Defending Champ White Among Final 8 at U.S. Senior Amateur

What Happened

Breaking news: Todd White is pretty good at golf. Most followers of the amateur game have known this for years. You don’t get selected to a USA Walker Cup Team in your 40s for having marginal talent. Or win a pair of USGA titles, including last year’s U.S. Senior Amateur in his first year of eligibility.

The 56-year-old from Spartanburg, S.C., continued his unblemished record in the national championship for amateurs 55 and older on another sweltering day at The Honors Course, producing a pair of victories to reach the quarterfinals of the 69th U.S. Senior Amateur Championship. The high school history teacher/boys’ and girls’ golf coach at Spartanburg High School is now 9-0 in this event.

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On Tuesday in the Round of 16, he eliminated co-medalist and No. 2 seed Roger Newsom, 60, of Virginia Beach, Va., 5 and 4, in a rematch of last year’s semifinals at Martis Camp Club. Earlier in the day, White, who won the 2023 South Carolina Amateur against the “kids,” took out the last remaining Tennessean, Todd Burgan, a pharmacist from Knoxville, 1 up.

White is joined in the quarterfinals by Dave Bunker, 59, of Canada; Dan Sullivan, 57, of Pasadena, Calif.; Matt Sughrue, 64, of Alexandria, Va.; Mark Knecht, 61, of Paducah, Ky.; Louis Brown, 61, of Marietta, Ga.; Robert Nelson, 63, of Fairhope, Ala.; and Andrew Whitacre, 61, of The Woodlands, Texas.

After struggling to a 5-over 77 in the first round of stroke play on Saturday, White, the 2024 R&A Senior Amateur champion, has slowly begun to figure things out on the demanding Pete Dye layout that has been made even more challenging with temperatures reaching into the high 90s and firm greens running 13 feet on the Stimpmeter. On Tuesday, the 2015 U.S. Amateur Four-Ball champion played the equivalent of 5-under-par golf, with the usual match-play concessions.

In the afternoon, he was playing a highly motivated Newsom, an ophthalmic surgeon who in the past five years has reached the finals (2019), semifinals (2023) and quarterfinals (2022). Last year, he lost to White, 2 and 1, and has repeatedly said how much he wants to win this title.

But White never let him into the match, seizing control midway through with a winning par on No. 8, a 12-foot birdie on 9, a winning par on the 11th and another birdie on 12 to go 5 up. This came after he hit his tee shot into the penalty area on the 268-yard, seventh hole and eventually conceded an eagle 2 to Newsom. 

“It’s great to be in the final eight and to have an opportunity,” said White, who planned to call in his lesson plan to his substitute teacher for Wednesday’s classes before enjoying dinner and a good night’s rest. “That’s all anybody can ask for is an opportunity and that’s what I have tomorrow morning.

“Todd Burgan played incredibly well [in the Round of 32]. I am up there on [hole] 17 and have 9 feet for eagle. He is short of the green and the worst-case scenario is I am going to halve this hole and we are going to be fine. And then to see the ball disappear when he chips it in, and then I just didn’t quite hit my putt hard enough. I knew when I teed it up this afternoon that I had to bring my best game when you’re playing against Roger [Newsom]. He’s an incredible competitor and incredible gentleman.”

It turned out to be a tough afternoon in the sun for the two co-medalists. John Kemp, 56, of England, the No. 1 seed who posted 2-under 142 in qualifying alongside Newsom, had his championship run ended by Bunker on the 19th hole. Kemp, who manages a packaging business, was constantly playing from behind against the retired middle-school physical-education teacher/basketball coach who spends winters in Venice, Fla. He eventually tied the match with a birdie on the par-3 16th, then made a remarkable up-and-down par on No. 18 from 6 feet to force extra holes. It was the second time in two days he was extended beyond the 18th. But unlike his 23-hole win on Monday, Kemp wound up making bogey and conceding Bunker’s 5-foot birdie putt. Bunker had hit a gap wedge out of a fairway bunker from 129 yards.

This is Bunker’s second appearance in the quarterfinals, having lost three years ago to Jerry Gunthorpe at the Country Club of Detroit. Earlier in the day, he eliminated the other Englishman to make match play, Stephen Creed, 5 and 3.

“I have had a couple of injuries the last two years that kind of held me back a bit,” said Bunker of his Achilles tear and meniscus in his right knee. “I feel good and healthy now and I am swinging really well. It’s nice to play good golf.”

Both Sughrue and Sullivan have been on cruise control in match play. Sughrue, a quarterfinalist for the fourth time in seven U.S. Senior Amateur starts, including a runner-up finish in 2016 at Old Warson Country Club in St. Louis, Mo., has only trailed for one hole over the 51 he’s played since Monday’s opening round.

That includes his 5-and-4 win in the Round of 32 over 2014 runner-up Bryan Norton, of Overland Park, Kan., (he lost the opening hole), and the 3-and-1 decision over Tim Dunlavey, of Spartanburg, S.C., in the Round of 16.

Against Dunlavey, Sughrue saw a 5-up lead whittled to one after making a double bogey on the 15th hole. Then Sughrue, a family marriage therapist and sports performance mental coach, hit what he called two of the best shots of his competitive career on 16 and 17. He nearly holed out on the par-3 16th with a 7-iron from 180 yards that led to a winning birdie, and on the par-5 17th, he perfectly executed a 5-iron cut shot from 195 yards up the hill to 30 feet that eventually was conceded for eagle.

Sullivan has not trailed since the fifth hole of his first-round match against Philip Josephson, a span of 40 holes. He’s coming off a win in the Southern California Golf Association’s Senior Match Play Championship and a runner-up showing in the Lupton Memorial at The Honors Course this past spring. On Tuesday, he dispatched David Tassell, of Jupiter, Fla., 4 and 3, and Jon Brown, of Adel, Iowa, 3 and 2. He’ll next face Bunker in the first quarterfinal match on Wednesday.

Whitacre qualified for his first USGA championship two years ago at The Kittansett Club, and even though he missed match play by three strokes, he loved every minute of the experience. A talk with Scott Simpson, the 1987 U.S. Open champion who he befriended while serving as actor/comedian Bill Murray’s caddie during the annual AT&T National Pro-Am at Pebble Beach, helped put Whitacre at ease about playing in a USGA event. Whitacre grew up in Carmel, Calif. (he went to Carmel High and played at Monterey Peninsula Community College before transferring to the University of Illinois) and caddied at famed Pebble Beach Golf Links, site of six U.S. Opens. Through his mom and George Peper, a golf author and publisher, he landed Murray’s bag in the AT&T Pro-Am, winning the title in 2011 with pro D.A. Points, a fellow Illinois alum.

Whitacre still remains close to Murray and the two have exchanged texts this week as he’s made his way through the draw. Tuesday, he gutted out a pair of 1-up wins over Mike Finster, of Saint Petersburg, Fla., and 1996 U.S. Amateur Public Links champion Tim Hogarth, of Northridge, Calif.

Trailing by a hole going into the par-4 ninth, Whitacre won Nos. 9 and 10 with pars, and then the two foes tied the remaining eight holes. That included a remarkable up-and-down par by Hogarth on No. 17 (15-footer after leaving his first bunker shot in the sand) and Whitacre returning the favor on the 18th, hitting a delicate pitch from just left of the green to a foot for a conceded par. Hogarth had already missed his 30-foot birdie attempt.

“You gotta have a really good short game, that was the big thing,” said Whitacre of what he learned from his first U.S. Senior Amateur. “You need to develop a mental approach to the game. I have worked hard on that too.”

Knecht, a property manager, has enjoyed quite a love affair with The Honors Course. Before this week’s championship, the father of two aced the par-3 14th hole in back-to-back years with the same club (8-iron) at the same distance (148 yards). He did not have any holes-in-one on Tuesday, but he did produce two wins to make his first quarterfinal, defeating Jerry Achilles, of Georgetown, Texas, 4 and 3, and 1997 U.S. Mid-Amateur runner-up Rick Stimmel, of Pittsburgh, Pa., in the Round of 16, 4 and 2.

Brown, a former tour and club professional competing in his third U.S. Senior Amateur, had the largest margin of victory in the Round of 16, a 6-and-5 decision over left-hander Paul Smith, of Ventura, Calif. Earlier on Tuesday, the former University of Georgia standout outlasted fellow Georgian, Jack Hall, of Savannah, 2 up. Hall was coming off a 25-hole win on Monday afternoon in the Round of 64.

Another decorated Georgian was not so fortunate. Bob Royak, the 2019 champion and 2023 semifinalist from Alpharetta, saw his championship ended by Nelson. Four years ago, Nelson was ousted in the opening round by 2015 champion Chip Lutz. He got a rematch with Lutz in the Round of 32, this time producing a 1-up victory before taking out another past champion in the Round of 16, 2 and 1.

“That’s full day in that heat,” said Nelson, who works in the health care industry. “I started getting a little wobbly legged on the back nine, but we held it together. That guy (Bob Royak) is a stud. I played him before in some Southeastern Challenge Cup matches and I knew he was a great player. I knew I had it in me. I just needed to play my game and fortunately I did.”

It doesn’t get any easier for Nelson. Next up is yet another USGA champion: Todd White

What’s Next

Match play continues on Wednesday with the quarterfinals and semifinals, starting at 7:30 a.m. EDT. The semifinal matches are scheduled to begin at 1 p.m. and 1:15 p.m. Thursday’s 18-hole championship match is scheduled for 8:30 a.m. The winner and runner-up both receive exemptions into the 2025 U.S. Senior Open Championship at The Broadmoor in Colorado Springs, Colo. Admission is free and spectators are encouraged to attend.

Notable

• All eight quarterfinalists are now exempt into the 70th U.S. Senior Amateur Championship to be contested at Biltmore Forest Country Club, in Asheville, N.C.
  
  
• With the Heat Index hitting triple digits in the afternoon, the USGA modified its “one-seat” rule regarding players and caddies riding together in a golf cart. Between the play of holes, both the player and caddie were permitted to share a cart, but not during the play of a hole. Normal U.S. Senior Amateur rules permit either the player or caddie to ride but not both.
  
  
• Two players who were involved in Monday morning’s 9-for-8 playoff for the final match-play spots advanced to the Round of 16: Andrew Whitacre and Rick Stimmel. Only Whitacre is still remaining.
  
  
• The tee on the par-4 seventh hole was moved up for the Round of 16 to play 268 yards to the center of the green.
  
  
• Matt Sughrue went through a major career change 15 years ago from a CEO of an insurance agency to becoming a family marriage therapist/sports performance mental coach. For his thesis, he spent time at a 90-bed homeless shelter for families in Manassas, Va. He now has a private practice in Vienna, Va., and while he can’t divulge his client list, Sughrue has worked with a number of high-level professional athletes in baseball, golf, swimming and hockey.
  
  
• Of the eight quarterfinalists, Dave Bunker is the lone international player. No foreign golfer has claimed the U.S. Senior Amateur in 68 previous editions, making it the only USGA championship without an international champion. Last year, Jody Fanagan, of the Republic of Ireland, became the first foreign competitor to advance to the finals.

Quotable

“This one feels really good. I just haven’t been playing a lot of golf this summer, so I am rusty. This is a great place, a great tournament and [it] has a stacked field. I get excited to compete on a golf course like this, it’s a real test. I like it hard.” – Matt Sughrue

“[From] the mentality of it, competing in USGA events and being in the finals last year and winning, there is a lot of experience factor that carries in. But at the Senior Amateur everyone here has experience at some level. The number beside the name you throw it all out because everybody in the final eight is playing well.” – Todd White

“It’s easy to get intimidated with somebody with a resume like his. There are a bunch of guys out here with a resume a lot longer than mine. My caddie (Walker Grant) was a huge help. He kept telling me, ‘Robert you can play with these guys.’” – Robert Nelson

“We had a phenomenal match. We both played really well, especially on the back nine. It was a lot of good golf. It could have gone either way. I’m thrilled.” – Andrew Whitacre on his 1-up win over Tim Hogarth

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