Australia's run at the US Amateur matchplay has finshed, despite having high hopes in its three top-ten seeds.
Ryan Ruffels and Maverick Antcliff today joined medallist Brett Coletta on the sidelines after being eliminated in the Round of 32 at Olympia Fields Country Club near Chicago.
World No. 9 Ryan Ruffels failed to recover from a poor start falling 3&2 to 37-year-old local Todd Mitchell, while Maverick Antcliff lost 5&4 to his namesake, Maverick McNealy.
Ruffels may have played true to his ranking when he defeated World No. 12 Beau Hossler in the Round of 64, but Mitchell, the World No. 2528, wasn’t going to allow his match to be played on paper.
Three early bogeys hurt Ruffels and the Victorian found himself four down through six holes.
Ruffels steadied with six straight pars, and a birdie on the par-four 13th reduced the deficit to three with five to play.
When Mitchell bogeyed the 14th a comeback seemed on the cards with Ruffels within two and seemingly grabbing the momentum.
But Mitchell, of Illinois, did well to handle the pressure applied by an opponent 20 years his junior, making par on 15 and 16 to finish Ruffels' US Amateur hopes.
As Ruffels walked off the 16th green, Australia’s focus turned to Queenslander Antcliff, who was already four down at the turn to World No. 2 McNealy.
Like Ruffels, Antcliff started on the back foot with a bogey on the opening hole to go one down.
Antcliff momentairily squared the ledger with a birdie on the second, but bogeys on three, five and nine, and birdie to McNealy on the sixth, saw the American take the ascendency.
McNealey was no easy draw for Antcliff in the Round of 32, with the highest ranked American showing his potential last month by making two cuts on the PGA Tour at the Greenbrier and Barbasol Championship.
The US Amateur will now build to its Sunday climax without any Australian involvement, but the trio of Ruffels, Antcliff and medalist Brett Coletta can take pride in their outstanding strokeplay performance at the world’s biggest amateur event.