Ninth-seeded Shintaro Ban of San Jose was the highest-seeded Californian to advance in the first round of match play in the 118th United States Amateur Championship at Pebble Beach Golf Links, claiming a 1-up victory over No. 56 Skip Berkmeyer of St. Louis.
Ban (pictured), who finished his career at Nevada Las Vegas in the spring, was 2 down after 10 holes before winning three of the next five holes with birdies and then finishing things off by halving the last three holes—both players making two pars and a birdie at No. 18.
Also winning were No. 13 Stewart Hagestad of Newport Beach, who beat Harry Hall of England, 1 up; No. 41 Devon Bling of Ridgecrest, who downed No. 24 Caleb Ramirez of Blyte, 5 and 4, and No. 29 Isaiah Salinda of South San Francisco, who routed No. 36 Will Grimmer of Cincinnati, 6 and 5.
No. 53 William Mouw of Chino upset No. 12 Alex Scott of Traverse City, Mich., 1 up by winning the last hole with a par; No. 34 Joshua McCarthy of Danville defeated No. 31 Dan Erickson of Pace, Fla. 3 and 2, and No. 47 Clay Feagler of Laguna Niguel turned back No. 18 Logan Lowe of Grass Valley, 1 up, by winning No. 14 with an eagle and No. 15 with a birdie.
No. 59 Harrison Knott of Brookfield, Mass., knocked off No. 6 Justin Suh of San Jose and USC in one of the best matches of the day, 1 up, and No. 10 John Augenstein of Owensboro, Ky., came from 2 down after eight holes and took out No. 55 Collin Morikawa of La Canada Flintridge and Cal on the 19th hole.
Top-seeded Daniel Hillier of New Zealand advanced with a 3-and-2 victory over No. 64 Jacob Bergeron of Slidell, Ala., after Slidell earned the last spot in match play by winning a playoff against 23 other golfers; No. 2 Cole Hammer of Houston downed No. 63 Alvaro Ortiz of Mexico, 2 up, and No. 3 Andrew Alligood of St. John’s Fla., slipped past No. 62 of Milton, Ga., on the 19th hole.
No. 4 Michael Thorbjornsen of Wellesley, Mass., was the highest-seeded player to lose, being taken out by No. 61 Trevor Phillips of Inman, S.C., 4 and 3.
For complete results and the match-play brackets, visit http://www.usga.org/content/usga/home-page/championships/2018/u-s–amateur.html#!scoring
