Aug. 21, 2008

PINEHURST, N.C. – The two Gamecocks remaining in the second round of the U.S. Amateur Championship suffered heartbreaking, nail-biting defeats in the event Thursday morning. Junior Paul Woodbury stretched his match to 20 holes before falling, while freshman Wesley Bryan played a back-and-forth match that narrowly slipped from his grasp in the waning holes.

After Woodbury, seeded 41st, scored an upset in the first round of match play, he drew ninth-seeded Jeff Edelman of Southlake, Texas, in the round of 32. The higher-seeded play took an early lead, going up two through three holes, but Woodbury took advantage of Edelman’s mistakes to win the next three holes and go 1-up on No. 6. After the two matched scores on the next two frames, Edelman holed a birdie on No. 9, a par-3, to square the match. Woodbury bogeyed the par-5 10th hole to fall back, and a bogey on the par-4 13th had Edelman 2-up heading into the final stretch. A birdie on the par-3 15th hole got Woodbury within one, and he squared the match with a par on No. 16. Both players turned in par on the final two holes, extending the match. Matching pars on No. 1 sent the match to its 20th hole, on which Edelman scored par to claim the victory.

Bryan’s match-up with No. 34 seed Morgan Hoffmann of Saddle Brook, N.J., was shorter than Woodbury’s but no less dramatic. After matching pars on the first hole, the two traded bogeys over the next four holes before Hoffman went 1-up when Bryan bogeyed the par-3 sixth hole. Bryan squared the match on No. 8 with a par and got 1-up with a birdie on the par-5 10th hole. Back-to-back bogeys left Bryan trailing again, and a Hoffmann birdie on the par-4 13th gave put him at 2-up. Holding at par over the next four holes, Bryan simply ran out of course to catch his opponent, losing the match 2 & 1.

The full match play bracket can be found at usamateur.org.