”

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Remember that video that made the rounds after Tiger Woods defeated Abraham Ancer at the 2019 Presidents Cup? The one that showed the 15-time major winner shaking hands with Ancer before his putt was even halfway to the hole? Despite being doctored, the internet picked it up and ran with it, partly because it was funny and partly because, while fake, it embodied Woods’ alpha dominance in a way that felt true.

On Thursday at Cherry Hills, we got the realest version of that viral clip we’ll likely ever see when Auburn senior John Marshall Butler drained this bomb on the 15th hole, raising his finger to the heavens months before his putt found the bottom of the cup. Behold the audacity.

Auburn’s John Marshall Butler with one of the earliest, cockiest finger raises on a bomb of a putt you’ll ever see at the US Am. pic.twitter.com/wdPJazm7F8

— Christopher Powers (@CPowers14) August 16, 2023

The icing on the cake was Butler turning his divine finger gun into an uppercut fist-pump. You’re looking upon the work of a true master. This is a boy becoming a man right before our very eyes. And best of all? Butler went on to win his match 3 and 2, the same score by which Woods defeated Ancer back at Royal Melbourne. Coincidence? We think not.

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In many respects, it was unfortunate for the players, fans and championship that Gordon Sargent and Nick Dunlap ended up facing off on Wednesday in the first round of match play in the 123rd US Amateur. Two of the best amateurs in world — Gordon Ranked at No. 1 and Dunlap at No. 9 — ended up meeting so soon, when they were built for what would be a fantastic final, because their seedings put them there.

Sargent, the 2022 NCAA individual champion from Vanderbilt, shot two-under in stroke play to tie for 17th and get the No. 24 seed. Dunlap, a rising sophomore at Alabama and the reigning North & South champion, tied for 38th at one-under and was seeded 41st.

The seedings often are meaningless, but this time the two Alabama natives didn’t get much of a break, and in the end, it was the World No. 1 who suffered the upset at Cherry Hills Country Club outside of Denver. Sargent won the first hole and held a 1-up lead through nine, but Dunlap captured the 10th hole to tie it, took the lead with a birdie at the 11th and won the 14th en route to a 2&1 victory.

“I’m spent, man,” Dunlap, 19, said afterward. “I think this was a match that a lot of people wanted to see. Obviously he’s the No. 1 player in the world for a reason. He’s a hell of a player. Wasn’t expecting any gifts from him. Just kind of throwing punches all day long and see who could withstand them at the end.”

A good-sized crowd gathered to watch the two compete, and the players did feel like the atmosphere was like that of a final.

Moving on

The Round of 32 is set! #USAmateur pic.twitter.com/1an1lmHEdx

— USGA (@USGA) August 17, 2023

“It’s everything that you would kind of imagine. A lot of people on the first tee, entire pond was surrounded on 17. It’s just cool,” said Dunlap, who won the 2021 US Junior. “This is why I practise, to go head-to-head with somebody like Gordon. It’s an honour, and like I said, it’s why I do what I do.”

The victory continues an impressive summer for Dunlap. He won the Northeast Amateur and the next week captured one of the nation’s oldest and most prestigious amateur titles in the North & South. Dunlap also qualified for the US Open at Los Angeles Country Club, where he missed the cut.

Sargent, 20 and rising junior at Vanderbilt, was having his own strong year, including posting the best amateur score in the US Open and tying for 39th. He rose to No. 1 in the world in February and during his WAGR qualifying period, Sargent has posted 21 top-10s, including four victories.

Sargent and Dunlap grew up not far from each other in Huntsville, Alabama, and competed in plenty of junior tournaments together. But in a testament to their rivalry, they have not been close off the course.

“I don’t know about him, there’s maybe a mutual respect of game between us two, growing up in the same hometown,” Dunlap said. “I think we’ve always been pushed against each other, and it wasn’t until three or four days ago where it got a little bit closer. And like I said, I’ve got a lot of respect for him and looking forward to teaming up with him in about three, four weeks.”

That would be playing for the US in the Walker Cup against Great Britain & Ireland. Both have been chosen for the competition that will be played on the Old Course at St Andrews, September 2-3. They’ll get plenty of time to bond then.

In another notable match, the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga’s Bryce Lewis, whose caddie was 2012 US Amateur champion Steven Fox, was beaten by 2&1 by the University of Florida’s Parker Bell.

The round of 32 will be played in the morning on Thursday, followed by the Round of 16 in the afternoon.

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It doesn’t quite match the lore of Arnold Palmer coming from seven shots down to beat Jack Nicklaus in the 1960 US Open, but Steven Fox and Cherry Hills are linked in the most fascinating way.

In 2012, Fox was the 127th-ranked amateur in the world and the longest of long shots to seize the US Amateur Championship at the renowned country club outside of Denver. His odds didn’t seem that much better when Fox emerged from a 17-for-14 playoff, getting him into match play as the 63rd seed among the 64 survivors.

But Fox, a Tennessee native who was heading into his senior year at Tennessee-Chattanooga, beat one favourite after another, and with his dad on the bag, the 21-year-old reached the 36- hole final. His opponent was a buddy, Cal’s Michael Weaver, and the two were so friendly that they attended a Denver Broncos pre-season game the night before their match-up.

They put on quite the show that Sunday, with Fox coming back from two holes down with two to play to extend the match. And then he captured the title by making a curling 18-foot birdie putt on the 37th hole.

No US Am winner before or since has been as low a seed to start the match-play portion of the tournament.

“It doesn’t feel real,” Fox said in the aftermath. “The whole week is like a dream to me.”

 

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The Am triumph would be Fox’s greatest achievement in golf. He got a bunch of exemptions on the PGA Tour in 2014 after turning pro, but missed all nine cuts. He subsequently played seasons on the now-Korn Ferry Tour and PGA Tour Latinoamerica, but Fox made a total of just more than $100,000 in 72 total starts on four PGA Tour-sanctioned circuits.

Now a married father of two, Fox works in commercial real estate, but this week, he and Cherry Hills have connected again, with Fox serving as the caddie for a friend from his hometown, Bryce Lewis.

Bryce Lewis. Jeff Reed

An upcoming redshirt senior at the University of Tennessee, Lewis reached the match play by shooting 68 on Tuesday at Colorado Golf Club, the co-host site for the stroke-play portion of the event. That score, combined with the 71 that Lewis shot on Monday at Cherry Hills, put Lewis, who tied for 10th, in a far better position than Fox was in his Am.

Going into Wednesday’s Round of 64 in match play, Lewis, who is No. 37 in the World Amateur Golf Rankings, was seeded 10th and set to take on No. 52-seeded Parker Bell, a University of Florida rising sophomore from Tallahassee, Florida.

In a USGA post on Instragram, cameras followed Lewis and Fox on Monday. They appeared to have an easy chemistry.

“It’s great,” Fox says at one point. “I’m here to help Bryce and hopefully get him as far as I can.”

In another moment, someone notes that it’s probably a good thing to have the former US Am champ on your bag.

“Absolutely, if you’re going to get a caddie, it was me,” Fox says with a laugh. “I mean, Colorado Golf Club, I might not be worth [much]. But here …”

They actually scored better at CGC, but now all of the remaining play will be at Cherry Hills. Is there Rocky Mountain magic for Steven Fox? Stay tuned.

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