OAKMONT, Pa. (AP) — Mark Goetz was the medalist among the 64 qualifiers Wednesday in the U.S. Amateur at Oakmont and managed only four holes of the first round when the rain-delayed championship was suspended by darkness.
Ricky Castillo, a junior-to-be at Florida, was in the only one of the 16 scheduled matches to finish. Castillo didn’t lose a hole in a 5-and-4 victory over Donald Kay.
Goetz, who grew up about 40 miles from Oakmont and played his college golf at West Virginia, had a 64 at Longvue Club and a 68 at Oakmont to win medalist honors and earn the top seed. He won the second hole with a bogey and lost the par-5 fourth hole with a bogey in his match against David Nyfjall of Sweden.
Nyfjall won a 12-way playoff for the 64th and final spot of match play.
Sixteen other matches were not even scheduled to start until Thursday morning because of storms that wiped out so much of the qualifying round Tuesday.
Keita Najakima of Japan, the No. 1 amateur in the world ranking, was among seven of the top 10 in the world who failed to make it through 36-hole qualifying. That included Walker Cup teammates Pierceson Coody and Cole Hammer, both from Texas.
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