Through the first three rounds of match play at this year's U.S. Amateur, the relationship between Jimmy Abdo and the back nine at The Olympic Club's Lakeside Course could have been described as warm and fuzzy.
Abdo seemed to really like the back nine, and the back nine seemed to like him.
In his first match (the Round of 64), Abdo was 2 down with eight holes to play against high school hot shot -- and the University of Auburns' prize recruit -- Logan Reilly, the No. 4 seed. But Abdo, the No. 61 seed, birdied the 14th hole just to remain 2 down, then birdied the 15th, 16th and 17th holes, and secured a 1-up victory with a par at the 18th.
Abdo, who will be a sophomore at Gustavus Adolphus this fall, began his birdie binge a little bit earlier in his Round of 32 match against No. 29 seed Wolfgang Glawe, who plays for the 16-time NCAA champion University of Houston. Leading 1 up at the turn, Abdo played the first six holes on the back nine in 3 under, which was all he needed for a 4&3 victory.
So he was minus 6 for the inward half in match play at that point, and he was another 2 under on the back nine against Northwestern star Daniel Svard (No. 13). He needed to be that good just to escape with another 1-up victory.
Things changed on Friday, however. Abdo was 1 down in his quarterfinal match when he arrived at the 10th tee, a status he was used to and had been overcoming throughout the tournament. But the back nine at Lakeside didn't save him this time. It was the reverse, basically.
He went 4 over on the first five holes of the inward half, and went on from there to lose 4&2 to the No. 37 seed, Jackson Herrington, a former Tennessee Golf Association Junior Player of the Year who will start his sophomore year at the University of Tennessee in a couple of weeks.
It's not as if the holes on the back nine at Lakeside are easy. No. 10, which Abdo bogeyed Friday, is 436 yards. He also bogeyed the 467-yard, par-4 12th. But he had won the 443-yard 11th with a par, and even though he had zero birdies and was plus 5 for the day, he was still only 1 down with six holes to go.
The next two holes were the ones that did him in.
Herrington went 2 up with a birdie at the par-3 13th, and he went 3 up with a bogey at the 14th, thanks to a double-bogey 6 by Abdo.
It just wasn't Abdo's day, and things hadn't gone all that well for him on the front nine, either. Herrington was 2 up after he made pars on the first three holes, and 3 up after six. Just as he had done throughout the tournament, Abdo (the MIAC Rookie of the Year for 2024-25) battled back. He won the par-3 eighth and 449-yard, par-4 ninth with pars and was 1 down when he got to the 10th tee.
But the mastery of the back nine that he had displayed in the first three rounds of match play just wasn't there on Friday.
As for Herrington, he will play Niall Shiels Donegan, a transplanted Scot who lives in the San Francisco area, about a half hour from The Olympic Club. Donegan is the No. 49 seed, but he ambushed the medalist -- and No. 1 seed -- Preston Stout, 1 up in the Round of 32.
That victory drew a lot of fans to Donegan cause, and he made himself even more of a folk hero by following the upset of Stout with another cliff-hanger triumph on Friday, coming from 2 down with six holes left in regulation to beat Jacob Modleski (No. 56) on the 19th hole.
As popular as Donegan is with fans, there were two players in the field who were more popular -- John Daly II (No. 26) and Miles Russell (No. 3). But they both made their exits Friday, both losing 1 down.
Daly II is the son of John Daly, who was hitting 300-yard-plus drives three decades ago, before every golfer under the age of 30 started doing that, and he used his enormous power to win two major championships, the 1991 PGA and the '95 British Open.
Daly the Younger lost to Mason Howell, an 18-year-old who will be a freshman at Georgia. He was part of the 20-man playoff for the last 17 spots available in match play Wednesday morning (Abdo was in that playoff, too). Having survived the playoff, Howell is the No. 63 seed.
Russell, a 16-year-old lefty, is golf's hottest prospect since Tiger Woods. He has already played in a couple of Korn Ferry tournaments, where he made the cut (at 15, he became the youngest player ever to make a Korn Ferry cut in the spring of 2024), and a couple of PGA Tour events, where he missed the cuts.
He lost to Oklahoma State All-American Eric Lee, the No. 11 seed.
U.S. Amateur
At The Olympic Club -- Lakes Course
Par 70, 7,185 yards
San Francisco, Calif.
Stroke-play qualifying (top 64 advanced to match play)
1. Preston Stout 67-65--132
2. Tommy Morrison 66-67--134
3. Miles Russell 70-66--136
4. Logan Reilly 67-70--137
T5. Nate Smith 69-69--138
T5. Reed Greyserman 69-69--138
T5. Bryan Kim 70-68--138
T48. Jimmy Abdo 72-71--143
What it took -- 143 (20-man playoff for 17 spots)
Andrew Ramos 73-73--146
Matthew Armstrong 79--76--145
Nate Stevens 80-75--155
Match play
Round of 64 (seedings in parentheses)
(61) Abdo def. (4) Reilly 1 up
Round of 32
(61) Abdo def. (29) Wolfgang Glawe 4&3
Round of 16
(61) Abdo def. (13) Daniel Svard 1 up
(37) Jackson Herrington def. Caleb Bond 20 holes
(49) Niall Shiels Donegan def. (1) Preston Stout 1 up
(56) Jacob Modleski def. (57) Paul Chang 2 up
(63) Mason Howell def. Max Herendeen 2&1
(26) John Daly II def. Daniel Bennett 3&2
(3) Miles Russell def. (19) Mahanth Chirravuri 2&1
(11) Eric Lee def. (38) Josh Duangmanee 2 up
Quarterfinals
(37) Jackson Herrington def. (61) Abdo 4&2
(49) Donegan def. (56) Modelski 19 holes
(63) Howell def. (26) Daly II 1 up
(11) Lee def. (3) Russell 1 up