CHASKA, Minnesota – History was made Friday at Hazeltine National.
With Arizona State senior Josele Ballester and fellow Spaniard Luis Masaveu meeting in the semifinals of the U.S. Amateur on Saturday, a player from Spain is guaranteed to advance to the final – a first for the nation that has nine major men’s titles, including Jon Rahm’s crown at the 2021 U.S. Open.
“Once we got to match play and both won our first games, we looked at the standings and realized that if we kept winning like that, we would meet in the semifinals. So we thought, ‘Let’s do it,'” said Ballester, who beat amateur Bobby Massa 3 and 1 in Friday’s quarterfinals. “Now we’re done with all those games and tomorrow we have a chance to play each other and one of us will be playing in two majors next year, which is pretty incredible.”
Previously, Spain had only one U.S. Amateur semifinalist – Sergio Garcia at Oak Hill in 1998. Garcia has been following the action this week and has been texting Ballester regularly to remind the talented 20-year-old, who turns 21 on Sunday: “Believe in yourself. You are great. You deserve to be here.”
The same can be said of Masaveu. Ballester is a three-time All-American for the Sun Devils, winner of last year’s European Amateur and currently the 10th best amateur in the world. But Masaveu is not far behind, ranking 23rd in the World Amateur Golf Rankings. Unlike Ballester, Masaveu forwent college golf in the US and instead chose to study in Spain to prepare for professional golf. Earlier this summer, he qualified for the Open Championship – with an old set of clubs without a 3-wood after his players got lost on the flight home from the British Amateur.
This week is scheduled to be Masaveu’s final amateur event. He is fifth in the Global Amateur Pathway rankings, and with this run at Hazeltine likely to move him up at least one spot, he has a good chance of earning a Challenge Tour card when the rankings close on October 13.
After overcoming a 2-point deficit to defeat Auburn senior Brendan Valdes 3 and 2 on Friday in a match that culminated in a huge 4-iron shot to 6 feet on the par-5 15th hole, Masaveu may have to change his plans.
“If I win tomorrow, I probably won’t turn pro because obviously playing the Masters is different,” Masaveu said. “I mean, it’s a dream. … I played in a major this year (he made the cut at Royal Troon) and it was incredible, but you never know if you’ll play the Masters again in your life.
“It’s a moment that needs to be seized.”
Both Masaveu and Ballester dreamed of such moments even before they met. That meeting took place more than a decade ago at the Spanish U-10 Championship. Ballester was seven years old at the time, Masaveu a year older. Although they lost touch for a few years after that, they have grown much closer recently, leading their country to two consecutive European Team Championship titles in 2022 and 2023.
Ballester, whose parents are both Olympians (his father is a swimmer, his mother won a gold medal in field hockey), never liked football as a child, but swam and played tennis as well as golf. But Masaveu made Ballester a Real Madrid fan.
“We might as well cheer for the best,” Ballester said.
Speaking of cheering for the best, when the semifinal match between Ballester and Masaveu starts at 1:15 p.m. local time in Hazeltine – 15 minutes after the first semifinal between Illinois’ Jackson Buchanan and Iowa’s Noah Kent – it will be 8:15 p.m. in Spain.
Two tough flushers – one from outside Madrid, the other north of Valencia – in prime time.
Ballester said: “I hope that tomorrow everyone in Spain will watch the Golf Channel.”
