Michigan, United States: Chang Xihuan’s hopes of living upto his billing as the highest rated player in the field at 76th US Junior Amateur Championship were halted at the semi-final stage.

Chang, 39th in the World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR), advanced to the last four by defeating Vietnam’s Nguyen Anh Minh 3&2 in a Friday morning quarter-final at Oakland Hills Country Club.

But his fabulous run was ended by American Trevor Gutschewski 2&1 in a tense semi-final on Friday afternoon.

Gutschewski, son of PGA Tour veteran Scott Gutschewski, who is teeing it up this week at the 3M Open in Minnesota, will take on fellow-American Tyler Watts in Saturday’s 36-hole final.

Gutschewski, the lowest-ranked WAGR player in the quarter-finals at 3,570th, took a one-up lead on Chang after three holes and didn’t trail for the rest of the day.

Despite battling an errant driver throughout the middle part of the round, the University of Florida commit scrapped his way around ‘The Monster’.

Gutschewski buried a 22-foot downhill slider for birdie on the 11th and followed that up by walking in a 12-footer on 12 for another birdie, taking a two-up lead.

Chang grabbed one back on the 13th when Gutschewski lipped out a three-footer and snagged another with a downhill eight-footer for birdie on the 14th to even the match.

On the 338-yard driveable par-four 16th, Chang found the water with his tee shot, prompting Gutschewski to lay-up, play for par and take a one-up lead.

“I had driver out,” said Gutschewski, about the tee shot on 16. “I was thinking it’s 290 carry over, so I thought I had that. Then he goes in the water so there is no reason to try it. Figured just hit one up there and make par. Figure that would be good enough unless he hit a really good shot.”

Gutschewski then closed the match on the next hole, the 241-yard par-three 17th, and got some exciting news that both he and Watts would be throwing out the first pitch at the Detroit Tigers game.

“I couldn’t have had any better news coming off the 17th green,” said Gutschewski. “I got to work on getting my arm ready. I feel like I got to throw out a faster pitch than Tyler. Strike some fear into him before the first tee tomorrow.”

In the eagerly-anticipated all-Asian quarter-final clash, Chang drew first blood with a winning birdie at the opening hole. But Anh Minh won the second and third to go ahead before Chang tied things up at the fifth, from which point the Chinese never trailed.

Twice more the Vietnamese struck straight back after losing a hole, but Chang took the 13th and 14th to go two-up before closing out the contest with a par at the 16th.