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Read and Know More About U.S. Amateur Four-Ball- For the last 3½ years, Northern Californians Bobby Bucey and Brett Viboch have found a perfect chemistry as four-ball partners. Two years ago, they qualified for the 2nd U.S. Amateur Four-Ball Championship at Winged Foot Golf Club and missed the match-play cut by a stroke. That same year, they broke a 51-year scoring record in winning the 54-hole Northern California Golf Association Four-Ball Championship at Spyglass Hill in Pebble Beach with a 21-under total of 195.
On Sunday, Bucey, 29, of Concord, and Viboch, 34, of Moraga, added another notch in their growing portfolio by earning medalist honors in the 4th U.S. Amateur Four-Ball Championship. The two California State University at Chico graduates carded a 7-under 63 on the Village Course for a 36-hole score of 11-under 129 to edge Illinois State University teammates Zach Burry and Trent Wallace by a stroke. “Bobby was a stallion today,” said Viboch. “It was very one-sided out there as far as getting the ball in the hole. I rode him.” Bucey, the 2014 NCGA Stroke Play and 2017 NCGA Mid-Amateur champion, converted all five of the side’s birdies on the outward nine, including four in a row from No. 6.
He drove the 282-yard sixth with a hybrid and two-putted, the last coming from 6 feet, and he followed with a gap-wedge approach to 14 feet on No. 7. His 9-iron second to the par-4 eighth spun off a ridge to a foot for a tap-in birdie and he closed the first nine with a 30-footer on the 160-yard par-3. “Honestly, I wasn’t thinking about where we were score-wise,” said Bucey. “I was just kind of in a zone for those four holes. Saw my target, saw the fairway and just swung it.” While the championship suffered through three weather suspensions on Saturday totaling 4 hours and 5 minutes, Mother Nature cooperated on Sunday, allowing the delayed first round of stroke play and all of the second round to be completed.
The day began with some light rain and gusty winds, but the precipitation dissipated by late morning. Junior standouts Cole Hammer, 18, of Houston, Texas, and Garrett Barber, 18, of Stuart, Fla., made a charge for medalist by shooting a championship-record 28 on the outward nine of the longer Hills Course before settling for a 6-under 64 and two-round score of 131, two strokes behind the medalists. Hammer, the highest ranked player in the field at No. 52 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking™ (WAGR), qualified for the 2015 U.S. Open and is headed to the University of Texas this fall, while Barber, No. 57 in the WAGR and headed to Louisiana State University, is the only golfer to have won the Jones Cup Junior and Jones Cup at Ocean Forest Golf Club in Sea Island, Ga. Wallace, 20, of Joliet, Ill., and Burry, 22, of Quincy, Ill., followed up their first-round 65 on the Hills Course with another 65 on the Village.
They birdied four of the first six holes – with a bogey on No. 3 – but could muster just two birdies over their final 12 holes. “The first [round] was a little better,” said Wallace, a rising senior who in 2017 became the first ISU golfer in 42 years – and just second-ever player from the Missouri Valley Conference – to qualify for the NCAA Championships as an individual. “I’d say the greens were a little slower. On the Village Course downwind,
it was tough to generate any spin, and so it made it a little more difficult.” Neither player has a lot of experience with match play. In fact, the two faced each other in the first round of last year’s Chicago District Golf Association Amateur at Briar Ridge Country Club in Schererville, Ind., with Burry, the No. 16 and final seed, beating top-seeded Wallace, 4 and 3. Barber and Hammer, high school seniors who are both inside the top 60 in the world amateur rankings, are beating up their competition so much, they are actually playing a match against each other as they advance to the semifinals.
They combined to birdie seven of the first eight holes Sunday, finishing third in stroke-play qualifying. Monday, they won four of their first five holes and ended their 7-and-6 victory on the 12th hole. The beating went on Tuesday. In their morning match, they won three of their first six holes – capped by a 50-foot eagle putt by Barber after driving the sixth green – to beat Sawin and Tug Maude 4-and-3. Barber and Hammer then defeated Zach Atkinson-Brad Gibson, 3-and-2, in the quarterfinals. They have combined to win 20 holes and lose only six. They’ve only trailed for two holes. Two more wins Wednesday, and The Kids will be USGA champions for the first time. “That would be awesome, especially at Jupiter Hills, so close to home,” said Barber, who graduates from The Pine School this weekend and will attend LSU.
“Being a USGA champion is something you always want to happen.” The way they have been dominating their competition, would they be disappointed if they don’t win? “You can’t expect to win,” Barber said. “The players are so good and they are playing well. We are playing well. All we can do is continue playing our game.” This isn’t Barber’s first significant moment. He was a medalist at a local U.S. Open qualifier when he was 15, beating a field that included several PGA Tour members. Last fall Barber made history by coming the first player to win the Jones Cup Junior and the Jones Cup at Sea Island, the latter earning him a spot in this year’s RSM Classic on the PGA Tour. He also helped lead the U.S. team to a Junior Presidents Cup win last year, making the clinching putt.
Barber and Hammer played as a team for the first time, leading to this week’s pairing. “I don’t think he’s trying to prove anything to anybody,” top instructor Martin Hall, a Stuart resident who has taught Barber since he was 5, said Tuesday by phone from England. “He’s just working on his craft. USGA events are part of that plan. So is the Walker Cup and hopefully, the PGA Tour.” Told that Barber and Hammer, who is from Houston and will attend Texas, were playing a match against each other in the USGA event (Hammer won Tuesday morning’s), Hall chuckled. “I can’t say that surprises me,” Hall said. Sawin, the director of golf at Pebble Beach, wasn’t offended by their opponents “match inside a match.” “I don’t have any problem with that,” Sawin said. “Whatever gets them going. I know Patrick Reed and Jordan Spieth do that in their matches.” It may be a little early to use Reed and Spieth in the same sentence as Barber and Hammer, a pair of 18-year-olds who can’t legally toast to their success for another 2 ½ years. But we will see the Barber-Hammer pairing again. And again. “Hopefully in a couple of Ryder Cups and Presidents Cups,” Barber said. Don’t laugh.
On Sunday, Bucey, 29, of Concord, and Viboch, 34, of Moraga, added another notch in their growing portfolio by earning medalist honors in the 4th U.S. Amateur Four-Ball Championship. The two California State University at Chico graduates carded a 7-under 63 on the Village Course for a 36-hole score of 11-under 129 to edge Illinois State University teammates Zach Burry and Trent Wallace by a stroke. “Bobby was a stallion today,” said Viboch. “It was very one-sided out there as far as getting the ball in the hole. I rode him.” Bucey, the 2014 NCGA Stroke Play and 2017 NCGA Mid-Amateur champion, converted all five of the side’s birdies on the outward nine, including four in a row from No. 6.
He drove the 282-yard sixth with a hybrid and two-putted, the last coming from 6 feet, and he followed with a gap-wedge approach to 14 feet on No. 7. His 9-iron second to the par-4 eighth spun off a ridge to a foot for a tap-in birdie and he closed the first nine with a 30-footer on the 160-yard par-3. “Honestly, I wasn’t thinking about where we were score-wise,” said Bucey. “I was just kind of in a zone for those four holes. Saw my target, saw the fairway and just swung it.” While the championship suffered through three weather suspensions on Saturday totaling 4 hours and 5 minutes, Mother Nature cooperated on Sunday, allowing the delayed first round of stroke play and all of the second round to be completed.
The day began with some light rain and gusty winds, but the precipitation dissipated by late morning. Junior standouts Cole Hammer, 18, of Houston, Texas, and Garrett Barber, 18, of Stuart, Fla., made a charge for medalist by shooting a championship-record 28 on the outward nine of the longer Hills Course before settling for a 6-under 64 and two-round score of 131, two strokes behind the medalists. Hammer, the highest ranked player in the field at No. 52 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking™ (WAGR), qualified for the 2015 U.S. Open and is headed to the University of Texas this fall, while Barber, No. 57 in the WAGR and headed to Louisiana State University, is the only golfer to have won the Jones Cup Junior and Jones Cup at Ocean Forest Golf Club in Sea Island, Ga. Wallace, 20, of Joliet, Ill., and Burry, 22, of Quincy, Ill., followed up their first-round 65 on the Hills Course with another 65 on the Village.
They birdied four of the first six holes – with a bogey on No. 3 – but could muster just two birdies over their final 12 holes. “The first [round] was a little better,” said Wallace, a rising senior who in 2017 became the first ISU golfer in 42 years – and just second-ever player from the Missouri Valley Conference – to qualify for the NCAA Championships as an individual. “I’d say the greens were a little slower. On the Village Course downwind,
it was tough to generate any spin, and so it made it a little more difficult.” Neither player has a lot of experience with match play. In fact, the two faced each other in the first round of last year’s Chicago District Golf Association Amateur at Briar Ridge Country Club in Schererville, Ind., with Burry, the No. 16 and final seed, beating top-seeded Wallace, 4 and 3. Barber and Hammer, high school seniors who are both inside the top 60 in the world amateur rankings, are beating up their competition so much, they are actually playing a match against each other as they advance to the semifinals.
They combined to birdie seven of the first eight holes Sunday, finishing third in stroke-play qualifying. Monday, they won four of their first five holes and ended their 7-and-6 victory on the 12th hole. The beating went on Tuesday. In their morning match, they won three of their first six holes – capped by a 50-foot eagle putt by Barber after driving the sixth green – to beat Sawin and Tug Maude 4-and-3. Barber and Hammer then defeated Zach Atkinson-Brad Gibson, 3-and-2, in the quarterfinals. They have combined to win 20 holes and lose only six. They’ve only trailed for two holes. Two more wins Wednesday, and The Kids will be USGA champions for the first time. “That would be awesome, especially at Jupiter Hills, so close to home,” said Barber, who graduates from The Pine School this weekend and will attend LSU.
“Being a USGA champion is something you always want to happen.” The way they have been dominating their competition, would they be disappointed if they don’t win? “You can’t expect to win,” Barber said. “The players are so good and they are playing well. We are playing well. All we can do is continue playing our game.” This isn’t Barber’s first significant moment. He was a medalist at a local U.S. Open qualifier when he was 15, beating a field that included several PGA Tour members. Last fall Barber made history by coming the first player to win the Jones Cup Junior and the Jones Cup at Sea Island, the latter earning him a spot in this year’s RSM Classic on the PGA Tour. He also helped lead the U.S. team to a Junior Presidents Cup win last year, making the clinching putt.
Barber and Hammer played as a team for the first time, leading to this week’s pairing. “I don’t think he’s trying to prove anything to anybody,” top instructor Martin Hall, a Stuart resident who has taught Barber since he was 5, said Tuesday by phone from England. “He’s just working on his craft. USGA events are part of that plan. So is the Walker Cup and hopefully, the PGA Tour.” Told that Barber and Hammer, who is from Houston and will attend Texas, were playing a match against each other in the USGA event (Hammer won Tuesday morning’s), Hall chuckled. “I can’t say that surprises me,” Hall said. Sawin, the director of golf at Pebble Beach, wasn’t offended by their opponents “match inside a match.” “I don’t have any problem with that,” Sawin said. “Whatever gets them going. I know Patrick Reed and Jordan Spieth do that in their matches.” It may be a little early to use Reed and Spieth in the same sentence as Barber and Hammer, a pair of 18-year-olds who can’t legally toast to their success for another 2 ½ years. But we will see the Barber-Hammer pairing again. And again. “Hopefully in a couple of Ryder Cups and Presidents Cups,” Barber said. Don’t laugh.
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