5th U.S. Amateur Four-Ball | #USFourBall
Bandon Dunes Golf Resort (Old Macdonald), Bandon, Ore.
Match Play, Round of 32 | 6,926 yards, par 71 (Old Macdonald)
Hole Locations (Old Macdonald)
Championship History | Media Center

What Happened

Although the day began with some light mist and overcast skies, the winds that are so prevalent at the resort were calm.

Two of the three co-medalist sides from stroke play advanced; the lone exception being Texans Christopher Wheeler, 36, of Addison, and Derek Abel, 36, of Dallas. Placed at the top of the bracket in the No. 1 seed slot, the former mini-tour players (they were reinstated in 2012 and 2016, respectively) lost to the Louisiana tandem of Andrew Noto, 29, of Metairie, and James Fuselier, 38, of New Orleans, 3 and 2. This came after Noto and Fuselier emerged from a 7-for-4 playoff earlier on Monday just to get into the draw.

Ex-Santa Clara University teammates Derek Ackerman, 22, of Santa Clara, Calif., and Matthew McCarty, 21, of Scottsdale, Ariz., the No. 2 seeds, defeated Canadians Eric Patttenaude and Adam Graham, 3 and 1, while third-seeded Vince Kwon, 25, of Marlton, N.J., and Troy Vannucci, 27, of Marlton, N.J., had a much more dramatic finish against Auburn University teammates M. Tyler McKeever and Steven Groover. Tied going to the final hole, Vannucci hit a 6-iron out of a fairway bunker from 185 yards to 25 feet below the hole. He then converted the 25-foot uphill birdie putt for a 1-up victory.

“Yeah, I was leaking oil,” said Vannucci. “I mean, Vince, he played incredible. He carried me all day.”

Two recent U.S. Mid-Amateur champions set up a showdown Tuesday morning at 8:24 PDT in the Round of 16. Stewart Hagestad, 28, of Newport Beach, Calif., the 2016 winner, and partner Derek Busby, 35, of Ruston, La., held on for a 1-up win over Robert Lutomski, 38, of Simpsonville, S.C., and Weston Bell, 25, of Piedmont, S.C.

Matt Parziale, 31, of Brockton, Mass., the 2017 Mid-Amateur champion and 2018 U.S. Open co-low amateur, and partner Herbie Aikens, 37, of Kingston, Mass., ousted California teenagers Aiden Tran, 15, of Fresno, and Jackson Lake, 18, of Clovis, 3 and 2. This is Parziale and Aikens’ third appearance in this championship but the first time they’ve qualified for match play.

“I’ve played with Stew quite a bit and we’ve always had a lot of fun together,” said Parziale. “We’ve been in contention [together] in some tournaments, but not matches. I’m good friends with Derek, too, so all four of us know each other. It should be a lot of fun.”

A third past U.S. Mid-Amateur champion, Scott Harvey, 40, of Kernersville, N.C., also advanced to the Round of 16 with his partner, Todd Mitchell, 40, of Bloomington, Ill., 2 and 1, over Davidson College graduates Ralph Blasey, of Bethesda, Md., and Alex Nianouris, of Raleigh, N.C. Harvey won the title in 2014 and Mitchell was the runner-up in the same championship in 2008. They were semifinalists in the inaugural U.S. Amateur Four-Ball four years ago.

What's Next

The Round of 16 and quarterfinal matches are scheduled for Tuesday on Old Macdonald, beginning at 7 a.m. PDT. The first quarterfinal match is scheduled for 1 p.m. The semifinals and 18-hole championship match will be played on Wednesday.

Notable

• Last year’s runners-up, Chip Brooke, of Altamonte Springs, Fla., and Marc Dull, of Winter Haven, Fla., saw their run end in the Round of 32 by East Carolina University teammates Logan Shuping, of Salisbury, N.C., and Blake Taylor, of Wilmington, N.C., 4 and 2. Brooke and Dull were also semifinalists in 2017. They are exempt through the 2021 U.S. Amateur Four-Ball by virtue of reaching last year’s title match.
  
  
• The 7-and-6 victory by Rhode Island residents Bobby Leopold, of Coventry, and his brother-in-law, Tyler Cooke, of Warwick, over Jonas Mikals and Dustin Hall matched the largest in championship history.
  
  
• Long Beach, Calif., residents Hunter and Ryder Epson, the lone brother-brother tandem to make match play out of five in the field, needed 19 holes to beat Jack Kozlowski and Trey Rath. Ryder converted a 20-footer on the par-4 first hole to secure the victory.
  
  
• Brandon Cigna, of Arlington, Va., and Ben Warnquist, of Olney, Md., the runners-up in 2016, survived the longest match of the day, a 21-hole marathon against Jack Wall, of Brielle, N.J., and Brendan Hansen, 19, of Spring Lake, N.J.
  
  
• The lone father-son side to qualify for match play, John Sajevic, 63, of Fremont, Neb., and Andrew Sajevic, 28, of Omaha, Neb., saw their run end with a 2-and-1 defeat to the Southern California duo of Cullen Brasfield, of La Quinta, and Tyler Moore, of Escondido. John Sajevic was the oldest competitor in this week’s field.
  
  
• Carson Barry, of Eagle, Idaho, who was a semifinalist a year ago with partner Sam Tidd, of Meridian, Idaho, rolled in a 62-foot eagle putt on the par-5 sixth hole on Old Macdonald, the second playoff hole, to advance his side into the draw from the 7-for-4 playoff on Monday morning. Barry just completed his freshman season at Oregon State. The duo was eliminated later in the day, 1 down, by Andrew Medley, of Scottsdale, Ariz., and Taylor Wood, of Coto de Caza, Calif.
  
  
• The playoff lasted three holes and took 2 hours, 6 minutes to complete. Andrew Noto, of Metairie, La., and James Fuselier, of New Orleans, La., grabbed the final spot when the former converted an 8-foot birdie putt after a 147-yard, 8-iron approach to the par-4 seventh hole.
  
  
• Speaking of Louisiana, seven of the 32 competitors remaining are from Louisiana. Noto, Fuselier, Williams (Ruston), Berthelot (Baton Rouge), Derek Busby (Ruston), John Faulk (Lake Charles) and Matt Nicholas (Lake Charles). “Our [Louisiana Golf Association Executive] director, Logan Ray, said yesterday when we finished up that something is in the water this week, and we're doing Louisiana proud,” said Fuselier. California leads with nine players.

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