TULSA — Arkansas senior David Lingmerth was eliminated in the quarterfinals at the 109th U.S. Amateur at Southern Hills Country Club on Friday.
Lingmerth lost 2 and 1 to fourth-seeded Ben Martin of Greenwood, S.C., who finished his college career at Clemson last year.
Lingmerth led 2-up after the first two holes then fell to 1-up but hung on to the lead through seven holes. Martin squared the match on the eighth hole and took the lead on the ninth.
But Lingmerth came back to square the match on the 10th hole.
Martin took the lead on the 11th, but Lingmerth squaredthe match on the 12th. Martin won the 13th and 14th holes, taking a lead he would not surrender.
In other matches, Byeong-Hun An, 17, advanced to the semifinals with a 21-hole victory against Stanford junior Steve Ziegler. An, who goes by "Ben," can become the youngest player to win the U.S. Amateur title.
"It would be great to win, but there are a lot of good players out there," An said. "It would be awesome if I win, but I'm happy winning tomorrow's match to get in the Masters."
Last year's champion, Danny Lee - 18 years and one month at the time - broke Tiger Woods' record to become the youngest champion. An won't turn 18 until Sept. 17.
An's opponent today will be Fresno State sophomore Bhavik Patel, who defeated Clemson senior Phillip Mollica 1-up.
Texas senior Charlie Hollanddefeated Oklahoma State sophomore Peter Uihlein in 19 holes to reach the other semifinal against Martin.
The semifinal winners today will advance to the 36-hole final Sunday.
An squandered a 3-up lead on the back nine, bogeying the 17th and 18th holes to let Ziegler force a playoff. It was the second consecutive day that Ziegler was 2 down as he arrived at the 17th hole, only to win the last two holes.
An prevailed when Ziegler missed the green with his second shot at No. 3 and An followed by leaving his right in the middle of the green. When Ziegler missed a long par putt, he flipped his putter into the air and swatted at it before removing his cap to shake An's hand.
Sports success runs in An's family. An's father, his caddie this week, and mother won Olympic medals in table tennis in the 1988Seoul (South Korea) Games. Not quite a decade later, An was 6 and following his dad around at the driving range when he tried golf.
An started playing tournaments at 7 and developed enough that 3 1 /2 years ago, he and his father moved to Florida to take advantage of the top-notch golf facilities. He was the runner-up at this year's American Junior Golf Association Rolex Tournament of Champions and a quarterfinalist at the Western Amateur before qualifying for the U.S. Amateur earlier this month.
If not for the tournament, he'd be in school this week at Bradenton (Fla.) Preparatory Academy.
Sports, Pages 21, 23 on 08/29/2009