San Francisco – this week’s amateur host site in the US is a shrine for unexpected results. Just beyond the entrance to the ground floor, around the corner of the grill, a network of pictures hangs on a wall. An image shows Jack Fleck, overthrowing in the wake of his creepy victory Ben Hogan To the US Open of 1955. Another is an action of action of Billy CasperAuthor of his National Championship Shocker when he traced Arnold Palmer from seven blows in 1966.
The theme exhibition does not end there. It includes Scott Simpson, who Edged Tom Watson in 1987, and Lee Janzen, who kept out Payne Stewart 11 years later, and Yuka Saso, who raised the open trophy of American women in 2021 after Lexi Thompson descended the stretch.
You take the photo.
Underdogs have done well in Olympic club.
If that tradition was to continue was one of the questions in the heavy coastal air while the American amateur quarter -finals began on Friday in the historic course of the club’s lake.
Above all, there was a cinderella in the mix. Jimmy Abdo, a mahogany-to be at the III Gustavus Adolphus Division College in Minnesota, had arrived at San Francisco as the 4,992 ranking golf in the world. The longest of the long shots. But the farthest trips were nothing new to him. Born in a tired tired Lebanon in 2006, he would have been evacuated by the US Embassy in Beirut, attacked in Cypress, flew to Germany and then to his adoptive family in Midwest-all before returning an old month.
Now 19, he was looking to overthrow Jackson Herington of Tennessee to extend a journey to the west coast that had already gone longer than his family had planned.
“He expects a lot and we do too,” said Abdo’s father Jimmy, as he followed his son’s match through nine money.
However, he admitted, “I only packed for three or four days.”
At the end of his clean clothes, he would have bought extra clothing the night before.
If the younger ABDO was an unheard of quarter -finalist, another contender was a family name.
“Stand up and rip it, Long John!” A fan named as a familiar figure was warmed in the range. At 21, John Daly II has a physical resemblance to his famous father, though his back is shorter and his warm neck pattern is not so long.
These days, everyone seems to be bombarding it, and Daly II is no exception. But he was not ready to give his fans a show. Still on, he hit half of the wedges against a solid breeze. Wise movement. He would need his whole game – not just a driver – to send his opponent, Mason Howell, George, only 18, but a veteran of numerous USGA championships, including the US Open in Oakmont this summer, for which he qualified with two rounds of 63.
If Daly II prevailed, would his father appear to see personally over the weekend? The demanding minds had presented a version of this question all week after Daly II enabled the match parentage. His response was as constant as it was unsafe.
“I don’t know. Maybe? You never know with her,” Daly II said.
This week marks for the fourth time that the Olympic Club has organized the American amateur. One preliminary case was in 1981, when Bing Crosby’s child, Nathaniel, a local Bay Area, won the title in a clinical match that was said to have attracted the biggest crowds in the championship history since Bobby Jones in 1930.
On Friday, the closest field to come to a local celebrity turned out to be the star of the most attractive match of the day. Born in Glasgow but raised in Mill Valley, just beyond the breast by San Francisco, Nialls-Donegan, 20, had excited a contingent of Crosby size supports on Thursday while riding a hot puter in a 1-up victory over no. 1 Seed Preston Stoout. For his quarter -final match, Throngs were even bigger, partly because the other player was the Notre Dame Stalwart Jacob Modleski: an Irish fighter against a Scotland.
The head of their head did not disappoint. With loud cheers alternating from both powerful factions, the Shiels-Donegan fell 2-point to 12 before draining a bird in the par-3 13 that sent the gallery to a rage.
Marching in the next Tee, Shiels-Donegan senior spectators of five toddlers like his caddy, Todd Moutafian, bent, “Aren’t we fun?”
They were.
And he had more to come, after the Shiels-Donegan watched the match with a bird in 17 before winning a principle in the first extra hole after his lost car jumped a tree on the road. Pandemonium.
“There was more or less” I love you, niall “there, but any form of love, I’ll get it,” said Shiels-Donegan. “I can’t thank them enough for making the trip here. I know it’s only 30 minutes, but they are still taking time from their day to do it. It is amazing that they are giving me so much support.”
Did he expect even greater support in Saturday’s semifinal?
“I don’t know,” he said. “We have some good organizers in that gang.”
Eventually, some other questions of the day answered. John Daly Sr. is unlikely to be Winging West over the weekend; His son had been lost 1-2nd in Howell. Nor would Cinderella continue. ABDO had fallen 4 and 2. One last match remained, but it would soon be resolved, with Eric Lee to Fullerton, Calif. Leaving Miles Russell, a 16-year-old savage from Florida.
By the end of the day in the lake course, four players remained. The semifinals settled: Lee vs Howell, Dongan Vs Herington.
It was difficult to find a person subjected to the gang.
;)
Semester
Golfit.com editor
A golf, food and travel writer, Josh Sens has been a contributor to the Golf magazine since 2004 and now contributes to all golf platforms. His work is anthologized in the best American sports writings. He is also a co -author, with Sammy Hagar, we are still having fun: cooking and party manual.
