ARDMORE, Pa. — Logan Reilly and Carter Loflin each lost 2-up leads with two holes to play and atoned by winning their matches in extra holes Thursday at Merion, sending them to the quarterfinals of a U.S. Amateur that no longer has anyone from the top 10 in the world amateur ranking.
Joining them will be Michael Lugiano, the Pennsylvania native who has won all three of his matches on the 18th hole to be among the final eight players.
“Pretty nerve-wracking,” said Lugiano, a junior at Liberty University. “It’s just been stressful.”
Reilly, the Auburn sophomore who won the clinching point for the Tigers when they captured another NCAA golf championship, three-putted the par-3 17th for a bogey and then took four shots to get down from the front of the troublesome 18th green.
That sent his match with Oklahoma senior Ryder Cowan — who shared low amateur honors in the U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills — back to the first hole. Both narrowly missed sharp-breaking birdie putts in the 12-foot range.
On the par-4 second, Cowan’s drive found a bunker, he came up well short of the green and hit a bold flop over the sand to 15 feet. Reilly two-putted for par, and won the match when Cowan’s par putt drifted to the right. Cowan is No. 8 in the amateur ranking.
Reilly now has won two matches that went extra holes, winning his first-round match in 19 holes.
Loflin, who just finished his fourth year at Georgia, also gave away the final two holes with bogeys against William Jennings, the junior at Alabama and No. 5 in the world amateur ranking. On the first extra hole, Loflin hit wedge to 5 feet for birdie to advance.
“I was trying my hardest to shoot myself out of it,” Loflin said. “I hit a great wedge shot in there, and thankfully it (the putt) went in.”
The highest-ranked player remaining Thursday was Tyler Watts at No. 3 in the world, an 18-year-old incoming freshman at Tennessee. He was 2 up early against Stanford junior Jay Leng Jr. until Leng won four of the next six holes and never trailed the rest of the way, winning 1 up.
In other matches, Texas Tech senior Adam Bresnu of Morocco, the first Arab-born player to make the cut on the European tour, overwhelmed Max Herendeen, 5 and 4; Colorado senior Brandon Knight rallied for a 1-up victory over Gaven Lane; Jack Whaley of England, a senior at Florida State, cruised to a 4-and-3 victory over Christian Cavaliere; and Florida senior Jack Turner beat fellow Gator Joshua Bai of New Zealand, 5 and 3.
At stake for the winner of the 126th U.S. Amateur is a spot in U.S. Open next year at Pebble Beach, and in the Masters and the Open Championship if he stays an amateur.