PINE VALLEY, N.J. (September 15, 2018) - After two rounds of match play, the favorites have been knocked out and a first-time champion is guaranteed at the 94th Crump Cup at Pine Valley Golf Club.
The championship bracket featured four U.S. Mid-Amateur champions and three past Crump Cup champions, but all are gone.
The four semifinalists who remain have one thing in common -- they all reside in the central time zone. It'll be Iowa vs. Nebraska in one semifinal, and Missouri vs. Louisiana in the other.
Dennis Bull (Norwalk, Iowa) played 37 holes on Saturday, going 19 holes to beat
Andrew Price (Lake Bluff, Ill.) in the morning, and then edging the stroke play medalist
Stewart Hagestad (Newport Beach, Calif.) 1 up in the afternoon.
Related: Crump Cup: Hagestad medals as match-play brackets set
For Hagestad, it was a second Saturday elimination in as many years at Pine Valley, although he made it one round farther than he did last year in his first Crump Cup. His first-round match was a rematch of the biggest match of his life so far, the
2016 U.S. Mid-Amateur final where he came back from four down with five holes to go to shock the 2014 champion
Scott Harvey in 37 holes. He got the best of Harvey again on Saturday morning, winning 2 and 1.
Patrick Duffy (Omaha, Neb.) played 39 holes, knocking out
Seth Sargent (Birmingham, Ala.) in the morning and then outlasting
Danny Simmerman (Shavano Park, Texas) in 21 holes.
First-round co-leader
Brad Nurski (St. Joseph, Mo.) got through two of the more decorated players in the field, each by a 2 and 1 margin. First up was 2-time Crump Cup champion
Michael Muehr (Potomac Falls, Va.), followed by 5-time USGA champion
Nathan Smith (Pittsburgh, Pa.).
Derek Busby (Ruston, La.) was equally impressive. His first-round opponent was another 2-time Crump Cup champion,
Carlton Forrester (Atlanta, Ga.), and he was able to close him out by a 3 and 1 margin. He then cruised past the defending U.S. Mid-Amateur champion
Matt Parziale (Brockton, Mass.), 5 and 4.
Championship Semifinals
8:10am, #1 tee, Dennis Bull v. Patrick Duffy
8:20am, #1 tee, Brad Nurski v. Derek Busby
Second Flight
7:30am, #1 tee, Matthew Mattare v. Aaron Hickman
7:40am, #1 tee, Joe Sanders v. Jeff Osberg
Third Flight
7:30am, #10 tee, Arnie Cutrell v. Gregor Orlando
7:40am, #10 tee, Michael Kelley v. Scott Strickland
In the Senior Division, only one round of matches was played on Saturday. The stroke play medalist
Jeff Burda (Modesto, Calif.) beat
Steve Harwell (Mooresville, N.C.) 1 up and will next face
Allan Small (Savannah, Ga.), who beat
Oscar Mestre (Berwyn, Pa.) 3 and 2.
The other semifinal will be a battle of heavyweights, with 2016 U.S. Senior Amateur champion
Dave Ryan (Taylorville, IL) facing off against the current #1 player in the AmateurGolf.com Senior Amateur Rankings,
Gene Elliott (W. Des Moines, Iowa).
Ryan took out the defending senior Crump champion
John McClure (Austin, Texas) 4 and 3. Elliott survived a 19-hole challenge from
Matthew Sughrue (Arlington, Va.) and is two match wins away from adding a Senior Crump title to the one he won as a mid-amateur in 2013.
Senior Championship Semifinals
7:50am, #1 tee, Jeff Burda v. Allan Small
8:00am, #1 tee, Dave Ryan v. Gene Elliott
Senior Second Flight
7:50am, #10 tee, Alan Fadel v. Marty West
8:00am, #10 tee, Buddy Marucci v. Bob Kain
All semifinal matches will be contested in the morning, followed by the championship matches in the afternoon. In a Pine Valley tradition, the public is invited to view the final matches, with the gates opening at approximately 12:45 pm. It is the one opportunity the public has each year to walk the grounds of the #1 ranked golf course in the world.
ABOUT THE
Crump Cup
The George A. Crump Memorial Tournament --
named
for the
hotelier and course architect most famous for
building
Pine Valley -- is arguably the premier mid-
amateur
event in the United States. The invitational field
is
made of of top players from around the United
States
and the UK. The format for the four days is two
rounds
of stroke play qualifying, followed by four
rounds
of
match play. Players are flighted according to
their
qualifying position, and a separate Senior flight
includes three of those flights. Jay Sigel has won
the
event the most times, with nine victories
between
1975 and 1993.
Normally, the public is invited to attend the Sunday
final matches but that tradition has been suspended.
View Complete Tournament Information