Medalists Viraat Badhwar and Maverick McNealy of Stanford defeated Erik Ciotti, of Winfield, Ill., and Michael Affeldt, of Chicago, 6 and 4, in the first round of match play in the inaugural U.S. Amateur Four-Ball Championship on the Lake Course at the Olympic Club in San Francisco.
Badhwar and McNealy, both sophomores who helped the Cardinal capture the Pacific 12 Conference Championship, won four of the first six holes and coasted to victory.
“We both played very solidly,” said Badhwar, who was born in India but lives in Australia. “It was a matter of making a bunch of pars after the first six holes, which are really tough.”
Said McNealy, the Pac-12 individual champion from Portola Valley: “I hit it better to start the round than I did at the end. V made a lot of up and downs. V kept making pars in front of me.
“It’s great to sleep in your own bed. We carpool it up here. It’s just like another fun, home tournament.”
In other matches, Jason and Ryan Higton of Fresno lost the first hole but didn’t lose another en route to a 5-and-4 victory over Brad Nurski of St. Joseph, Mo., and Richard Berkmeyer of St. Louis, Austin Smotherman of Loomis and Bryson DeChambeau of Clovis beat Matthew Collins of Powell, Ohio, and Wes Stafford of Willoughby, Ohio, 5 and 3, and Jake Yount of Danville and Tim Mickelson of Scottsdale, Ariz., got past Trevor Randolph of Franklin Lakes, N.J., and Keith Unikel of Potomac, Md., 2 and 1.
