Close Matches Are the Order of the Day at U.S. Am; Hitchner Wins 1, But Capan Loses

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PARAMUS, N.J. -- A year ago, not a single match during the Round of 64 at the U.S. Amateur went extra holes. Not one. On Wednesday, fully one quarter of the matches (8) went into overtime, and there were also nine matches that went all the way to the 18th hole at Ridgewood Country Club. 

Two Minnesota players, Derek Hitchner and Frankie Capan, made it to match play.  They both had to survive a 15-man playoff for the last 11 available spots Wednesday morning -- by making pars on the first playoff hole (No. 15, a 148-yard par 3) -- and they both went 18 holes later in the day in their first-round matches.

Hitchner, the 2021 Minnesota State Amateur champion, was assigned the No. 59 seed, and he played No. 6 Adrien Dumont de Chassart, who is from Belgium but plays college golf for the University of Illinois (he finished second individually at the 2022 Big Ten Championships). Hitchner, who plays for Pepperdine, won three of the first seven holes and was still 2 up with five holes left. But de Chassart won the 413-yard, par-4 14th with a bogey and the 143-yard, par-3 15th with a par to square the match. 

It came down to the 458-yard, par-4 18th hole, which turned into a mini-drama with twists and turns and a bit of a surprise ending. Hitchner put his a drive into the middle of the fairway, after de Chassart hit his drive into the trees. Advantage Hitchner. All de Chassart could do was pitch his second shot back into the fairway, 100 yards short of the green. It looked as though Hitchner needed only to hit his second shot of 180 yards onto the green and two-putt for a par, and he would probably win. But the 2021 MGA Player of the Year dumped his approach shot into the bunker guarding the front left front portion of the green. Then de Chassart hit his wedge shot to 6 feet.

Suddenly, the situation was reversed, and de Chassart, who is No. 16 in the World Amateur Golf Rankings, appeared to be in the better position. Hitchner, who's No. 51 in the WAGRs, hit a pretty good shot, to about 8 feet. So he went first with his putt for par -- and made it. From a couple of feet closer, de Chassart shoved his putt, missed it to the right -- and Hitchner was still alive. 

He will play the No. 38 seed, Josh Giliege, in the Round of 32, the first of two scheduled rounds of matches for Thursday. Giliege was 2 down to Pietro Bovari (No 27) with three holes to go but won them all to claim a 1-up victory. 

Capan, the 2020 State Amateur champion and the No. 61 seed this week, made six birdies on Wednesday, but he also had three bogeys and one double at the worst time in his match against Florida All-American Fred Biondi, one of the four players who shared medalist honors this week. He got the No. 4 seed. After halving the first hole with a par, Capan halved the 180-yard, par-3 second with a birdie and the par-5 third with a bogey. He won the 505-yard, par-4 fourth with a birdie, lost the fifth to Bioindi's birdie, but won the 208-yard, par-3 sixth with another birdie. He made his fourth birdie of the match at the 476-yard, par-4 eighth, and was 2 up. 

Biondi beat Capan's bogey at the 489-yard 10th -- the sixth par 4 of 465 yards or more that they had played at that point (there are seven in all at Ridgewood) -- but Capan birdied the daunting, 248-yard, par-3 11th, and he was 2 up once again. Not for long, however. Biondi birdied the 12th, and he birdied the 14th, as well. He won the 16th (428 yards, par 4) with a par -- and now he was 1 up with two holes to go.

Capan, who completed his eligibility at Florida Gulf Coast this spring, came back with a birdie at the par-5 17th, and was even with one hole to go. But he got into trouble with his tee shot at the 458-yard, par-4 18th hole, and he never got out of jail. Eventually, Biondi was able to win the 18th -- and the match -- with a bogey to Capan's double.

Next up for Biondi will be Texas A&M All-American Sam Bennett. Bennett is the No. 36 seed this week, but he is No. 3 in the WAGRs, and on Wednesday he beat the guy who's No 16in the WAGRs, Nick Gabrelcik, although it took him 19 holes to do subdue the No. 29 seed.

The oldest player left in the tournament, 34-year-old Andrew Von Lossow, emerged from the playoff for the last 11 spots on Wednesday morning and got the No. 63 seed. He then pulled off what was considered the biggest upset of the day, beating No. 2 Michael Thorbjornsen 3&2. Thorbjornsen, soon to be a junior at Stanford, made the cut at the 2019 U.S. Open as a 17-year-old. He won the Western Amateur last year, is currently No. 6 in the WAGRs, and he was one of the favorites to win the tournament this week even before he tied for first in the stroke-play qualifying with a 138 (68-70). Von Lossow is No. 3580 in the WAGRs. But he was 2 up after four holes on Wednesday. Thorbjornsen won the fifth with a par and the eighth with a birdie, but Von Lossow won the 10th (par), 11th (birdie) and 12th (birdie). He tied the next three holes with pars and closed Thorbjornsen out by halving ghe 288-yard, par-4 16th with a birdie.

So he'll play No. 34 Ben Carr next. Carr was even par but 1 down to No. 31 Jake Holbrook after three holes. He then proceeded to win the next eight holes in a row! He lost the 12th to Holbrook's birdie, but won the par-5 13th (624 yards) with another birdie of his own for a 7&5 victory -- the largest margin of victory on the first day of matches.

The fourth co-medalist, in addition to Gutschewski, Thorbjornsen and Biondi, was Hugo Townsend, a graduate transfer from Boise State who will play for Ole Miss in 2022-23. He is the son of former PGA Tour player Peter Townsend. Hugo made news this week by caddieing for himself during the 36 holes of qualifying, but he decided to use a caddie for the matches, mainly to have someone to talk to during lulls in the action. (The players tend not to talk to each other as much during matches as they do during the stroke-play part of the tournament.)

Townsend, the No. 3 seed, was a quick 2 down to JonErik Alford, who birdied the first hole and parred the second. But Townsend won the next three holes in a row, going birdie-par-birdie, and he won another three holes in a row to start the back nine on the way to a 4&3 victory. On Thursday morning, he'll play No. 30 Campbell Kremer, who defeated No. 35 Josh Hill 2&1. 

The No. 5 seed is gone. Gordon Sargent, who won the NCAA individual championship this spring to cap off his freshman year at Vanderbilt, had multiple chances to win his match against his former high school teammate Ford Clegg (No. 60). But Clegg made the putts he needed to stay alive, and the long-hitting Sargent (he's really long, even by modern standards) missed the birdie putts that could have ended the match on the 18th hole and the first (from 8 feet), and Clegg wound up winning with a par on the 21st hole. 

Four of the top eight seeds lost, and so did No. 9 Cohen Trolio. He was beaten 3&1 by 15-year-old Nicholas Gross (No. 56). They tied four of the first 10 holes -- and none after that. The match was all square after 14 holes, but Gross won the 15th, 16th and 17th, and thereby reserved a place opposite No. 41 Chris Francoeur. Francoeur beat Dave Timmins (No. 24) in a match that was similar to Gross's. Francoeur and Timmins were tied after Timmins won the 13th with a par, but then Francoeur won the next three holes -- par, birdie, birdie -- and dismissed Timmins 3&2.


U.S. Amateur

At Ridgewood Country Club (par 71, 7,403 yards) 

& at Arcola (par 70, 7,251 yards)

Paramus, N.J. 

Stroke play (the top 64 finishers advance to match play on Wednesday)

Final results

T1. Fred Biondi                              69A  69R -- 138 (-5)

T1. Luke Gutchweski                     68R  70A -- 138

T1. Hugo Townsend                      71-R  67A -- 138

T1. Michael Thorbjornsen              68R  70A -- 138

5. Gordon Sargent                        74R  65A -- 139

T6. Adrien Dumont de Chassart    70R 70A -- 140

T6. Luke Potter                              71A 69R -- 140

T6. Christo Lamprecht                   68A 72R -- 140

T9. Rasmus N. Peterson               73R 68A -- 141

T9. Benjamin James                      71R 70A -- 141

T9. Mark Power                             73R 68A -- 141

T9. Cohen Trolio                           71R 70A -- 141

Playoff (15 players will vie for the last 11 spots in match play Wednesday morning) 

T54. Derek Hitchner                    72R 74A -- 146 (made it out of the playoff with a par on the first extra hole) 

T54. Frankie Capan                    74R 72A -- 146 (also made par on the first extra hole)

Missed cut 

Carson Herron                             76A 75R -- 151

Connor Schubring                      76R 75A -- 151

Samuel Storey                             79A 73R -- 152

Owen Mullen                                77A 78R -- 155

Cecil Belisle                                 73A 83R -- 156

Gunnar Broin                               78A 80R -- 158

Jacob Pedersen                           82A 79R -- 161


Match Play

(64) Payton Snowberger def. (1) Luke Gutschewski 20 holes

(8) Luke Potter def. (57) Nicolas Cassidy 19 holes

(56) Nicholas Gross def. (9) Cohen Trolio 3&1

(4) Fred Biondi def. (61) Frankie Capan 1 up

(36) Sam Bennett def. (29) Nick Gabrelcik 19 holes 

(60) Ford Clegg def. (5) Gordon Sargent 21 holes

(63) Andrew Von Lossow def. (2) Michael Thorbjornsen 3&2

(7) Christo Lamprecht def. (58) Garrett Wood 1 up

(26) Alex Price def. (39) Wenyi Ding 23 holes

(23) Ricky Castillo def. (42) Ludvig Aberg 1 up

(3) Hugo Townsend def. (62) JonErik Alford 4&3

(59) Derek Hitchner def. (6) Adrien Dumont de Chassart 1 up 

(38) Josh Gilege def. (27) Pietro Bovari 1 up