Ian Davis reaches match play at rainy U.S. Mid-Amateur Championship
Ian Davis of Edmond tied for 22nd in stroke play and made the cut into the field of 64 for match play at the weather-plagued U.S. Mid-Amateur Championship at Sleepy Hollow Country Club in Scarsdale, N.Y. Davis shot rounds of 69-71 to finish at 1-under for the 36 holes of stroke play.
An airhorn blast went off at exactly 8:46 a.m. EDT on Monday morning at Sleepy Hollow Country Club and stroke-play co-host Fenway Golf Club. For once this week, it wasn’t to stop play for weather, a common theme as multiple suspensions pushed the stroke-play portion of the competition into Monday, creating havoc with the schedule.
With the 22nd anniversary of one of the worst days in American history – the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon as well as the crash of United Flight 93 in rural western Pennsylvania – the USGA honored the thousands who lost their lives that day with a one-minute moment of silence. Airhorns were used to stop and restart play.
But it wouldn’t be the 2023 Mid-Am without a weather delay and one came at 4:04 p.m. and ended 131 minutes later. Only eight of the 32 opening-round matches managed to get onto the 6,809-yard, par-71 C.B. Macdonald design that was recently renovated by Gil Hanse. Play was suspended due to darkness at 7:04 p.m.
Davis, who won the Oklahoma State Amateur Championship in 2022, was to face Todd White of Spartanburg, S.C., at 9:30 CDT today in the first round of match play.
Three other Oklahomans did not make the cut. Harley Abrams of Tulsa and JR Hurley of Norman each shot 6 over and Patrick West of Tulsa shot 8 over. The cut came at 3-over.
Four players posted 4-under 137s, including Nate McCoy, 33, of Ankeny, Iowa, the son of 2013 champion and victorious 2023 USA Walker Cup captain Mike McCoy. The other three at that number were Sam Jones, 27, of New Zealand, Harry Bolton, 26, of Australia, and Blair Hamm, 32, of Birmingham, Ala.
The group at 3-under 138 included two-time U.S. Mid-Amateur champion Stewart Hagestad, 32, of Newport Beach, Calif., who completed his second round on Sunday; 2022 and 2023 Georgia Mid-Amateur champion Nate Gahman, 32, of Albany, Ga.; Brady Shivers, 36, of Lubbock, Texas; Jack Schultz, 33, of Milwaukee, Wis.; Chris Devlin, 48, of Hoover, Ala.; Jimmy Castles, 27, of Cupertino, Calif.; Derek Smith, 39, of Fayetteville, Ark.; Kevin Grady, 35, of Catonsville, Md.; and Andres Schonbaum, 32, of Argentina.
Esteve, competing in his eighth U.S. Mid-Amateur, followed up a first-round 67 at par-70, 6,578-yard Fenway Golf Club with a 3-under 68 at Sleepy Hollow.