Writing from Chicago
Friday, August 1, 2014
Birdie followed birdie as naturally water flows downstream.
Doug Ghim would sink a putt, and Beau Hossler would answer.
Hossler would drop a bomb from across the green, and Ghim would fashion a miracle from a bunker.
On and on it went across the back nine of Beverly Country Club’s pristine acreage, a semifinal berth in the 112th Western Amateur at stake, until the 19th hole, Beverly’s 10th, when Ghim’s three-putt bogey opened the door for Hossler to win the hole – and the match – with a par.
“You weren’t going to win a hole with par in this match,” Hossler said. “He’s clutch and solid.”
It wasn’t going to happen on the back nine, at least. Not with each player scoring 5-under-par 30, matching birdies on the 10th, 14th and 17th holes and each getting two more birds to win other holes. It was the most exciting match of the 112th Western Am to date, and one of the best in any match-play amateur tournament since Matt Kuchar and Sergio Garcia threw birdies around like penny candy in the 1998 U.S. Amateur quarterfinal at Oak Hill in New York,
“It’s up there,” Ghim said of his personal ranking of matches he’d played in. “I was playing to win the whole thing.”
Ghim had survived squandering a 4-up lead against Matt Hansen in the morning’s Round of 16 match, taking a 1-up victory with a birdie on the 18th hole, his fifth 4 on the par-5 in as many visits to the hole. But he two-putted the final hole for par against Hossler, who also parred after hammering his tee shot closer to the 16th fairway than the 18th.
The fireworks between the future Texas teammates began at the 10th hole, with Ghim dropping a 25-foot birdie putt and Hossler answering from 18 feet for a matching deuce to keep the match all square.
“The birdie on 10 to halve the hole was key,” Hossler said.
Ghim went ahead with a 4-foot birdie on the par-5 11th, and after matching pars at the 12th, Hossler went from goat to hero in the space of a few minutes. His tee shot on the par-4 13th floated to the right, flirting with the fence along 91st Street. It clipped a tree and stayed in bounds, allowing him a recovery shot. That low slash finished on the left side of the green, with the cup far right. After Ghim’s approach went into the fronting bunker, Hossler smacked his putt. It traveled 63 feet, and would have run 15 more and off the green except that the hole got in the way, allowing him to square the match once more.
“Honestly, I felt I was going to win with a two-putt, because he was shortsided in the bunker,” Hossler said.
That stacked up as the most spectacular win of the match, but not for long. They matched birdies on the par-4 14th. Hossler birdied the par-4 15th to go 1 up after an approach to four feet. Ghim birdied the par-4 16th to return to all square after his approach from the right rough somehow stopped 18 inches from the cup.
The par-3 17th bordered on surreal. Ghim, with the honor, splashed his tee shot into the right greenside bunker. Hossler went for the pin, which was back left, and almost flew the green. Instead, the ball checked up and began to trundle and trickle its way downhill. Eighteen seconds after Hossler swung, the ball stopped two feet from the cup.
That would seemingly be a gimme birdie, but Ghim was up first, again trying to hole out from a bunker, as he had failed to do on the 13th. The bunker shot floated in the air, landed a foot from the hole, caromed off the pin and dropped into the cup. Ghim jumped in the air, his caddie-teacher-father Jeff ran over and high-fived and chest-bumped him, and Hossler suddenly had to make his two-footer to keep the match square. He did, and, with 10 birdies between them in eight holes, they went to the last.
Pars would result, each player missing a short birdie putt. And it was off to the 19th, where Hossler would survive.
“I used to struggle in match play,” Hossler said. “I’ve finally come to realize you should expect anything, because anything can happen.”
Having dispatched the pride of Arlington Heights (and his soon-to-be Texas teammate), Hossler will take on Nick Hardy of Northbrook at 7:30 on Saturday morning. Hardy, an incoming freshman at Illinois, will be well-rested, having dismissed Geoff Drakeford 6 and 4 in his morning match and Scheffler, the third Texas player, 5 and 4 in the afternoon.
“Haven’t met him,” Hossler said. “I don’t know anything about him.”
On the other side of the draw, Illinois senior Brian Campbell, who hails from California and is the Big Ten player of the year, will face Xander Schauffele, a senior at San Diego State, in the second semifinal at 7:45 a.m. Campbell knocked off Joshua Munn 2 and 1 in the morning, then outlasted Cory Crawford in a 23-hole marathon, matching the second-longest match in the Western Am since the Sweet Sixteen format went to 18-hole matches in 1961.
Round of 16
Doug Ghim (270), 18, Arlington Heights, Ill., d. Matt Hansen (279*), 22, Los Osos, Calif., 1 up
Beau Hossler (276), 19, Mission Viejo, Calif., d. Cheng-Tsung Pan (276), 22, Mialoi, Taiwan, 3 & 2
Scottie Scheffler (278), 18, Dallas, d. Taylor Macdonald (274), 22, Brisbane, Australia, 3 & 1
Nick Hardy (278), 18, Northbrook, Ill., d. Geoff Drakeford (274), 22, Traralgon South, Australia, 6 & 4
Brian Campbell (278), 21, Irvine, Calif., d. Joshua Mann (272), 23, Palmerston North, New Zealand, 2 & 1
Cory Crawford (276), 21, Sanctuary Cove, Australia, d. Lucas Herbert (276), 18, Ravenswood, Australia, 1 up
Xander Schauffele (278), 20, San Diego, Calif., d. Bryson DeChambeau (272), 20, Clovis, Calif., 1 up
Hunter Stewart (275), 21, Nicholasville, Ky., d. Charlie Danielson (277), 20, Osceola, Wis., 2 & 1
* – qualified in sudden-death playoff.
Quarterfinals
Hossler d. Ghim, 19 holes
Hardy d. Scheffler, 5 & 4
Campbell d. Crawford, 23 holes
Schauffele d. Stewart, 3 & 2
– Tim Cronin