Aug 14, 2013
Brookline, Mass. – Georgia Tech’s Seth Reeves defeated one of the summer’s hottest golfers, Jordan Niebrugge of Mequon, Wis., 1-up, Wednesday and advanced to the round of 32 at the 113th U.S. Amateur Championship at the Country Club of Brookline.
Reeves will be the only one of the three Yellow Jackets who qualified for match play to continue on, however. Bo Andrews dropped a close 2 and 1 decision to Gavin Hall of Pittsford, N.Y., an incoming freshman at Texas, and Richard Werenski fell, 4 and 2, to Blair Hamilton of Canada.
A senior from Duluth, Ga., Reeves took control of the closely-contested match by winning the 14th, 15th and 16th holes in succession to erase a one-hole deficit. He birdied the par-4 15th and the par-3 16th to go up two holes, but Niebrugge, an incoming freshman at Oklahoma State, birdied the par-4 17th to cut Reeves’ lead in half. Both players bogeyed the 18th. Niebrugge had won the U.S. Amateur Public Links Championship, thus qualifying for the Masters, and the Western Amateur in recent weeks.
He moves on to face Australia’s Brady Watt, a co-medalist on the stroke-play portion of the championship and No. 9 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking. Watt defeated Sean Walsh of Keller, Texas, 5 and 3, on Wednesday, and the match begins at 8:50 a.m. Thursday.
Reeves, No. 216 in the world, has had success in matches this year, defeating opponents from South Carolina and TCU, both by 7 and 6 scores, in spring dual matches, and getting to the quarterfinals of the North & South Amateur.
Andrews, a senior from Raleigh, N.C., never trailed by more than two holes in his match with Hall, but could never make a run either, winning just three holes in the match, only one with a birdie. Werenski, a senior from nearby South Hadley, Mass., trailed for all but four holes in his match with Hamilton, who closed it out with a birdie at 16.
