OAKMONT, Pa. — Matthew Sharpstene holed a 20-foot par putt to avoid going 2 down with two holes to play, and then won the last two holes to beat Van Holmgren and advance to the quarterfinals Friday in the U.S. Amateur.
The final three matches in the round of 16 delivered big moments at Oakmont Country Club as the U.S. Amateur was close to getting back on schedule from a week delayed by storms.
Sharpstene advanced to play James Piot on Friday afternoon with a chance at reaching the semifinals for the second straight year.
Nick Gabrelcik, coming off a strong freshman year at North Florida, hit an approach that spun to about 3 feet for birdie at No. 10 to win his match over Hugo Townsend of Sweden in 19 holes. Townsend had forced extra holes with an approach to 5 feet for birdie on the 18th.
Davis Chatfield won the wildest match in the round of 16 against Devon Bling, the 2018 U.S. Amateur runner-up at Pebble Beach.
No hole was halved on the entire back nine. Bling birdied the par-5 12th to go 3 up, only to lose the next four holes when he made three straight bogeys and Chatfield birdied the par-3 16th. The match was all square when Chatfield took bogey on the reachable par-4 17th.
Both had 40-foot birdie putts on the 18th from different parts of the green. Chatfield rolled his attempt up the ridge to a foot for a conceded par. Bling was pin-high all the way to the left. He left his birdie attempt 4 feet short and missed the par putt.
Grabelcik is the highest-ranked player (No. 28) from the men’s amateur ranking after Ricky Castillo (No. 5) lost to Ross Streelman, 3 and 2.
Streelman moved on to face Austin Greaser, a 6-and-4 winner over Jacob Bridgeman.
The Texas Longhorns have two players in the top 10 in the amateur ranking, Cole Hammer and Pierceson Coody, neither of whom made it through qualifying. Texas still has a quarterfinalist in Travis Vick, who has yet to reach the 18th hole in his three matches.
Vick, a 3-and-2 winner of Jose Islas of Mexico, moved on to face Brian Stark, who needed only 13 holes to beat Grayson Blunt.
