Upcoming Event: Track & Field versus NCAA Outdoor Championships on June 10, 2026
Track & Field
vs NCAA Outdoor Championships
%20(1).png&width=24&height=24&type=webp)
Blaum Finishes Tied For 24th To Reach Match Play At 105th U.S. Amateur
Duke’s Ryan Blaum carded a 76 at the Merion Golf Club on Tuesday and finished with a two-day total of 144 (+4) to reach the match play portion of the U.S. Amateur. The championship continues Wednesday with the first round of match play for the low 64 scorers. Blaum finished tied for 24th, while James Lepp claimed medalist honors. Blaum opens up match play on Wednesday at 9:50 a.m. against Tanner Ervin, who also fired a 144 during the two rounds of stroke play.
Blaum, coming off a two-under-par 68 at the Philadelphia Country Club on Monday, opened on the front side with back-to-back pars before carding a bogey on the 219-yard par-3 third hole. After pars on four and five, he dropped back to even-par for the tournament with a bogey on par-4 sixth. Blaum then parred the seventh, but dipped to one-over with a bogey on number eight. With a par on the 206-yard par-3 ninth, Blaum closed his front nine with a 39.
Blaum came out on the back nine and ripped off five straight pars, before collecting his only birdie of the day on the 411-yard, par-4 15th to get back to even-par for the tournament. After a par on 16, Blaum got in trouble on the 246-yard, par-3 17th hole and finished with a triple-bogey six. With a bogey on the 18th, he finished the back nine with a three-over 37. For the day, he had a six-over 76 on the challenging Merion course.
In a USGA amateur Championship, there are two days of stroke play qualifying to determine exactly the 64 players who will make it to match play. The “Match Play Tree” is then established - much like a tennis tournament or NCAA basketball - and players are seeded according to how they played during stroke play. The cut for match play came at 6-over-par 146, with 19 golfers in a playoff to determine the final 17 spots. The playoff will start at 7:30 a.m. Wednesday on the par 3 13th hole.
Match play is a competition played by holes rather than total strokes for the round. In USGA amateur Championships, two opponents play against each other and while there may be other players on the course, each group is its own match and has nothing to do with the rest of the field. The winners of each match keep advancing until there is only one player left. With 64 players, this occurs after 6 matches. The championship final match is scheduled for Sunday and will be televised by NBC (4-6 p.m. EDT).
