Va. junior advances to the final of the US Amateur Championship

Trojan sophomore Sean Crocker’s impressive run through the 2015 U.S. Amateur field ended Saturday with a 4&3 loss in the semifinals to reigning NCAA individual champion Bryson DeChambeau on Saturday (Aug. 22) at the Olympia Fields (Ill.) C.C.

DeChambeau, from Clovis, California, beat Stanford junior Maverick McNealy of Portola Valley, California, 3 and 2; Dunne edged former Colorado player David Oraee of Greeley, Colorado, 3 and 2; James beat UCLA senior Jake Knapp of Costa Mesa, California, 2 and 1; and Crocker outlasted Alabama junior Robby Shelton of Wilmer, Alabama, in 20 holes.

As U.S. Amateur finalists, DeChambeau and Bard are expected to receive invitations to next year’s Masters.

The Sleepy Hollow Country Club member, who was coming off of a win over last year’s victor, Gunn Yang, lost in the Round of 32 to Spain’s Jon Rahm in a 7-and-6 loss.

“Hes an incredible player, ” DeChambeau said about Dunne.

“It’s very surreal for me right now”, Bard said. Bard topped Japans Kenta Konishi 3 and 2.

“I’m just going to take it one shot at a time the whole day”.

“I haven’t even thought about that yet”, DeChambeau said.

Konishi is making an attempt to develop into the primary Japanese victor in event historical past.

Bard won the 12th, 14th and 15th holes and finished off Konishi with a par for a halve on the par-4 16th.

DeChambeau won the par-4 11th and 13th with birdies to take a 3-up lead and halved the next three to end the match.

“I didn’t expect that one little bit”, Crocker told usga.org after the round of 16 match.

In a gruelling tournament, Dunne had already played five rounds of golf and won three matchplay encounters but the quarter-final final against DeChambeau proved a bridge too far. “5-under par is tough to maintain up with on a U.S. Open golf course”.