By Ryan Herrington
If there was pressure on Jennifer Kupcho, Lilia Vu and Kristen Gillman to be the trio who finally broke the USA’s 20-year winless drought at the Women’s World Amateur Team Championship, it hardly showed. Yes, the No. 1, 2 and 3 ranked golfers in the world got off to a slow start during the first round at Ireland’s Carton House Golf Club, placing tied for eighth. But in the end, they stayed patience, focused and determined.

A second-round 16-under 130, thanks to a pair of 65s from Kupcho and Gillman, gave the Americans the lead that they’d maintain for the rest of the week. A closing 10-under 136, with a 67 from Gillman and 69 from Kupcho, gave them a 29-under 551 and a 10-stroke victory over Japan.

“I am so proud of these girls,” said USA captain Stasia Collins. “I am so proud of this team, and I am really happy for them and thrilled for the United States. They will always be known as the gold medal winners for the 2018 World Amateur Team Championships—no one can take that away from us.”

The trio of college starts at Wake Forest, UCLA and Alabama, respectively, had played together on the victorious U.S. Curtis Cup team in June. Their growing friendships with one another had galvanized the group that helped make the task at hand less daunting.

Team USA had previously won the Espirto Santo Trophy a record 13 times, but had not been victorious in the biennial event since 1998 in Chile. Kupcho was just 1 at the time, Gillman and Vu not even that old.

Amazingly, no U.S. squad had even finished in the top three since 2010. Yet with the top three amateur players in the world competing for the red, white and blue, expectations were big.

“We have the strong bond already from the beginning,” said Kupcho, who won the NCAA women’s individual title in May. “We all wanted to win for each other, and I think that was a big thing coming out of yesterday. And, I think that’s how we got our big lead coming into today.”

“It means so much to us,” added Gillman, the reigning U.S. Women’s Amateur champion. “We worked so hard and we fought on every shot. When three people are all playing well, it is tough to beat us.”

Japan’s second-place finish was the first time the country had earned a medal in the event in 28 appearances. Finishing third and earning the bronze medal was South Korea, winner in three of the last four playings of the WWATC.

South Korea’s Ayean Cho was the low individual scorer for the week at 17-under 273, two strokes clear of Kupcho and Japan’s Yuka Yasuda. Gillman finished fourth at 12 under and Vu finished T-17 at two under.

The post Victorious Americans end 20-year winless drought at Women’s World Amateur Team Championship appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Dave Shedloski
PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. – In the most pressure-packed matches of their young lives, Cole Hammer and Isaiah Salinda combined for 11 birdies Saturday at Pebble Beach Golf Links, sank putts on top of their respective opponents and played well enough to reach the U.S. Amateur final.

They never stood a chance.

On a misty morning at the iconic course along the Pacific Ocean, the two could only watch helplessly as their dreams of playing in next year’s Masters and U.S. Open were dashed by a pair of golfers simply performing at a high level, perhaps higher than they have ever known before.

Viktor Hovland, 20, of Norway, a senior at Oklahoma State University, birdied his final five holes and dealt Hammer his second semifinal setback of the summer, winning 3 and 2. He’ll compete for American golf’s oldest trophy, a 36-hole final starting at 7:30 a.m. PDT Sunday, against UCLA sophomore Devon Bling, 18, of Ridgecrest, Calif., who outlasted Salinda 1-up.

No. 5 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking, Hovland made eight birdies in 16 holes and never trailed against Hammer, the first player in 32 years to reach the semifinals of the U.S. Junior Amateur and U.S. Amateur in the same summer. Hovland’s amazing run began at the par-3 12th hole when he stole an apparent win from Hammer by sinking a 20-footer. It ended with an eight-footer at the 16th that closed out Hammer, who did win the U.S. Amatuer Four-Ball in May and was coming off a victory in the Western Amateur.

Hovland, who helped Oklahoma State win the NCAA Division I title in June, has trailed for just one hole over five matches, and that came early in his second-round win over Harrison Ott.

“First of all, the wind, it wasn’t blowing as hard, and the greens were a little softer, so the conditions were definitely conducive to making birdies,” he said. “But still, you’ve got to hit the shots, and you’ve got to make the putts. I think we just kind of fed off each other a little bit. He made a putt and then I answered, if not the same hole making a putt, I’d make a putt on the next hole, and we just went back and forth. Yeah, it was a really good match.”

Hammer, 18, of Houston, made five birdies but just couldn’t dent Hovland’s facade. “I’m not mad about the way I played, I’m just disappointed that I kind of ran into a buzz saw,” he said.

JD Cuban
Devon Bling, a UCLA sophomore, defeated Isaiah Salinda, 1 up, to advance to Sunday’s final in the U.S. Amateur Championship at Pebble Beach.

Likewise, Salinda, 21, of South San Francisco, Calif., played his best round of the week and yet he never led against his fellow Pac-12 golfer. Salinda plays for Stanford and Bling for UCLA. Both are competing in their first U.S. Amateur. Salinda took him down to the wire, but when he failed to birdie the 18th, Bling’s three-putt for par at the last pushed him through.

“I’ve got no complaints,” Salinda said. “I played well today. That’s all I could ask for. Devon played awesome.”

Indeed, Bling’s caddie, Andrew Larkin, assistant golf coach at UCLA, said he’s never seen him play better. (As an aside, Alan Bratton the OSU head golf coach, is caddying for Hovland this week.)

“You could see his game picking up and his confidence is growing, and he’s ready to go,” Larkin said. “The talent has always been there for sure, and it’s great to see it coming out this week.”

“I definitely played well today. I wasn’t even counting score,” said Bling, who will be the underdog in the final at No. 305 in the WAGR. “I hit it incredibly well today, putted well. All aspects of my game were firing on all cylinders. It was a battle against Isaiah. He played really well himself. I was really happy to come out on top.

“I’ve been working extremely hard on my game, trying to make it really good in every single area, just so when I needed the shot, I’m able to hit it,” added Bling, who has been dedicating this week to his late mother, Sara, who passed away in 2013 but always wanted her son to play in USGA events. “Man, I don’t know, it’s just … I love feeling the pressure. I like being nervous out there and knowing that I’ve got to hit a good shot here, and I’ve got to make this putt. I love that feeling.”

He’ll feel a lot more of that today. So will Hovland.

The post Viktor Hovland, Devon Bling prevail over stubbornly-stellar foes, will meet in U.S. Amateur final on Sunday appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

The fight happened at Southers Marsh Golf Club in Plymouth on Friday. Neither of the men has been identified, but the report says a 47-year-old man was arrested and charged with mayhem.

The incident reportedly happened late in the day and left one man with his thumb bitten off to his knuckle. He was taken to a nearby hospital after firefighters arrived at the scene following a 911 call from another person at the club.

Plymouth Police has yet to issue a statement on the situation.

The post Golfer bites off another man’s finger in Massachusetts golf course fight, according to report appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Ryan Herrington
When it comes to amateurs playing in the 118th U.S. Open, it’s not who is in the field at Shinnecock Hills that’s impressive, but how many.

Twenty are competing this week, the most since 1962 at Oakmont and five shies of the record set in 1959. (There could have been as many as 25 in the field, but three who qualified as amateurs decided to ditch the “little A” next to their name and play as pros, and Joaquin Niemann and U.S. Amateur champion Doc Redman gave up their exemptions when they turned pro this spring.) This marks the sixth straight year at least 10 amateurs are competing and the 11th time in 12 years.

Are we seeing an amateur renaissance? Well, let’s not get too carried away. None of these players is going to end the streak of 85 years since an amateur won the U.S. Open (Johnny Goodman has that trivia answer locked up for good). But as we have seen in the recent past (Beau Hossler in 2012; Michael Kim in 2013; Cameron Champ a year ago), amateurs on the leaderboard in the U.S. Open is a real thing and there are plenty of good candidates to play that role this week.

Of course, if the potential for an amateur to be in the mix exists, then obviously one is going to make the cut at Shinnecock Hills, right? The simple answer is yes; an amateur has made the cut every year since 2007. But the number to stick around for the weekend is not quite as large as you’d think. Consider that in the last five years with double-digit numbers of amateurs competing in the Open, just twice has there been more than two to make the cut.

There is a consistent theme among this year’s amateur class. Save for reigning Mid-Amateur champion Matt Parziale and 2016 Mid-Am winner Stewart Hagestad, the others are all in college or just graduated. And only three of these players (British Amateur champ Harry Ellis, U.S. Amateur runner-up Doug Ghim and qualifier Will Grimmer) have major experience. The “newness” of being inside the ropes at such an event may make for tougher sledging for the play-for-pride set this year.

So how does the race for low amateur stack up? Here’s my break down of the players into categories of confidence, with 5 being my bets to make the cut, down to 1 being the least likely.

Confidence Level 5
Shintaro Ban, 22, San Jose, Calif. (UNLV 2018 grad)
Doug Ghim, 22, Arlington Heights, Ill. (Texas 2018 grad)
Braden Thornberry, 21 Olive Branch, Miss. (Mississippi)

Ghim earned low amateur honours at this year’s Masters. (David Cannon/Getty Images)

These three are all coming off impressive college seasons, Ban and Ghim earning first-team All-American honours. Ghim, who just graduated from Texas and turns pros next week at the Travelers Championship, not only has experience in major but good vibes from his T-50 showing at the Masters, where he earned low amateur honours. (He’ll have his dad, Jeff, on the bag again here this week.) Thornberry (photo above), the 2017 NCAA champ and an eight-time winner in college, just had a T-26 finish playing as an amateur at the FedEx St. Jude Classic. This trio all has the game to handle Shinnecock Hills’ links-style layout and the confidence to block out the distractions of playing in a major championship.

Confidence Level 4
Stewart Hagestad, 27, Newport Beach, Calif.
Theo Humphrey, 22, Greenwich, Conn. (Vanderbilt 2018 grad)

Hagestad resurfaced when he advanced at Sectional Qualifying in New Jersey after having the dream amateur season in 2017. You’ll recall he made the cut at the Masters and played in the U.S. Open, then capped things off by being part of the victorious U.S. Walker Cup team while playing a home game at Los Angeles C.C. He missed the cut at Erin Hills last year, but living on Long Island and having played a time or two at Shinnecock Hills makes the task of making the cut a little less steep. Humphrey was a semifinalist at last year’s U.S. Amateur and earned SEC player of the year honours this last season at Vanderbilt. His lack of experience in pro events is offset by a quiet confidence that propelled him throughout his college career.

Confidence Level 3
Philip Barbaree, 19, Shreveport, La. (LSU)
Jacob Bergeron, 20, Slidell, La. (LSU)
Harry Ellis, 22, England (Florida State)
Luis Gagne, 20, Costa Rica (LSU)
Noah Goodwin, 17, Corinth, Texas (SMU)
Matt Parziale, 31, Brockton, Mass.
Garrett Rank, 30, Canada

If you’re an LSU fan, you’ve got plenty to root for this week. Tiger teammates Barbaree, Bergeron and Gagne all advanced through Sectional Qualifying. Barbaree is a former U.S. Junior champ (having rallied from 5 down with eight holes to play to claim the title) and is playing in his sixth USGA championship. Goodwin, meanwhile, is the reigning Junior champ taking advantage of the USGA allowing the Junior winner’s a spot in the U.S. Open field for the first time. Parziale and Ellis are looking to build off their experience at the Masters, but it’s Rank that is arguably the most intriguing story of this year’s Open. The Canadian is on summer break from his full-time work of being an NHL referee.

Icon Sportswire

Confidence Level 2
Will Grimmer, 21, Cincinnati, Ohio (Ohio State)
Franklin Huang, 22, Poway, Calif. (Stanford)
Rhett Rasmussen, 19, Draper, Utah (BYU)
Tyler Strafaci, 19, Fort Lauderdale, Fla. (Georgia Tech)
Chun-An Yu, 19, Taiwan (Arizona State)

Grimmer qualified for 2014 Open at Pinehurst, where he shot a 77-80 to miss the cut (although he also once shot a 59 at the North and South Amateur at the North Carolina resort). Strafaci has a USGA pedigree of sorts going for him; his grandfather, Frank, won the 1935 U.S. Amateur Public Links title.

Confidence Level 1
Ryan Lumsden, 22, England (Northwestern)
Kristoffer Reitan, 20, Norway
Timothy Wiseman, 21, Corydon, Ind. (Ball State)

Reitan will make history on Thursday, becoming the first golfer from Norway to ever play in the U.S. Open and the first Norwegian to compete in any major since 2006. Lumsden took the difficult route to Shinnecock as the only amateur to advance through the Columbus, Ohio, sectional qualifier.

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