Beck, Walters Headline Semifinalists at Plainfield C.C.

A Wake took place Tuesday at Plainfield Country Club. But it wasn’t a traditional funeral. Just a couple of Demon Deacons burying another set of alums from Wake Forest in the quarterfinals of the 10th U.S. Amateur Four-Ball Championship.

Ex-Wake golfer and reigning U.S. Mid-Amateur champion Evan Beck, and his partner, Dan Walters, a former Wake assistant coach, bounced 2022 champions and ex-Demon Deacon standouts Chad Wilfong and Davis Womble, 5 and 4. It was the side’s third consecutive win by that margin, and they are a combined 13 under par over their 42 match-play holes.

They were joined in the semifinals by 2025 Long Beach State graduates Charlie Forster and Steen Zeman; Hunter Powell and Carson Looney and U.S. National Junior Team members Will Hartman and Tyler Mawhinney, who needed 23 holes to eliminate Stanford rising junior Kush Arora and incoming Stanford freshman Edan Cui. It was the longest quarterfinal match in championship history.

Beck, 34, of Virginia Beach, Va., who works for the investment management firm Brown Advisory in the company’s Washington, D.C., office and is the No. 31 player in the World Amateur Golf Ranking®/WAGR®, was on fire in the quarterfinals, making six birdies – all inside 13 feet – on his own ball during an eight-hole stretch from Nos. 6-13. All Walters, 40, of Winston-Salem, N.C., could do was marvel at what his talented partner was accomplishing on the challenging Donald Ross layout.

“Evan played tremendous this afternoon,” said Walters, who now works for a Baltimore-based packaging and paper company. “I thought I played very nice myself. We maybe missed, collectively, like three or four greens. We just had look after look after look [for birdie], and he got hot. A couple of times he didn't let me putt.”

Although both sides regularly schedule practice rounds at this championship – they nearly met in the 2022 final at Country Club of Birmingham (Ala.) with Beck and Walters losing in the semis – they put their friendship on the side at the first tee on Tuesday afternoon. Beck, a USGA veteran who also was a runner-up in the 2008 U.S. Junior Amateur and 2023 U.S. Mid-Amateur, said the opponent – acquaintance or stranger – doesn’t matter. Once the peg goes into the ground, it’s all business.

“Didn't give it much thought, to be honest,” said Beck, who will play in next month’s U.S. Open at Oakmont (Pa.) Country Club, a couple of months after missing the cut in The Masters Tournament.

Powell, 32, of Gaithersburg, Md., had no idea how things would pan out this week. He met his 18-year-old partner Carson Looney, of Bethesda, Md., through Congressional Country Club, where he caddies part time when he’s not doing construction jobs. Looney, a 2025 Virginia Commonwealth University signee, did make the Round of 16 in the U.S. Junior Amateur two years ago at Daniel Island Club, in Charleston, S.C. In fact, Looney’s dad, Joe, is serving as Powell’s caddie this week.

They agreed to try U.S. Amateur Four-Ball qualifying last fall and with no expectations find themselves in Wednesday’s semifinals. On Tuesday, they knocked off the story of the championship, Marc Dull, 1 up, after defeating Connor Tendel and 2016 Four-Ball runner-up Ben Warnquist, 2 and 1, in the Round of 16. 

“We said when we got here, we've got four days of golf, let's just have some fun and see what happens, and we're going to the semis, so it's pretty cool,” said Powell.

Dull proved to be their stingiest foe. Forced into playing solo when his partner, Chip Brooke, had to fly home to Altamonte Springs, Fla., to attend high school graduation ceremonies for his youngest daughter on Tuesday, Dull’s guile and intestinal fortitude took the match to No. 18, as he holed out for an eagle 2 from 132 yards with a wedge from a fairway divot on No. 10 and drained a 25-footer for birdie on No. 16 to tie the match.

But Powell drove the 313-yard closing hole – the tees were moved up some 50 yards to make it drivable – and he was eventually conceded his 3-foot birdie putt after Dull failed extract his second shot from a greenside bunker and then missed an uphill 15-footer for par.

“It's so much fun, man,” said Dull, whose feat drew national attention, including a hit on Golf Channel. “This is why I play golf. This is why I enjoy golf. I like the competition side of it. I'm not a golf nerd. I don't know the swing. I just like to play golf. I had a blast today. I'm exhausted mentally, not physically because I walk all the time, but mentally I'm exhausted. Brain is fried. I'm ready to kick the feet up and have a cocktail.”

Added Looney: “I don't know if I'll ever play a match with anyone greater at golf than him,” said Looney.

In the fading light, Hartman, 18. of Charlotte, N.C., and a 2025 Vanderbilt signee, and rising high school senior Mawhinney, 17, of Fleming Island, Fla., outlasted Northern Californians Arora and Cui. Mawhinney, the 2024 Canadian Amateur champion who reached the Round of 16 in last year’s U.S. Amateur, and Hartman, a 2023 U.S. Junior Amateur semifinalist, saw their 2-up lead evaporate late midway through the second nine. Cui and Arora birdied the par-4 13th and parred 14 to tie the match. It took nine more holes until Mawhinney launched a 7-iron from 195 yards to a foot on the par-3 fifth hole (23rd of match) for the winning birdie. Two holes earlier, Hartman made a miraculous up-and-down par to keep the match going.

Earlier on Tuesday, the talented teens needed all 18 holes to oust playoff survivors and No. 31 seeds Conrad Walcher and Dustin Wigington, 1 up.

“It's awesome,” said Hartman. “I mean, I'm more focused on getting home and sleeping, getting some food. I'm pretty hungry. But I think we're going to remember this day for the rest of our lives.”

Forster, 22, of England, and Zeman, 24, of Oxnard, Calif., made the 13-hour drive from Urbana, Ill., last Thursday after playing in an NCAA regional with Long Beach State. The duo missed their original flight, so decided to drive to New Jersey, with a brief stopover in Ohio to see a friend, getting just one practice round in at Plainfield.

Already fully in competition mode, the duo opened with a 5-and-4 win on Monday, then added a 3-and-2 victory in the Round of 16 over Ball State golfers Brandon Kurtz and Carter Smith, and advanced to the semifinals by knocking of University of Oregon graduates Zach Foushee and Robbie Ziegler, 2 and 1. The latter duo had gotten into the field as last-minute alternates.

Forster, No. 102 in the WAGR, registered two collegiate wins for the 49ers in his final season, and advanced to the final 16 of The Amateur Championship last June at Ballyliffin Golf Club in the Republic of Ireland. The two decided to try U.S. Amateur Four-Ball qualifying last fall after teammates Jack Cantlay (brother of PGA Tour winner Patrick Cantlay) and Jaden Higgins competed a year ago at Philadelphia Cricket Club.

In the quarterfinal win, Zeman hit his wedge approach on the 334-yard, par-4 13th to a foot for a winning birdie and then drained a 40-footer for birdie on the 156-yard 15th hole to essentially seal the match.

Local favorites Barnes Blake, 19, of Westfield, N.J., and his 18-year-old partner, Liam Pasternak, of Morristown, N.J., saw their run end in the Round of 16 on Tuesday morning. Despite shooting the equivalent of 4-under-par golf over 17 holes, they were eliminated by Wilfong and Womble, 2 and 1. Blake, a rising junior at Georgetown University, had the rare opportunity of a home game in stroke play to play at his home club and co-host Echo Lake C.C., where he owns the course record and won the 2022 Metropolitan Golf Association’s Junior Championship. Pasternak, a two-time U.S. Junior Amateur match-play qualifier, is headed to Notre Dame this fall.

“We definitely didn't give it to them,” said Pasternak. “We played our butts off. Considering we were in a 12-for-2 playoff [on Monday morning], I think it was just a gift to be out here.”

What’s Next

The semifinals and 18-hole championship match will take place on Wednesday, beginning at 7 a.m. EDT. The final is scheduled for 1 p.m. Admission is free, and spectators are encouraged to attend.

Notable

• All four sides that were defeated in the quarterfinals are exempt into the 2026 U.S. Amateur Four-Ball Championship at Desert Mountain Club, in Scottsdale, Ariz.
  
  
• Bence Bertenyi, of Hungary, and a standout at the University of Toledo, registered the second hole-in-one of the championship. The 20-year-old used a 7-iron on the 193-yard third hole during the Round of 16. It is the ninth ace since the event was established in 2015. On Saturday, Josh Frickes aced the third hole at stroke-play co-host Echo Lake Country Club.
  
  
• Long Beach State seniors Charlie Forster and Steen Zeman were supposed to be donning cap and gowns this week as part of the Class of 2025. But they are 2,778 miles from campus, so they couldn’t celebrate with their fellow graduates. Forster, who earned his degree in consumer affairs, and Zeman, a finance major, thought about going into New York City and posing for a picture to put on social media. But even that was put on hold as the two have advanced to the semifinals.
  
  
• Marc Dull employed Brian Davidson as his caddie this week, a longtime caddie at Streamsong whom he’s used in a number of USGA championships. Dull is a former Streamsong caddie.
  
  
• Dull’s great-grandfather, Dexter Daniels, claimed the 1961 and 1966 U.S. Senior Amateur titles.
  
  
• Barnes Blake may have had his week at Plainfield end in the Round of 16, but in 13 days he’ll continue his 2025 USGA championship quest when he tees it up in U.S. Open final qualifying. He advanced from a local qualifier in Connecticut on May 13. He chose to play his final at Woodmont Country Club, in Rockville, Md., over Canoe Brook C.C., in Summit, N.J., because the former is a venue used by the Georgetown men’s golf team of which he’s a member.

Quotable

“He beat me by one [in a Maryland State Amateur qualifier], and I said to myself, I never want to play against this kid anymore, I want to play with him, and we've played a bunch of four-ball stuff, but we didn't have this (making the U.S. Amateur Four-Ball semifinals) on the bingo card.” – Hunter Powell on why he teamed up with partner Carson Looney, who is 14 years his junior

“I think in the stroke play we were sketchy in some spots, and a few times … we were holing some putts to just kind of keep plodding along. You get [better with] a few more reps. It's still early in the season for Mid-Am golf, if you will. So yeah, it's been great, and the venue is absolutely fantastic.” – Dan Walters on making improvement each day

“We kind of just stuck to our game plan. Most of the time we made sure we were in the fairways together and then both on the greens having chances at putts. I think if you do that the whole time, you'll eventually kick out the guys you're competing with. It was fun.” – Steen Zeman

“I would say the pressure was more on them, but I wouldn't say it frees me up because out here you can't play golf like that. Like everything has to just be playing the golf course. You can't be aggressive out here. You can't take on shots that you can't hit.” – Marc Dull when asked if the pressure was more on his Round-of16 opponents than him playing solo

“It was awesome having all of the locals out and all of our members at Echo [Lake] and Plainfield and a couple of Essex Falls [members] as well, and all of our friends out here watching. Obviously, we wish we could put on a little bit more of a show for them. It stinks to come up short, but anytime you get to play a USGA event in your backyard, it's always a great time.” – Blake Barnes on playing the U.S. Amateur Four-Ball a few minutes from home

David Shefter is a senior staff writer at the USGA. Email him at dshefter@usga.org.