Half of Top 8 Seeds Will Make up Half of U.S. Senior Am Quarterfinals

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TRUCKEE, Calif. -- The top five seeds all made it through the first two rounds of match play at the U.S. Senior Amateur Championship, and four of the top seven got through to the quarterfinals. This is something that never happens. Except that it did on Tuesday.

Part of the explanation for how it happened is that the four quarterfinalists with the high seeds all have impressive credentials.

Todd White is 55 and playing in the Senior Am for the first time. He just went into the South Carolina Golf Hall of Fame, and not long after his induction, he won the South Carolina Match Play Championship. Not the Senior Match Play, but the regular Match Play, where he had to beat the college kids. He has now won the tournament four decades in a row. This is the 35th USGA event that White has played in, and he owns one title -- the 2015 U.S. Four-Ball, which he won with Nathan Smith. They became friends, and eventually teammates, after they played together on the 2013 U.S. Walker Cup team. 

In the stroke-play qualifying over the weekend, White put together a pair of 72s at the Martis Camp Club and captured medalist honors with the resulting 36-hole aggregate of 144. So he's the No. 1 seed. The Spartanburg High School history teacher had to win the 17th and 18th holes on Monday in the Round of 64 to eke out a 1-up victory over the No. 64 seed, Jerry Gunthorpe, and he needed 21 holes Tuesday morning to get past No. 32 Brent Paterson in the Round of 32. He won that one with a par on the 201-yard, par-3 third hole. White wasn't living quite so dangerously Tuesday afternoon, when he was 3 under par for 14 holes in a 5&4 conquest of No. 48 Ken Wade.

The No. 2 seed, Virginian Matt Sughrue, 63, was the runner-up in this tournament seven years ago. On Tuesday afternoon, he was 3 under for 17 holes, and he needed to play that well to get past No. 18 Ronnie Clark 2&1.

Roger Newsom, the No 5 seed, lost the 2019 Senior Am final to Bob Royak, the No. 7 seed. Newsom is a 59-year-old opthamologist from Virginia Beach who caddied occasionally for Curtis Strange in the mid-1970s, a decade and a half before Strange won two U.S. Opens. Strange won the Opens consecutively, and the year he won the first one, 1988, was also the year that he became the first PGA Tour player to win $1 million in a single season. 

Royak, 61, is a former New York State Junior champion who played college golf at the University of Tampa and has won both the Georgia state senior stroke-play and state senior match-play titles. He was the Georgia State Golf Associaton Senior Player of the Year in 2017. Of all the quarterfinalists, he's played the most golf this week -- 36 holes of qualifying (71-75--146), plus 54 holes in his three matches. He won his first match 1 up over the No. 58 seed, David Levan, then had to go 19 holes to beat No. 39 Chip Lutz, and he dismissed No. 23 Tom Lape 2&1 Tuesday afternoon in the Round of 16, the first time all week that he hasn't seen the 18th tee.

By comparison, Newsom has had a relatively easy time of it. He beat No. 60 Doug Banks 5&3 in his first match. In the Round of 32, he went 20 holes, and he needed a birdie at the 472-yard, par-4 18th hole just to extend the match. He won that one with a birdie at the 454-yard, par-4 second hole. But he needed only 15 holes once again on Tuesday afternoon in a 5&3 victrory over No. 21 seed Jeff Mallette. 

Mallette was the player who took out the lone Minnesota qualifier for the Senior Am -- Tim Peterson. Peterson, 59, was the 2021 MGA Senior Player of the Year, and he combined with the 2022 Senior Player of the Year, John Brellenthin, to win the State Senior Four-Ball last year. He made it through stroke-play qualifying at Martis Camp with a 152 (77-75) and was the No. 44 seed. But he started slowly in his first-round match against Mallette and ended up losing 4&2.

U.S. Senior Amateur

At Martis Camp Club

Par 72, 7,251 yards

Truckee, Calif. 

Stroke play

Final results

1. Todd White, Spartanburg, S.C.              72-72--144

T2. Randy Haag, Orinda, Calif.                 70-75--145

T2. Matt Sughrue, Arlington, Va.               71-74--145

T2. Steve Harwell, Mooresville, N.C.        72-73--145

T2. Roger Newsom, Virginia Beach, Va.   73-72--145

T6. Bob Royak, Alpharetta, Ga.                 71-75--146

T6. Joe Jaspers, Huntersville, N.C.           74-72--146

T6. Jon Brown, Adel, Iowa                         72-74--146

T9. Craig Davis, Chula Vista, Calif.            74-73--147

T9. Jack Larkin, Atlanta                              75-72--147

T38. Tim Peterson, Minneapolis              77-75--152

Missed cut 

John Husband, Ontario, Canada               80-81--161


Match play

Round of 64

No. 1 White def. No. 64 Jerry Gunthorpe 1 up

No. 2 Matt Sughrue def. No. 63 John Barry 3&2

No. 3 Steve Harwell def. No. 62 Paul Royak 1 up

No. 4 Randy Haag def. No. 61 Mark Sanchez 6&5

No. 5 Roger Newsom def. No. 60 Doug Banks 5&3

No. 59 Curtis Holck def. No. 6 Jon Brown 5&4

No. 7 Bob Royak def. No. 58 David Levan 1 up

No. 57 Pete Betzold def. No. 8 Joe Jaspers 4&2

No. 56 Mike Henry def. No. 9 Jack Larkin 1 up

No. 55 Dave Ryan def. No. 10 Craig Davis 1 up

No. 21 Jeff Mallette def. No. 44 Tim Peterson 4&2


Round of 32

No. 1 White def. No. 32 Brent Paterson 21 holes

No. 2 Sughrue def. No.34  Greg Sanders 1 up

No. 3  Steve Harwell def. No. 30 Craig Steinberg 2&1

No. 4 Haag def. No. 29 Doug Hanzel 4&3

No. 5 Roger Newsom def. No. 37 John Hornbeckl 20 holes

No. 59 Curtis Holck def. No. 27 Chris Fieger 2&1

No. 7 Bob Royak def. No. 39 Chip Lutz 19 holes

No. 40 James Sewell def. No. 57 Pete Betzold 3&1

No. 56 Mike Henry def. No. 24 Tim Hogarth 23 holes

No. 23 Tom Lape def. No. 55 Ryan 3&2

No. 21 Mallette def. No. 53 Mike Finster 3&2


Round of 16

No. 1 White def. No. 48 Ken Wade 5&4

No. 2 Sughrue def. No. 18 Ronnie Clark 2&1

No. 19 Jody Fanagan def. No. 3 Harwell 1 up

No. 45 Joe Palmer def. No. 4 Haag 1 up

No. 5 Newsom def. No. 21 Mallette 5&3

No. 59 Curtis Holck def. No. 43 James Volpenheim 2&1

No. 7 Royak def. No. 23 Tom Lape 2&1

No. 56 Mike Henry def. No. 40 James Sewel 6&5l