Western Amateur Update: Hardy Dominates; Campbell Wins in 23 Holes; Ghim Loses Epic Match to Hossler; Aussies, New Zealanders Out


The University of Illinois hasn't had this many players in a final four since 2005, when the basketball team navigated its way through the NCAA basketball championship.

But incoming Illini freshman Nick Hardy and senior Brian Campbell survived two 18-hole matches against tough opponents Friday to advance to Saturday semifinal round at The Beverly Country Club on Chicago's southwest side. The future teammates could meet in the Saturday afternoon finals should both win their morning matches.

The Western Amateur's wweet 16 featured 12 matches Friday. No one was more dominant than Hardy, 18, of Northbrook, a recent graduate of Glenbrook North High School. Hardy, who will take on Texas sophomore Beau Hossler at 7:30 a.m., disposed of Australia's Geoff Drakeford, the No. 3 amateur in the world, 6 and 4, with seven birdies. It was over on the 14th hole.

In the afternoon, Hardy then defeated heralded Texas incoming freshman Scottie Scheffler, 17, of Dallas, 5 and 4. Scheffler, the 2013 U.S. Junior champion, made the cut at the PGA Tour's Byron Nelson Championship earlier this year.

"Nick was in complete control," said his longtime instructor Brett Packee. "He just hit it great. Played great. Nick just didn't make any mistakes. He played the way you're supposed to play. Mostly, Nick made a bunch of eight- to 15-footers for birdie all day."

Campbell, the Big Ten Player of the Year in 2014, won his morning match 2 and 1 against New Zealand's Josh Munn, the runner-up in medalist play. That match was all-square until Campbell birdied Nos. 13 and 16 and closed it out with a par-3 on the difficult 17th.

It took Campbell 23 holes to win his afternoon match against Australia's Cory Crawford. It ended on the 14th hole when Campbell made birdie to Crawford's par. Their match tied the record for the longest Western Amateur match played since 1961.

Campbell will tee it up at 7:45 a.m. Saturday against San Diego State's Xander Schauffele, who defeated Vanderbilt's Hunter Stewart 3 and 2 in the afternoon after beating SMU's Bryson DeChambeau 1-up in the morning.

Meanwhile, the other Illinois player in the field, medalist Doug Ghim, 18, of Arlington Heights, a freshman-to-be at Texas, won his morning match 1-up over Matt Hansen. But in the afternoon Ghim fell to Hossler, a future Longhorn teammate, on the 19th hole of a classic back-and-forth match, with both players shooting 5-under 30s on the back nine.

Ghim, who said it felt "weird" to play against a future teammate. With the match all-square through 18 holes, the two went to the par-3 10th, where Ghim hit his tee shot to the far left edge of the green and three-putted from 35 feet. Hossler, who drove to 12 feet, made par for the win.

The highlights of the match included Hossler's 63-foot snaking birdie putt on No. 14, Ghim's holed bunker shot on No. 17 that squared the match, and Ghim's clutch downhill par putt on 18 to stay alive.

"I feel like I did a good job of showing what I'm capable of," said Ghim, the first Chicago-area golfer in 30 years to earn Western Amateur medalist honors. "I'm not too disappointed . . . I wanted to be in that final, but it wasn't meant to be. It would've been fun to play against Nick [Hardy] again. I haven't played match play against him since the Chick Evans [Junior Amateur when both were in eighth grade]."

Hossler is playing in his second consecutive Sweet 16. He lost his opening match last year at The Alotian Club, but defeated the University of Washington's Cheng-Tsung Pan, 3 and 2, Friday morning.

"I used to kind of struggle in match play, thinking about what I was going to do in the future, what somebody else was doing now, what had already been played. I've finally come to realize you really can't expect anything in match play because anything can happen," Hossler said. "As much as you're playing the golf course, you're living and dying on someone else's shots, which is stressful. I feel like I now know how to play match play well - just go try to make as many birdies as possible."

The third Illini player to make the Sweet 16, Charlie Danielson, of Osceola, Wis., fell in the morning round to Stewart, 2 and 1. Danielson's caddie was his close friend and last year's Western Amateur champion, Jordan Niebrugge.

Hardy was looking forward to facing a Longhorn in the semifinals. "It sure feels like an Illinois versus Texas - other than Australia - so I'm taking on the Texas bracket," he said, laughing. "It's pretty fun."

Hardy always tries to get off to a hot start. "Every time I come out there, I just think about birdieing the first hole," he said. "Today, I putted really well. That's what brought me through the day. I putted as well as I have all week."

He also loves match play because it's one-on-one competition. "Something about knowing what I need to do against one player - instead of in stroke play focusing on the big picture - just being in that mindset really helped me."

Ghim said the twin showings by him and Hardy are indicative that Chicago-area junior golf is in a good place.

"We're definitely under the radar in terms of the rest of the nation," Ghim said. "It's not as profound as maybe Texas, California, Florida, New York, but it's definitely growing. We've got good kids that come out of here whether we're snowed in or not. We can play . . . and we shouldn't be overlooked."

Asked whether he'll be rooting for a fellow Illinoisan or future Texas teammate in their semifinal, Ghim showed excellent judgment. "I take the Fifth on that one," he said. "I hope they both play well and that the best player wins."

The above report is courtesy of the Western Golf Association. For more information and scoring details, visit http://www.wgaesf.org.