The two Coloradans who made match play at the U.S. Amateur won Wednesday to advance to the round of 32 at Oakland Hills Country Club in Bloomfield Hills, Mich.
Wyndham Clark of Highlands Ranch, competing in his fifth U.S. Amateur, won a match at the event for the first time, defeating William Gordon of Davidson, N.C., 3 and 2 in Wednesday’s round of 64. A day after tying for sixth place out of 312 players in stroke play, Clark never trailed after evening the match on the second hole on Wednesday. He was 3 under par for 16 holes and 3 under for his final eight holes.
Also advancing Wednesday was Kyler Dunkle (pictured) of Parker, who scored a 1-up victory over Brandon Kida of Layton, Utah. Coincidentally, Dunkle will play college golf beginning this fall at the University of Utah, where Kida just wrapped up his college career.
Dunkle was 2 down on the front nine, but won the ninth, 10th, 11th and 13th holes to go ahead for good. Though Dunkle bogeyed his last four holes, he went into that stretch with a big enough lead (3 up) to hold off Kida.
In Thursday’s round of 32, Dunkle will face Canadian Garrett Rank, while Clark will play Jimmy Stanger of Tampa, Fla., who won the Southern Amateur last month. The winners will advance to the final-16 matches on Thursday afternoon.
Meanwhile, Colorado State University golfer Colton Yates lost in Wednesday’s round of 64 to University of Southern California golfer Jonah Texeira, 2 and 1. Yates led Texeira, the individual champion at the 2011 Junior America’s Cup at Hiwan Golf Club, 2 up after seven holes. But Yates lost three of the next four holes, making five consecutive bogeys during a mid-round stretch, and never regained the lead.
Here are the stroke-play scores, and positions, of all the players with strong Colorado ties among the field of 312:
Advanced to Match Play
6. Wyndham Clark of Highlands Ranch 69-68–137 (won in R64)
30. CSU player Colton Yates 71-69–140 (lost in R64)
41. Kyler Dunke of Parker 69-72–141 (won in R64)
Failed to Advance to Match Play
126. Colin Prater of Colorado Springs 75-70–145
126. CSU player Blake Cannon 77-68–145
212. Tanner Jenson of Parker 73-76–149
224. Tristan Rohrbaugh of Carbondale 77-73–150
261. Former CU golfer John Hayes 83-69–152
For all the U.S. Amateur round-of-64 results, CLICK HERE.
