VILLAGE OF PINEHURST, N.C. – Grayson Murray
is on his third college in as many semesters.He
may have found a home at Pinehurst.
With the tournament’s top five seeds
failing to advance even past the Round of 16
matches on Friday, the UNC Greensboro
transfer emerged as the potential player to
beat at the 113th North and South Amateur on
Donald Ross’ famed Pinehurst No. 2, cruising
through two matches with relative ease to
reach the tournament’s semifinals.Murray, who
left Wake Forest after his first semester for
East Carolina only to find it wasn’t the best fit
for him either, will have to sit out a season
before he can compete in NCAA Division-1 play
again.
But he’s certainly keeping himself
busy.
Coming off an appearance as one of just 10
amateurs to play in the 2013 U.S. Open at
Merion, the 19-year-old Murray is now staking
his claim to win this week on the course that
will host the U.S. Open and the U.S. Women’s
Open in 2014.
“I wish I could play a U.S. Open every three
months,” quipped Murray. “It makes every
other course look so easy. I feel like I could
shoot low on every course I play right now.
“Even No. 2, it’s a U.S. Open course,
and it’s not an easy course, but it doesn’t
really look that hard to me right now. At
Merion, I played the hardest course in the
world at the time.”
Murray sure made the game look easy Friday.In
a morning and afternoon full of close matches,
Murray was devastating on his opponents.
After earning the No. 6 seed following a tie for
fourth in three rounds of stroke play on
Pinehurst No. 4, Murray never got to the 17th
hole of No. 2, which played 7,342 yards to a
par 70. Murray blasted No. 11 seed Sam Love
4 & 3 in the morning before eliminating 14-seed
Garrett King 4 & 2 in the afternoon.
“I just tried to make as many pars as
I could today,” Murray said. “This course is
tough. Pars are going to win a lot of holes.”
Murray has plenty of previous
success at Pinehurst. He won the 2009 North
& South Junior Championship at 15 – 10 years
after PGA Tour star Hunter Mahan won the
same crown.
“I’ve played No. 2 really
well in tournaments over my junior years,”
Murray said. “It’s a good course for me. It’s a
ball-striker’s course. You have to hit a lot of
greens.”
He’ll next face 17-year-old phenom Zachary
Bauchou, who earned his way into the Round
of 16 after a playoff on Thursday. The No. 15
seed, Bauchou is one of the elite juniors in the
nation, ranked second in the class of 2015,
and advanced to the semifinals after clipping
Cleveland State’s Andrew Bailey 2 & 1 with a
birdie putt from off the 18th green.
“The whole time today, I was like, ‘Wow, this
is a golf course,’” said Bauchou, who last
played No. 2 before the 2010 restoration as a
U.S. Kids veteran. “I was just floored.”
The other semifinal will feature two other
players who reached the top 16 via the “5-for-
4 spots” stroke play playoff. No. 16 seed
Andrew Dorn, of Coastal Carolina, stunned top
seed and medalist Adam Schenk of Purdue in
20 holes in the morning round before edging
Virginia Tech’s Mikey Moyers in 20 more holes
in the afternoon.Dorn just wanted a chance in
match play after surviving three rounds of
stroke play on Pinehurst No. 4.
“We got to play a completely different course
today, and it’s No. 2,” Dorn said. “And, it’s
match play. Anything can happen.”
Duke recruit Max Greyserman, the
first to punch his ticket out of the playoff after
a birdie on the first sudden death hole
Thursday, advanced as the 13 seed.
“I was pretty conservative in both
matches today,” Greyserman said. “Unless my
opponent is playing really well, I’ll probably
keep the same gameplan.”
The championship is as wide open as it’s been
in years. Schenk came into match play as
perhaps the hottest amateur golfer in the
nation, and led all players in total birdies after
stroke play. Duke recruit and No. 2 seed Adam
Wood fell in a match of dueling 17-year-olds
when Bauchou won 3 & 2. And firstround
leader and Canadian star Corey Conners, the
third seed, was sent home after his opening
match ended in 20 holes with 14th-seed King
prevailing.
Local favorite Michael McGowan, the
grandson of golf legend and 1949 North &
South Women’s Amateur champion Peggy Kirk
Bell, appeared to be cruising to the
quarterfinals with a 3-up lead through 10, only
to lose five of the last seven holes to Bailey to
fall 2 & 1.
ABOUT THE NORTH & SOUTH AMATEUR
The North & South is the longest
consecutive-running amateur golf
championship in the United States, now in its
113th year. Over the past century, the best in
the golf world have vied for its coveted Putter
Boy Trophy. The winners now serve as legends
in the game – Francis Ouimet, Billy Joe Patton,
Jack Nicklaus, Curtis Strange, Corey Pavin,
Davis Love II, among others. It continues to
draw the best in amateur golf circles.
"Pinehurst has been a bastion of amateur
golf for over a century," said Pinehurst
President Don Padgett. "It is amateur golf at
its best."
ABOUT THE
North & South Amateur
The North & South Amateur Championship is the
longest consecutively run amateur tournament in
the
United States. Its past winners list includes names
like
Walter
Travis, Francis Ouimet, Billy Joe Patton, Jack
Nicklaus
and Curtis Strange. The field is made up of invited
players as well as open applications. Two rounds of
stroke
play are followed by five rounds of match play
(32
qualifiers) to determine the Champion. All stroke
& match play rounds are contested on
Pinehurst No. 2.
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