Wilson Furr - USGA photo
When a course hosts its best players ever, the competitive course records are bound to fall. And anyone who has ever played Bandon Trails knows that there are plenty of birdies out there. But eleven of them? In the middle of a USGA championship? That's pretty amazing.
Whatever Wilson Furr saw in Bandon Trails, he liked. And his 62 is the new course record. Coming off a 2-under 70 at Bandon Dunes on Monday, the amazing 9-under round puts the University of Alabama senior from Mississippi at 11-under and in firm command of medalist honors and the No. 1 seed heading into Wednesday's match play round.
Furr's 11-under total was one shot shy of the tournament record, posted by Hayden Wood in 2017 at Riviera Country Club.
“I mean, until you told me all that, it didn’t really hit me, to be honest with you,” said Furr, who is competing in his eighth USGA championship and fourth U.S. Amateur. “We were just trying to run our game plan all day, and I just started hitting it close and a couple putts went in, and then kind of looked up and we were 7 under through 12. Like I said, it happened real fast, so I don’t know what to say really.”
The 62 matched the second-lowest 18-hole score in U.S. Amateur history. Californian Jeff Wilson shot 62 in 2011 at The Home Course in Dupont, Washington. (The lowest 18-hole U.S. Am score ever was a 60 by Billy Horschel.)
James Piot, a rising senior at Michigan State, took the No. 2 seed, adding a 7-under 65 at Bandon Dunes to the 69 he posted Monday at Bandon Trails. His round included eagles on Nos. 9 and 13 (both par 5s) and consecutive birdies on 17 and 18. It was the best round of the day on the course that will host all matches.
Piot told the USGA that he took full advantage of the light winds and the luck of the draw he got with tee times.
“At the beginning of the week I was sending off texts to all my buddies at home, saying, ‘You know what, [the] cut is going to be 6, 7 over,’” said Piot, who is playing in his first U.S. Amateur. “With this wind and how it was looking [during] practice rounds, [I told myself] I’m going to try to score the best I can this week, and I got a fortunate draw with the weather situation."
Ben Shipp, of North Carolina State, finished birdie-eagle at Bandon Dunes for a 5-under 67 and earned the No. 3 seed at 8-under 135. Baylor University redshirt junior Travis McInroe, of Plano, Texas, followed a first-round 65 at Bandon Dunes with an even-par 71 at Bandon Trails to finish at 136, four strokes behind Furr. Shipp won the 2019 South Beach International Amateur in a sudden-death playoff.
Furr's record round at Bandon Trails comes just a day after the mark was set by Aman Gupta at 64 on Monday, and tied earlier Tuesday by Charles Osborne.
Gupta, one of 7 players in the field from Oklahoma State, fired 29 on the front nine at Bandon Trails yesterday on his way to a bogey free 64. Today, he struggled on the closing holes at Bandon Dunes, making bogey on Nos. 14, 16, and 17 but he did close with a birdie to round out a 1-over 73 for a two round total of 6-under 137. But it's all a bonus, considering Gupta was a last-minute addition to the field when a spot became available due to Ricky Castillo's WD.
That's tied with David Ford of North Carolina, a UNC Chapel Hill commit who earlier this summer won the AJGA Invitational, along with a PGA Tour exemption.
And how's this for not letting a double bogey on the first hole ruin your day?
Yesterday, Ford made double on No. 1 at Bandon Trails. No big deal. He birdied five of the next eight holes to shoot 33 on the front nine, and posted 68 on the day.
Today at Bandon Dunes, Ford again started with a double-bogey on the par-4 1st hole. He birdied Nos. 8 and 9 to get back to even on the day, then posted a bogey free 33 on the back nine to shoot 69 and tie Gupta at 6-under. Ford should be a tough match for anyone this week.
Southern Amateur champion McClure Meissner shot a 74 at Bandon Trails, ten shots higher than Monday at Bandon Dunes, but is still comfortably through to match play - tied with a group of four players at 5-under.
Included in that group is past U.S. Mid-Amateur champion Scott Harvey of North Carolina blistered his way through the front nine at Bandon Dunes to shoot 5-under 31 on his way to a 67 that puts him at 5-under 138 and easily ready for match play.
Harvey will try to win a USGA championship for the second straight year at Bandon Dunes. Last year, he and his partner Todd Mitchell won the U.S. Four-Ball Championship on the Old Macdonald course.
There will be a new U.S. Amateur champion this year, as the defender Andy Ogletree will narrowly miss match play after rounds of 74-72 put him at 3 over par.
Two other U.S. Mid-Amateur champions are through to match play. Stewart Hagestad came home in 31 at Bandon Dunes for a 66, while Kevin O'Connell had a solid 70.
Other notables making match play include last year's runner-up John Augenstein, and Tyler Strafaci, winner of the North & South and Palmetto Amateurs earlier this summer.
61 players finished stroke play qualifying at or below 1 over par. The final three spots will be determined by an 18-for-3 playoff that will tee off first thing Wednesday morning.
TOURNAMENT NOTES (courtesy USGA)
The average qualifying score in the U.S. Amateur over the last 15 years is 145.2.
Notables to qualify for match play include 2019 U.S. Amateur runner-up John Augenstein, 2016 U.S. Mid-Amateur champion Stewart Hagestad, 2014 U.S. Mid-Amateur champion Scott Harvey, 2018 U.S. Junior Amateur champion Michael Thorbjornsen and 2017 U.S. Mid-Amateur champion Kevin O’Connell. Hagestad’s 6-under 66 at Bandon Dunes matched the second-lowest score of the day on the course.
Andy Ogletree became the first defending champion to miss the cut since Stephen Fox in 2013 at The Country Club in Brookline, Mass. The 2020 Georgia Tech graduate shot 3-over 146.Three other reigning USGA champions also failed to qualify. U.S. Junior Amateur champion
Preston Summerhays had a disastrous triple-bogey 8 on the 18th at Bandon Dunes to miss by two. U.S. Mid-Amateur champion Lukas Michel came up three strokes short, and U.S. Senior Amateur champion Bob Royak posted 157.
It also was a disappointing week for several top players in the World Amateur Golf Ranking® and notable champions. Cole Hammer, the 2019 McCormack Medal winner who was on the victorious 2019 USA Walker Cup Team, failed to advance along with fellow 2019 Walker Cup Team member John Pak, 2020 Western Amateur champion Pierceson Coody, two-time Asia-Pacific Amateur champion Yuxin Lin, and 2019 Great Britain and Ireland Walker Cup Team member Alex Fitzpatrick, the younger brother of 2013 U.S. Amateur champion Matthew Fitzpatrick.
Scott Harvey, of Kernersville, N.C., certainly has an affinity for Bandon Dunes. The 2014 U.S. Mid-Amateur champion won last year’s U.S. Amateur Four-Ball title at the resort with partner Todd Mitchell (albeit on different courses) and then shot a 5-under 67 on Tuesday at Bandon Dunes to qualify for match play. This is Harvey’s first competitive event since last year’s U.S. Mid-Amateur at Colorado Golf Club in September.
Harvey was one of five mid-amateurs (25 and older) to qualify for match play. He was joined by Hagestad, O’Connell, 2019 U.S. Mid-Amateur quarterfinalist Andres Schonbaum and Derek Busby.
Charles “Ollie” Osborne, of Reno, Nev., had quite the turnaround, carding a 7-under 64 at Bandon Trails after an opening-round 77 at Bandon Dunes. The 64 included six consecutive birdies from No. 5 and 10 birdies in all. The Southern Methodist University rising junior advanced to match play at 2-under 141.
Osborne was one of 14 players to improve his second-round score by 10 or more strokes. Cameron Sisk (79-66) got into the playoff, but the other 12 failed to advance. Thomas Hutchison, of San Jose, Calif., had the day’s biggest improvement at 14 shots (82-68).Four players who got into the field as alternates advanced: Gupta, Hugo Townsend, Carson Lundell and Jonathan Yaun.
Mason Anderson, of Mesa, Ariz., withdrew before Tuesday’s second round at Bandon Dunes with an undisclosed injury. The Arizona State standout had opened with an 80.