4th U.S. Amateur Four-Ball Championship: Inside the Field

U.S. Amateur Four-Ball Home

Zach Anderson, 21, British Columbia, Canada & Derek Bayley, 22, Rathdrum, Idaho
Anderson, a senior at Washington State University, is playing in his first USGA championship. He was named to the 2018 All-Pacific-12 Honorable Mention team and finished in the top-10 in this year’s Pac-12 Championship. Bayley, also a senior at WSU, is competing in his fourth USGA championship, having previously qualified for the 2012 U.S. Junior Amateur (Round of 64), 2014 U.S. Amateur Public Links and 2016 U.S. Amateur Four-Ball. He was named the 2017 Washington State Golf Association Player of the Year and had back-to-back runner-up finishes in the 2016 and 2017 Washington State Amateur.

Zach Atkinson, 35, Colleyville, Texas & Brad Gibson, 36, Lewisville, Texas
Atkinson, a construction executive, is competing in his second U.S. Amateur Four-Ball and seventh USGA championship. At the 2015 U.S. Amateur Four-Ball, Atkinson and his partner, James Edmondson, advanced to the quarterfinals, losing to Scott Harvey and Todd Mitchell. He was a member of the Texas squad that won the 2015 USGA Men’s State Team Championship. He is a three-time Texas Golf Association North Mid-Amateur Champion, winning in 2013, 2015 and 2018. Gibson is playing in his seventh USGA Championship and first U.S. Amateur Four-Ball.

Garrett Barber, 18, Stuart, Fla. & Cole Hammer, 18, Houston, Texas
Barber advanced to the Round of 32 in last year’s U.S. Amateur at The Riviera Country Club. He also won the 2017 Rolex Tournament of Champions, and is the first player to have won both the Jones Cup Junior (2016) and the Jones Cup (2018). The 2018 Louisiana State University signee was a member of the victorious USA Junior Presidents Cup Team in 2017, making the clinching putt in the two-day event. Hammer qualified for the 2015 U.S. Open at Chambers Bay, where he missed the cut.  At the age of 15, he was the third-youngest player to compete in the U.S. Open. Hammer is competing in his second U.S. Amateur Four-Ball Championship and his sixth USGA championships, with his best finish coming in the 2016 U.S Junior Amateur, where he advanced to the Round of 16. A senior at Houston’s Kincaid High school, Hammer has signed to play at the University of Texas beginning this fall.

Richard Berkmeyer, 44, Wildwood, Mo. & Brad Nurski, 39, St. Joseph, Mo.
Berkmeyer is a business owner, who has competed in 29 USGA events. He is a three-time Missouri State Amateur Champion as well as a three-time Missouri State Mid-Am Champion, and has been named the Missouri Player of the Year four times. Berkmeyer and his wife, Jamie, have combined for seven State Amateur Championships, while his mom, Barbara, was the runner-up to Carol Semple Thompson in the 2002 U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur. Nurski, the runner-up in the 2014 U.S. Mid-Amateur, is competing in his 15th USGA event, and his second U.S. Amateur Four-Ball Championship.

Brandon Berry, 32, Ballardsville, Ky. & Trey Bowlin, 32, Manchester, Ky.
Berry and Bowlin are former teammates at Eastern Kentucky University. Bowlin, who works in sales, is competing in his second USGA event, after previously advancing to the Round of 16 in the 2008 U.S. Public Links Championship.

David Bolen, 39, Lubbock, Texas & Brady Shivers, 31, Seminole, Texas
Bolen, a dental sales manager, advanced to the semifinals of the 2015 U.S. Mid-Amateur at Johns Island Club, just north of Jupiter Hills. Shivers, who works in oil and gas sales, is playing in his first USGA event.

Sherrill Britt, 52, of West End, N.C. & Greg Earnhardt, 49, of Greensboro, N.C.
Britt and Earnhardt reached the championship match of the 2015 U.S. Amateur Four-Ball, losing to Nathan Smith and Todd White, 7 and 5. Britt, a self-employed building contractor, won the 2015 Carolinas Golf Association Mid-Amateur Championship. Earnhardt, an insurance agent, has competed in nine USGA championships, including two U.S. Amateurs. He became the first back-to-back North Carolina Mid-Amateur winner in 2016 and was a member of the North Carolina squad that tied for second in the 2003 USGA Men’s State Team Championship.

Chip Brooke, 42, Altamonte Springs, Fla. & Marc Dull, 32, Winter Haven, Fla.
Brooke and Dull advanced to the semifinals at the 2017 U.S. Amateur Four-Ball Championships. Brooke, who works in sales and helped develop the caddie program at Streamsong (Fla.) Resort, which hosted the 2016 U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball Championship, won the 2016 Florida State Mid-Amateur. Dull, a caddie at the Streamsong Resort, was the runner-up in the 2015 U.S. Mid-Amateur at Johns Island. His great-grandfather, the late Dexter Daniels, won the U.S. Senior Amateur Championship in 1961 and 1966. Dull won the 2017 Florida State Mid-Amateur and was named the 2017 Florida State Golf Association Player of the Year. He caddied for four-time U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur champion Meghan Stasi during the 2016 U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball at Streamsong.

Hayes Brown, 26, Charlotte, N.C. & Jack Larkin, 58, Atlanta, Ga.
Brown, who played at Wofford College, is playing in his first USGA event. Larkin, who works in wine sales, captured the 1979 U.S. Junior Amateur. He has competed in 13 USGA events spanning five decades.

Stephen Brown, 29, Ontario, Canada & Ethan O’Meara, 27, Ontario, Canada
Brown and O’Meara are former teammates at Lambton College in Sarnia, Ontario, Canada. They are both competing in their first USGA championship. Brown, a power engineering technician, earned a silver medal at the 2015 PING Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association Golf National Championships and competed in the 2010 Canadian Amateur.

Bobby Bucey, 29, Concord, Calif. & Brett Viboch, 34, Moraga, Calif.
Bucey, an investment fund manager, is playing in his first USGA event. He won the 2014 NCGA Stroke Play Championship and the 2016 NCGA Four-Ball Championship with Viboch, posting the lowest 54-hole total in championship history to take the title. Viboch, who works in sales, has qualified for four USGA Championships, including the 2015 U.S. Amateurr.

Dennis Bull, 36, Norwalk, Iowa & Andrew Price, 36, Lake Bluff, Ill.
Bull, a senior finance manager, helped Iowa post a second-place finish in the 2012 USGA Men’s State Team Championship. Most recently, he qualified for the 2016 U.S. Amateur Championship, but withdrew prior to the event due to the birth of his son, Brooks. Price, an insurance agent, competed in the 2005 John Deere Classic on the PGA Tour, and won the 2016 Chicago District Golf Association Amateur and 2014 Illinois State Mid-Amateur.

Jimmy Burke, 60, Houston, Texas & Hunter Nelson, 65, Houston, Texas
Burke and Nelson are the oldest team competing in the U.S. Amateur Four-Ball Championship with an average age of 62.5. Burke, an insurance broker who is the nephew of major champion and Champions Golf Club co-founder Jackie Burke Jr., is competing in his second USGA Championship. Nelson, who is the oldest competitor in this year’s U.S. Amateur Four-Ball Championship, is competing in his ninth USGA Championship, having advanced to the Round of 16 at the 2011 U.S. Senior Amateur.

Mike Calef, 38, West Bridgewater, Mass. & Kevin Silva, 33, New Bedford, Mass.
Calef, a stay-at-home dad, has won a number of Massachusetts and Texas State Golf Association championships and is a past North Texas Player of the Year. Silva turned professional in 2006 and qualified for the 2008 U.S. Open at Torrey Pines and the 2009 U.S. Open at Bethpage State Park. He regained his amateur status in 2013 and went on to win the 2015 Rhode Island Amateur and the 2016 Rhode Island Stroke Play titles.

Frankie Capan, 18, North Oaks, Minn. & Shuai Ming Wong, 18, Hong Kong, China
Capan and Wong are the reigning U.S. Amateur Four-Ball Champions, after defeating Clark Collier and Kyle Hudelson, 2 and 1, in last year’s final at Pinehurst Resort & Country Club’s Course No. 2, becoming the youngest side to claim the title. Capan, who will play at the University of Alabama this fall, advanced to the Round of 16 of the 2016 U.S. Junior Amateur, losing to eventual champion Min Woo Lee. He led the USA to victory in the 2017 Toyota Junior World Cup, finishing first individually. He also won the 2016 Puerto Rico Open and was named the 2016 Minnesota Junior Player of the Year. Wong has qualified for three U.S. Junior Amateur Championships, his best finish coming in 2016 where he advanced to the Round of 32. Wong also won the 2017 Junior Players Championship, and was the runner-up in the CB&I - Simplify Boys Championship at Carlton Woods. Wong will join the Southern Methodist University men’s golf team in the fall, where his teammate will be reigning U.S. Junior Amateur champion Noah Goodwin.

Patrick Christovich, 39, New Orleans, La. & Garrett Rank, 30, Ontario, Canada
Christovich and Rank advanced to the semifinals in the 2016 and 2017 U.S. Amateur Four-Ball Championships. Christovich, a reinstated amateur, advanced to the quarterfinals of the 2014 U.S. Mid-Amateur and is a three-time Louisiana Mid-Amateur champion. Rank, who just completed his second full season as a National Hockey League referee, overcame a cancer scare at age 23. He was the runner-up in the 2012 U.S. Mid-Amateur (to Nathan Smith) and qualified for match play in the 2015 U.S. Amateur. Rank also won back-to-back Canadian Mid-Amateur Championships in 2014 and 2015, and has played in the PGA Tour’s RBC Canadian Open twice.

Brandon Cigna, 32, Arlington Va & Ben Warnquist, 25, Olney Md.
Cigna and Warnquist are competing in their third U.S. Amateur Four-Ball Championship. The side finished as runners-up in 2016 and advanced to the Round of 16 last year. Cigna, who works in wealth management, helped Michigan State win three Big 10 Conference titles. He turned pro after graduating from Michigan State, but regained his amateur status in 2012.

Guy Clauss, 16, Newport, Calif. & Brendan Gonzalez, 17, Orange, Calif.
Clauss and Gonzalez are both verbally committed to play their college golf at Loyola Marymount University in 2019. Gonzalez is playing in his second USGA Championship. He qualified for the 2016 U.S. Junior Amateur Championship, where he advanced to the Round of 64. His mother was diagnosed with Stage III Ewing Sarcoma cancer in 2008. Gonzalez, age seven at the time, found a safe haven in golf and started to teach himself the game. When his mother overcame it, Gonzalez decided golf was something he wanted to pursue. On May 9, Clauss was one of five golfers to advance from a U.S. Open local qualifier in Irvine, Calif. He will compete in a 36-hole U.S. Open sectional qualifier at The Olympic Club/Lake Merced in the San Francisco Bay Area on June 4.

Clark Collier, 28, of Dallas, Texas & Kyle Hudelson, 30, of Scottsdale, Ariz.
Collier and Hudelson were runners-up in the 2017 U.S. Amateur Four-Ball after getting a last-minute spot as alternates. Collier is currently a graduate student at Southern Methodist University studying geology. He was a member of the Oklahoma City golf team from 2008-2012, where he was part of two NAIA national championships. Hudelson graduated from another NAIA school, Oklahoma Christian University, in 2012. He is a property and casualty insurance broker who plays the piano and guitar. He has competed in five USGA Championships, including the 2010 U.S. Junior Amateur, where he advanced to the Round of 16 after defeating future U.S. Amateur champion Bryson DeChambeau.

Micah Dean, 34, of Loveland, Ohio & Alex Rodger, 39, of Cincinnati, Ohio
Playing in his second USGA championship, Dean is a virtual medicine program manager at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital. Rodger and his identical twin, Bobby, played golf at Pepperdine University. An attorney, he is playing in his third USGA championship. This is the side’s second U.S. Amateur Four-Ball appearance after reaching the Round of 32 last year.

Jeff Fujimoto, 44, of Phoenix, Ariz. & Patrick Moore, 35, of Phoenix, Ariz.
Fujimoto, a sports agent, and Moore, an insurance salesman, missed the cut in the last two U.S. Amateur Four-Ball Championships. In the 2016 championship, Moore aced the sixth hole on Winged Foot Golf Club’s East Course during the second round of stroke play. Moore finished the 2013 Ironman Arizona in under 11½ hours and is the grandson of Col. Ricard Moore, a United States Air Force pilot who flew several missions in Vietnam and was buried in Arlington National Cemetery in 2015 with full military honors.

Scott Harvey, 39, of Kernersville, N.C. & Todd Mitchell, 39, of Bloomington, Ill.
Harvey and Mitchell are one of three sides to have competed in all four U.S. Amateur Four-Ball Championships. Harvey, the 2014 U.S. Mid-Amateur champion and member of the 2015 USA Walker Cup Team, is competing in his 27th USGA championship. A property manager, Harvey, who qualified for last year’s U.S. Open at Erin Hills, also was the runner-up to Stewart Hagestad in the 2016 U.S. Mid-Amateur. With Mitchell, the side advanced to the semifinals in the inaugural U.S. Amateur Four-Ball and the quarterfinals last year. Mitchell, a former shortstop at Illinois State, was selected in the 14 th round of the 1999 Major League Baseball Draft by the New York Yankees and briefly played in the organization’s minor-league system before retiring. Now in the insurance industry, Mitchell was the runner-up to Steve Wilson in the 2008 U.S. Mid-Amateur and advanced to the Round of 16 at the 2015 U.S. Amateur.

Cameron Hooper, 30, of Atlanta, Ga. & David Noll Jr., 46, of Dalton, Ga.
Hooper, the 2013 Georgia Mid-Amateur champion and Player of the Year, was college roommates with 2016 U.S. Open champion Dustin Johnson at Coastal Carolina University. Noll, a nine-time Georgia State Golf Association Player of the Year, won the Georgia Amateur in 2003 and 2011 and the Georgia Mid-Amateur in 2007, 2012 and 2014. The side qualified for the 2015 U.S. Amateur Four-Ball, but Noll injured his hand in an accident the week before the championship, forcing Hooper to play by himself in the inaugural team event in which he missed the cut by 9 strokes. Last year the duo missed the cut at Pinehurst.

Sean Knapp, 56, Oakmont, Pa. & Rick Stimmel, 50, Pittsburgh, Pa.
Knapp is the reigning U.S. Senior Amateur champion, winning last August at The Minikhada Club in Minneapolis. This will be Knapp’s 44th USGA championship, having played in 14 U.S. Amateurs and 16 U.S. Mid-Amateurs. In 1995, he reached the Round of 16 of the U.S. Amateur, where he lost to eventual champion Tiger Woods 2 and 1. He is a 14-time Western Pennsylvania Golf Association Player of the Year and won the Pennsylvania State Amateur Championship in 1997. Stimmel, the runner-up in the 1997 U.S. Mid-Amateur, is playing in his 12th USGA championship. He was also the 1996 Pennsylvania State amateur champion.

Michael Lewis-Goldman, 26, New York, N.Y. & Thomas McCarthy, 29, New York, N.Y.
Former college teammates at Yale, Lewis-Goldman and McCarthy are competing in their second consecutive U.S. Amateur Four-Ball Championship. McCarthy, an investment banker, competed in the 2009 U.S. Amateur Public Links Championship and the 2010 U.S. Amateur Championship. While at Yale, he helped to lead the Bulldogs to an Ivy League title in 2011. McCarthy was the Ivy League’s Player of the Year in 2010, and a three-time all-Ivy League selection.

Clark Rustand, 38, Tucson, Ariz. & Eric Rustand, 49, Tucson, Ariz.
The brothers played together in the 2015 U.S. Amateur Four-Ball, where they missed the cut. It is Clark’s second USGA Championship and Eric’s third. Eric competed in the 2006 U.S. Mid-Amateur, advancing to the Round of 64.  

Nathan Smith, 39, of Pittsburgh, Penn. & Todd White, 50, of Spartanburg, S.C.
Smith, a four-time U.S. Mid-Amateur champion, holds the record for match-play victories in that championship. He won the 2015 U.S. Amateur Four-Ball title with White. Smith, a three-time USA Walker Cup competitor (2009, 2011, 2013), works as an investment advisor. He has played in 41 USGA championships. In 2015, he was inducted into the Western Pennsylvania Golf Hall of Fame. White, a member of the winning 2013 USA Walker Cup Team who has qualified for 24 USGA championships, is a high school history teacher who qualified for the 1995 U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills Golf Club (site of this year’s event) during his years as a professional (regained amateur status in 2001). He also was the runner-up in last year’s Azalea Invitational at the Country Club of Charleston, site of next year’s U.S. Women’s Open.

Julia Pine is a manager of championship communications for the USGA. Email her at jpine@usga.org.