San Francisco – the clubhouse of this week’s American amateur guest site is a sanctuary for unexpected results. Just past the entrance of the ground floor, around the corner of the grill, a grid with photos hangs on a wall. One image shows Jack Fleck, radiant after his upset victory over Ben Hogan in the US Open of 1955. Another is an action shot by Billy Casper, author of his own national shocker championship when he tracked Arnold Palmer from Zeven Schoten in 1966.
The theme exhibition does not end there. It includes Scott Simpson, who accelerated Tom Watson in 1987, and Lee Janzen, who finished Payne Stewart 11 years later, and Yuka Saso, who opened the open trophy of the US Women’s in 2021 after Lexi Thompson faltered the piece.
You get the photo.
Underdogs did well at the Olympic club.
Whether that tradition would continue was one of the questions in the heavy coastal air when the quarterfinals of the American amateur started on Friday on the historic Lake course of the club.
After all, there was an Cinderella in the mix. Jimmy Abdo, a second future in Division III Gustavus Adolphus College in Minnesota, had arrived in San Francisco as the 4,992th ranked amateur golfer in the world. The longest long shots. But above journeys were nothing new for him. Born in a war-torn Lebanon in 2006, he had evacuated from the American embassy in Beirut, flown to Cyprus, flew to Germany and then to his adoptive family in the midwest all before he was a month old.
Now 19, he wanted to eliminate Jackson Herrington from Tennessee to expand a journey on the west coast that had been going on for some time than his family had planned.
“He expects a lot from himself and we,” said Abdo’s father, Jimmy, while he followed his son’s match through the front nine.
Yet he admitted: “I only packed three or four days.”
With his clean clothes on, he had bought extra outfits the night before.
If the younger ABDO was a uncomfortable quarter -finalist, another competition was a household name.
“Grip and tear it, long John!” A fan called as a well -known looking figure on the range of the range. At the age of 21, John Daly II shows a physical resemblance to his famous father, although his backswing is shorter and his neck-warmer haircut is not that long.
Nowadays it seems that everyone is bombing it and Daly II is no exception. But he was not ready to give his fans a show. He still managed, he hit half wedges against a stiffening breeze. Wise movement. He would need his entire game – not only a driver – to send his opponent, Mason Howell from Georgia, only 18, but a veteran from several USGA championships, including the US Open in Oakmont last summer, for which he qualified with two rounds of 63.
If Daly II prevailed, would his father show up to look personally during the weekend? Questioning Minds had asked a version of this question throughout the week when Daly II flowed through the match play bracket. His answer was as constant as it was uncertain.
“I don’t know. Maybe you never know with him,” said Daly II.
This week is the fourth time that the Olympic club has performed the American amateur. An earlier occasion was in 1981, when the child of Bing Crosby, Nathaniel, a resident of Bay Area, won the title in a clinchen competition that was said to have pulled the biggest bustle in the history of the championship since the victory of Bobby Jones in 1930.
On Friday, closest to the field at a local celebrity, it turned out to be the star of the most compelling game of the day. Glasgow born but raised in Mill Valley, just across the Bay from San Francisco, Niall Shiels-DoneGan, 20, had a Crosby-Size Contingent from supporters on Thursday enthusiastic while he rode a hot putter on a 1-up win at no. 1 Seed Preston Stout. For his quarter -final match, the crowds were even bigger, partly because the other player was the Notre Dame Stalwart Jacob Modleski: a fighting Irish versus a shot.
Their head-to-head did not disappoint. With loud cheers interspersed with both robust factions, Shiels-DoneGan 2-down to 12 fell before he turned a Birdie on the par-3 13th that sent the gallery in a razite.
Marching to the next Tee, Shiels-DoneGan High-Fived spectators such as his Caddy, Todd Moutafian, exclaimed: “Are we not entertained?”
They were.
And there was more to come, when Shiels-Donegan celebrated the game with a Birdie on 17 before he won with a par on the first extra hole after his lost drive of a tree in the Fairway bounced. Pandemonium.
“There was a bit too much ‘I love you, niall’ there, but every form of love, I will take it,” said Shiels-Donegan. “I can’t thank them enough for taking the trek here. I know it’s only 30 minutes, but they still take the time to do this. It is surprising that they give me so much support.”
Did he expect even greater support in the semi -final of Saturday?
“I don’t know,” he said. “We have a number of pretty good organizers in that couple.”
In the end, several other questions of the day were answered. John Daly Sr. Probably not in the West Vlaken this weekend; His son had lost 1-down to Howell. Neither would the Cinderella continue to run. ABDO was 4 and 2 cases. One last game remained, but it would soon be arranged, with Eric Lee van Fullerton, California, who founded Miles Russell, a 16-year-old prodigy from Florida.
Towards the end of the day on the Lake Course, four players have remained. The semi -finals were set: Lee vs. Howell, Donegan vs. Herrington.
It was difficult to find an underdog in the couple.
Josh Sens
Golf.com -edor
Josh Sens, a golf, food and travel writer, has been a golf magazine employee since 2004 and now contributes to all Golf platforms. His work is anthologized in the best American Sportswriting. He is also the co-author, with Sammy Hagar, we still have fun so far: the cooking and party manual.
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