Xu and Chang Bow Out with Heads Held High

Parker, Colorado, United States: Andi Xu and Paul Chang Rui departed the 123rd US Amateur Championship with heads held high – and China’s reputation as a growing major force in international golf enhanced.

Xu suffered a 2&1 reversal against Neal Shipley in the quarter-finals at Cherry Hills Country Club, while Chang was edged out on the 19th hole of his Round of 16 clash with John Marshall Butler.

On Thursday, Sampson Zheng, who won co-medallist honours in the 36-hole stroke play qualifier, was eliminated in the Round of 32.

Also progressing to the match play phase was Ding Wenyi, last year’s US Junior Amateur champion, who lost one-down to Shipley in the Round of 64.

Apart from the United States and China, no other country had more than one player make it through to the match play segment.

Xu’s hopes of making it through to the semi-final were boosted when he took an early two-up advantage. But Shipley, a graduate student at Ohio State University, his back by winning three straight holes.

Xu levelled the match with a birdie on the par-three 12th, but miscues on 15 and 17 dashed the chances of the 21-year-old University of San Diego senior, the number seven seed in the bracket.

“This one is pretty special because I started out kind of slow and had to claw back,” said Shipley, who played at James Madison University before joining the Ohio State programme last year. “I got up, and then he got me, and then just kind of won those two near the end. It’s tough. You’ve just got to stay mentally in it the whole time.”

With darkness descending on Thursday night, Chang’s dramatic Round of 16 tie with Butler was suspended with the contest locked at all square through 18 holes after a remarkable par save from the American on the home hole where he had hit his drive into a lake.

Resuming on Friday morning, Butler, a senior at Auburn University, completed his win with a par on the 19th hole.

Referring to his final-hole heroics of the previous evening, Butler said: “I guess I just had so much adrenalin going that [my 18th-hole tee shot] went in the water. I dropped, got a perfect number with a gap wedge, and just really dialled in on that.

“I heard everybody up at the green screaming, and I was like: ‘Oh, my gosh! Did it go in?’ Because it was like one of those roars. Then I came out this morning and finished it off.

“But Paul is a great player. We had a fantastic match, probably one of the best matches I’ll have in my life.”

In the all-American semi-finals on Saturday, Butler takes on Shipley, while Nick Dunlap faces Parker Bell.

Dunlap, ninth in the World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR), rebounded from a three-putt bogey on 18 to birdie the 19th – the first hole – and defeat Jackson Koivun.

Dunlap, who won the 2021 U.S. Junior Amateur title, was two-down through seven holes and rallied to take the lead, but twice followed up hole wins with bogeys, on 14 and 16, to give Koivun hope.

“I know it’s hard to win; it’s hard to win for him, it’s hard to win for me, and just give all you got,” said Dunlap, a sophomore at the University of Alabama, who knocked in a 20-foot putt on the 333-yard first hole, then watched as Koivun, 73rd in the WAGR, missed his tying bid from 12 feet.

Bell, a sophomore at the University of Florida, outlasted a furious rally by Ben James, sixth in the WAGR and winner of the Phil Mickelson Award as the top freshman in the country for the University of Virginia.

Just when it appeared that James might complete his rally from two-down with three to play, he missed a 2½-foot putt for bogey on 18 and settled for matching sixes with Bell, who also took three to get down from the side of the steeply pitched green.

Bell, who had watched James birdie 16 and eagle 17 to tie the match, took full advantage of his opportunity on the 19th hole, making a five-foot birdie putt after James’ long birdie try slid past.