U.S. Open: Neal Shipley holds off Luke Clanton to earn low amateur honors
Luke Clanton (left) and Neal Shipley (USGA Photo)
As collegiate golfers,
Neal Shipley and
Luke Clanton are used to match-play golf.
On Sunday at the 124th U.S. Open at Pinehurst No. 2, the two standouts battled it out in the same group for low amateur honors.
When it was all said and done, Shipley finished 6-over and T28, and Clanton finished two shots back at 8-over and T41. Clanton had a birdie putt on No. 18 to tie Shipley at 6-over, but he missed it and missed the par putt coming back to make a bogey.
The difference came on the difficult No. 16, a par-4 that plays 520 yards. Shipley put his approach shot from 210 yards to four feet and made a birdie, while Clanton made a bogey, causing a two-shot difference.
They were only the second pair of amateurs to compete together in the final round of the U.S. Open in the last 40 years, the other being Rickie Fowler and Derek Fathauer at Torrey Pines in 2008.
Shipley is the second Ohio State golfer to win low amateur at the U.S. Open, joining Jack Nicklaus in 1960.
Shipley becomes the first golfer to win low amateur at the U.S. Open and the Masters since Viktor Hovland in 2019 and the ninth golfer ever to do it. The other are Matt Kuchar, Phil Mickelson, Sam Randolph, Jack Nicklaus, Billy Joe Patton, Harvie Ward, and Ken Venturi.
The U.S. Open will be Shipley’s final tournament as an amateur. Shipley is now set to begin his professional career on the North American Swing of PGA Tour Americas, which begins next week with the Victoria Open in Victoria, British Columbia.
Clanton is currently ranked No. 2 in the Golfweek/AmateurGolf.com World Rankings, and Shipley is ranked No. 12. Gunnar Broin was the third amateur to make the cut. He finished 16-over and T70 for the week.
A lot of the amateurs were hovering around the cutline, with Ben James, Jackson Buchanan, and Bryan Kim missing the cut by one shot, and Omar Morales and Parker Bell missed the cut by two shots.
Amateurs to miss the cut:
Jackson Buchanan - 6-over
Ben James - 6-over
Bryan Kim - 6-over
Omar Morales - 7-over
Parker Bell - 7-over
Hiroshi Tai - 9-over
Ashton McCulloch - 10-over
Brendan Valdes - 11-over
Gordon Sargent - 11-over
Wells Williams - 11-over
Santiago De La Fuente - 13-over
Stewart Hagestad - 14-over
Colin Prater - 17-over
ABOUT THE
U.S. Open Golf Championship
The U.S. Open is the biggest of the 15 national
championships conducted by the USGA.
Open
to amateurs and professionals. Amateurs gain
entry via USGA win or runner-up finishes while having the opportunity
to qualify alongside non-exempt professionals in an 18-hole "Local' qualifying followed
by 36-hole "Final" qualifying which is affectionately known as golf's longest day.
Highly-ranked amateurs will be exempted past the 18-hole Local Qualifying. See the
USGA website for details. And if you are exempt on any level be sure to apply by the deadline anyway.
The USGA intends to make the U.S. Open
the
most rigorous, yet fair, examination of golf
skills, testing all forms of shot-making. The
USGA prepares the course after careful
consideration of 14 different factors.
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