Georgia On His Mind: Royak Defeats Fellow Peach Stater Larkin to Make Quarterfinals

The match play bracket at Oak Hills for the 70th U.S. Senior Amateur has produced several matchups between players from the same hometown, including Tuesday afternoon’s all-Georgia Round of 16 clash between Atlanta’s Jack Larkin Sr., and Alpharetta’s Bob Royak.  

Both former USGA champions traded punches throughout the day, with Royak delivering the initial strike by rolling in three birdies over the opening five holes. Larkin slowly chipped away at the deficit with birdies on Nos. 7 and 9, bringing the match back to even with a par on No. 11. After making bogey on No. 17 to fall 1 down, Royak responded with a birdie on the par-3 18th, pushing the match to extra holes. On the 19th hole, the 2019 U.S. Senior Amateur champion hit his approach to 12 feet and sank his putt for birdie to advance to the quarterfinals for the fourth time in the last six years. 
 
"I hit the best five shots of my life,” said Royak. “I lost my tee shot for a few holes, then bounced back with some great shots and made some putts, but that’s match play... I’ve been playing with Jack for a long time, we play at the course back home. He’s a great player and I knew he wasn’t going to give me anything.” 
 
In another marquee matchup, it was a tale of two nines between medalist John Kemp and former pro Mike Sposa. After eliminating a former U.S. Senior Amateur champion in the Round of 64 and a past runner-up in the Round of 32, Sposa, of Spartanburg, S.C., continued his run through a gauntlet of opponents by netting four birdies on his outward nine to make the turn at 4 up.  

Not going out without a fight, Kemp flipped the switch on the back with four birdies of his own to bring the match back to a tie heading into the 15th hole. But Sposa responded, winning the next two holes before closing out the match on No. 17 with a 30-footer for par, earning his spot in the quarterfinals.  

“I just got hot two different times with the putter,” said Sposa, who competed on the 1991 USA Walker Cup team. “He didn’t really do anything wrong, and I wasn’t doing anything right besides getting lucky with these comeback putts. That was the match in a nutshell...Nobody that’s here is a poor golfer, especially making it this far into match play. At the end of the day, it’s just about hitting shots and taking advantage of opportunities when they come your way.” 
 
In a battle of USGA champions, 2013 U.S. Mid-Amateur champion Michael McCoy defeated 2022 U.S. Senior Amateur champion Rusty Strawn, 4 and 3. McCoy, a 2015 USA Walker Cup player and captain of the victorious 2023 squad at St. Andrews, struck first with a par on the opening hole to go 1 up and never looked back. He went on to win four more holes while surrendering just one, cruising into Wednesday’s quarterfinals for the first time since 2018.

What’s Next?

Match play continues on Wednesday with the quarterfinals and semifinals, starting at 7:30 a.m. CDT. 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 7:30 a.m. The winner and runner-up both receive exemptions into the 2026 U.S. Senior Open Championship at Scioto Country Club in Ohio. Admission is free and spectators are encouraged to attend.

Notable

• All eight quarterfinalists are now exempt into the 71st U.S. Senior Amateur Championship to be contested at Baltimore (Md.) Country Club. 

• Jacobo Cestino, of Spain, is the only international player remaining, after defeating Bryan Hoops in 21 holes in the Round of 16. He is the first player from Spain to ever compete in the U.S. Senior Amateur. No foreign golfer has claimed the U.S. Senior Amateur in 69 previous editions, making it the only USGA championship without an international champion. In 2023, Jody Fanagan, of the Republic of Ireland, became the first foreign competitor to advance to the finals. 

• The Round of 32 match between John Pierce and Gene Elliott went 23 holes, marking the second 23-hole match of the week. The championship record is 27 holes, set 60 years ago at Sea Island Golf Club in St. Simons Island, Ga., in the first round.  

• There have already been eight extra hole matches. The record for most extra holes matches in a U.S. Senior Amateur came in 2005 at The Farm in Georgia, when there were 13 matches that went extra holes. 

• Greg Sanders (No. 3) and Bob Royak (No. 9) are the only top 10 seeds to advance to the quarterfinals. 

Quotable

“He’s so familiar with the greens and without him, I wouldn't be where I'm at, to be honest with you. He just does such a good job, and so it's been fun. We’ve gotten along great, and we'll be friends for life now. That's the kind of young man he is.” - Mike Anderson giving praise to his caddie, Rafael Abad, who was randomly assigned to Anderson by the club before the championship

“It's really awesome. I’m playing pretty good lately and to be able to get the quarters is just a really, really amazing feeling, because I haven't been this deep [in the U.S. Senior Amateur] before.” - Greg Sanders on what it means to advance to the quarterfinals

“I should expect to just win every match, but at this point, there's no way that's the reality. 
So, I think I just need to try to wake up tomorrow and say, ‘Hey, this is just gravy,’ and not try to play better than I have, just do what I've been doing and see if that's good enough.” - Sanders on his mindset going in the quarterfinals

“I would tell you that I've learned more about golf and how to play from these guys out here because they're so good. It’s really helped my game, because I've identified some weaknesses. You have to wedge it well and you have to chip and putt it well.” - Anderson on his takeaways from playing with some of the top senior players

“You just have to keep telling yourself that it's another story. They come and go, everybody has them. It's like cars going by on a freeway, that’s it. Just like in life, if you sit there and dwell on negative stuff, it kills your health, it kills relationships, at the end of the day, most of the time it usually works out.” -  Mike Sposa on how he handles adversity

“This is fun golf. It literally is back to why most of us fall in love with the game, at the amateur level. You're not playing for money, you're playing for the love of the game and to try to win USGA championships. I’m just thankful to have the opportunity to do that again.” - Sposa on the comparison between playing professional and amateur events

“I am a very traditional player. I am a super fan of golf and especially about history, tradition and architecture and the way I dress aligns with that. I still have like 32 pairs of classic FootJoys, and I still wear them. If I can, I will wear them until I die, but I like to dress like in the 70’s, I like that.” -  Jacobo Cestino on his style on the golf course