CHASKA, Minn. – Where did all the stars go?
When Luke Clanton, the red-hot Florida State junior who recently moved to No. 1 in the world amateur rankings, lost his Round-of-32 match to Illinois senior Jackson Buchanan on Thursday morning at the U.S. Amateur, it meant that none of the world’s top nine amateurs remained at Hazeltine National.
Five of the top eight bowed out 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. That came after No. 2 Jackson Koivun and No. 9 Ian Gillian missed the cut, and No. 4 Wenyi Ding withdrew prior to the tournament.
But don’t worry, golf fans; the U.S. Amateur, as it usually does, will create another star by Sunday evening.
Perhaps it could be Buchanan, who is close to stardom at No. 17 in the world. He avenged a close loss to Clanton two seasons ago at the NCAA Championship, then took down Tyler Mawhinney, a member of the U.S. Junior National Team, in the Round of 16, birdieing each of his last two holes to turn a 1-down deficit into a 1-up win.
“Luke just brought it all out of me,” Buchanan said. “That was the toughest match I’ve ever played. I knew coming into this one it would kind of be a little bit of a dogfight. Tyler played well, and I was able to close, but I’m just gassed right now.”
Buchanan will meet Notre Dame’s Jacob Modleski in Friday afternoon’s quarterfinals, which begin at 2:30 p.m. local time. Modleski, whose father, Matthew, was a fighter pilot for the U.S. Air Force, took off from the start against UCLA’s Omar Morales, going 4 up through six holes. Morales clawed back to just 1 down after 11 holes before Modleski eventually pulled off a 2-and-1 win.
The winner will get the victor of the first quarterfinal match between Oklahoma State’s Ethan Fang, a recent transfer from Cal, and Iowa’s Noah Kent.
On the other side of the bracket is a little more firepower. No. 11 Brendan Valdes of Auburn will take on Spain’s Luis Masaveu, No. 23 in WAGR, who recently qualified for The Open at Royal Troon with a backup set of clubs after losing his gamers following the British Amateur.
And then there is the highest-ranked player left in this field, Arizona State’s Josele Ballester, who is No. 10 in WAGR and will face perhaps the most unlikely of quarterfinalists: 36-year-old Bobby Massa, a golf performance coach from Dallas who not only teaches golfers – including PGA Tour pro Brandon Wu and USGA president Fred Perpall – how to hit it far, but he bombs it himself.
The soon-to-be father of two who once struggled to break 90 after turning pro over a decade ago, Massa now grooves it at 127 mph swing speed and nearly 190 mph ball speeds. He put pressure on Michigan State’s Ashton McCulloch with his length all day, though he burned the edge on a putt to close out the match on No. 18 in regulation. Massa struggled to find the reads in extras, too – that is until the third spin through the par-4 finishing hole, the 23rd of the match, when he canned a 25-footer to stay alive at this championship. Now, Massa is three more 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 headliners having departed, is Massa ready to fill the void and become amateur golf’s next star?
“I’ll be happy to,” Massa said. “I’m enjoying the moment right now. I don’t know what the future holds.”