CHASKA, Minnesota – Where have all the stars gone?
When Luke Clanton, the red-hot Florida State junior who recently rose to No. 1 in the world amateur rankings, lost his round of 32 match to Illinois senior Jackson Buchanan at the U.S. Amateurs on Thursday morning, it meant that none of the world’s top nine amateurs remained at Hazeltine National.
Five of the top eight seeds were eliminated in the round of 64 – No. 2 Gordon Sargent, No. 5 Ben James, No. 6 Preston Summerhays, No. 7 Jackson Van Paris and No. 8 David Ford. This came after No. 2 Jackson Koivun and No. 9 Ian Gillian missed the cut and No. 4 Wenyi Ding withdrew before the tournament.
But don’t worry, golf fans: As usual, the US Amateurs will produce another star by Sunday evening.
Perhaps it could be Buchanan, who is on the verge of glory at No. 17 in the world. He avenged a narrow loss to Clanton two seasons ago at the NCAA Championship and then defeated Tyler Mawhinney, a member of the U.S. junior national team, in the round of 16, birdieing each of his final two holes to turn a 1-down deficit into a 1-up victory.
“Luke just got everything out of me,” Buchanan said. “That was the toughest match I’ve ever played. I knew it was going to be a pretty tough battle. Tyler played well and I was able to catch up, but right now I’m just exhausted.”
Buchanan will face Notre Dame’s Jacob Modleski in the quarterfinals Friday afternoon, which begin at 2:30 p.m. local time. Modleski, whose father Matthew was a fighter pilot in the U.S. Air Force, went head-to-head against UCLA’s Omar Morales and was up 4-0 after six holes. Morales fought back to just 1-0 after 11 holes before Modleski eventually took a 2-1 victory.
The winner will be the winner of the first quarterfinal game between Ethan Fang of Oklahoma State, who recently transferred from Cal, and Noah Kent of Iowa.
There’s a little more firepower on the other side of the bracket. No. 11 Brendan Valdes of Auburn will face Spaniard Luis Masaveu, No. 23 in WAGR, who recently qualified for The Open at Royal Troon with a spare set of clubs after losing players following the British Amateur.
And then there’s the highest-ranked player in the field, Josele Ballester of Arizona State University, No. 10 in the WAGR, and perhaps the most unlikely quarterfinalist: 36-year-old Bobby Massa, a Dallas-based golf performance coach who not only teaches golfers – including PGA Tour pro Brandon Wu and USGA President Fred Perpall – how to hit the ball far, but who also hits a long ball himself.
Massa, who will soon become a father of two and struggled to hit under 90 after joining the pros over a decade ago, now masters the ball with a swing speed of 127 mph and ball speed of nearly 190 mph. He pressured Michigan State’s Ashton McCulloch with his length all day, though he missed the edge with a putt and ended the match on the 18th hole in regulation time. Massa also had trouble reading the ball in the extras – until the third spin through the par-4 final hole, the 23rd of the match, when he sank a 25-foot putt to stay in contention for this championship. Now Massa is just three match wins away from becoming the first mid-amateur to win the U.S. Amateur since John Harris – a Minnesota native, by the way – in 1993.
With so many top stars leaving, is Massa ready to fill the gap and become the next star of amateur golf?
“I like doing this,” said Massa. “I’m enjoying the moment. I don’t know what the future holds.”
