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.”

The post This was the most bizarre and thrilling climax to a match in US Amateur history appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

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.

The post Auburn senior punctuates US Amateur bomb with the earliest finger point you will ever see appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.