Day of Highs and Lows for Teenager Du

Bandon, Oregon, United States: Within a matter of hours, Aaron Du experienced the highs and lows of top-level golf.

Joy at surviving a nerve-tingling play-off to qualify for the match play phase at the 120th US Amateur Championship was soon replaced by disappointment as the 18-year-old Chinese ran into an unstoppable force.

For Du, the dubious privilege of progressing through the stroke play section was a Round of 64 clash with Wilson Furr, who had fired a stunning 62 on Tuesday to claim medallist honours.

Du, an incoming Cal Bears freshman, had the temerity to take an early lead and was all square with the number one seed through seven holes at Bandon Dunes Golf Resort. It was then that Furr, a senior at the University of Alabama, went into overdrive.

Furr won the eighth to turn at one-up and then reeled off five winning holes in a row from the 10th to wrap up a 6&4 triumph. He was six-under through 14 holes.

Despite being eliminated, Du will take heart from his brave early-morning effort that saw him claim the last of the three spots on offer in the match play draw from an 18-man play-off.

The play-off started on the par-four 10th hole at 7.15 am with two players making birdies to punch their tickets to the next stage. Having made a par, Du was among those who continued to the par-four 11th. As the only one of the surviving players to make birdie there, he claimed the final slot.

“This is the most exciting thing that’s happened to me in my golf career,” said Du, after sinking a 10-footer at the second hole of the play-off.

Du joined Australian Jack Trent (142) and Thai Puwit Anupansuebsai (143), the only other members of a 17-strong contingent from eight Asia-Pacific Golf Confederation (APGC) member countries to guarantee themselves places in the match play.

While Puwit suffered the anguish of a 19th hole loss to American Carson Lundell, Trent saw of the challenge of American Jackson Suber 3&2.

All square through 10 holes, Trent held firm. He won the 11th, 12th and 14th and closed out the match with halves at the next two holes. In the Round of 32, he will take on American Cameron Sisk, a semi-finalist in the 2018 US Junior Amateur.

For his part, Puwit will reflect on what might have been. Two-down through 11, Puwit halved the deficit at the 12th. After five successive shared holes, Puwit was still one-down going to 18. There he profited from a rare Lundell error to win the hole and force extra-time.

However, a bogey for the Thai at the first extra hole meant it was Lundell who prevailed.