Defender Coody, medalist Thorbjornsen into Western Amateur semis

Writing from Golf, Illinois

Friday, July 30, 2021

Champions don’t surrender easily. Pierceson Coody didn’t surrender at all on Friday.

Down two holes with six holes remaining in his Western Amateur quarterfinal match at the Glen View Club with Luke Potter, Coody, the defending champion, had to make something happen.

He did. Coody birdied the next two holes while Potter did not, briefly squaring the match, and while Potter took the lead with a par on the par-4 16th, Coody had made the point. He wasn’t going away.

Coody, the pride of Plano, Tex., and a Longhorn junior in the fall, would knock off Potter, an Arizona State freshman in the fall, in 20 holes to advance to the semifinals and an 8:12 a.m. match with Gordon Sargent of Birmingham, Ala.

The birdies on the 13th and 14th were important. The birdie on the 17th, a 24-foot downhill putt with what he estimated as eight feet of break, fell into the cup to keep him alive, as Potter subsequently matched with a 14-footer.

“That was a must-make,” Coody said on the driving range, to which he repaired after his match to straight out what he considered a flaw in his swing. “It was almost a 90-degree putt. It took the fall line and went right in the center with good pace.”

That forced the match to the last with Potter still 1-up, but he pulled his drive into the hazard to the left and couldn’t recover for better than a double-bogey, while Coody hit the fairway and green on the 450-yard par-4 in regulation. It was back to the first tee for sudden death, and after Coody and Potter halved the first hole, Coody hit the green on the par-3 second while Potter missed the putting surface. Potter couldn’t get up-and-down and Coody was through to the semis.

Coody won last year at Crooked Stick, and never went past the 18th hole, but was challenged in each match. He drew on that experience Friday.

“This was everything that I experienced last year,” Coody said. “That clutch factor, and a little bit of focus to close out these matches, is everything I drew in today.”

Coody would be the first defending champion to repeat since fellow Texas Longhorn Justin Leonard in 1992-93.

“That’s obviously the goal when you start the week, but it’s such a long, demanding week, you’re just trying to go one step at a time. As I said last week during the Sweet 16 dinner, every match and every day, things move so fast. Tomorrow’s going to go fast, but hopefully it’s because things are going my way.

“Stay in the moment and get to the back nine and see how it goes.”

Sargent beat David Ford of Peachtree Corners, Ga., 4 and 2 in that quarterfinal.

The other semifinal matches medalist Michael Thorbjornsen of Wellesley, Mass., against Austin Greaser of Vandalia, Ohio, at 8 a.m.

Thorbjornsen beat Maxwell Moldovan 2 and 1 in his morning Sweet 16 match, then took on Ricky Castillo, who had advanced to match play in the previous two Western Amateurs, and scored a 2 up victory against the plucky Californian.

Thorbjornsen, who won the Massachusetts Amateur 10 days ago, two-putted from 20 feet above the hole on the 18th green to clinch the win over Castillo, but the putt had to travel some 45 feet, curling to the right all the way, to end up near the cup.

“I’ve had two of those putts in the past three holes,” Thorbjornsen said. “It’s just picking out a spot and hitting it there.”

Castillo had a similar but longer putt, but sent it skittering by, which made Thorbjornsen’s putt that much easier to judge.

Greaser knocked off Brian Stark of Kingsburg, Calif., 2 and 1, to advance to the semis.

– Tim Cronin