Australia’s run at the Western Amateur came to an abrupt halt today with all four remaining players eliminated by the match play cut.
On a strangely subdued day for the Aussie contingent at Knollwood Club, north of Chicago, each of Anthony Quayle, Brett Coletta, Harrison Endycott and Cameron John knew they could ill afford too many errors with a cut to the top 16 looming after a 36-hole day.
But each of them made at least one double-bogey – or worse – to fall off the pace that eventually made even par the figure that proved elusive.
Coletta, who began the day at one over, suffered a double on the sixth hole, but fought all the way back to sit in red figures overall before another double on the last consigned him to a level-par 71 in his third round.
But when the Victorian suffered another on the second in his fourth round, the damage was done. The national squad member fought valiantly until two late bogeys sealed his fate at three over after a 73.
Quayle, who began the day square, simply made too many bogeys in his third-round 75. He boarded the birdie bus in round four, but a double on the 12th snuffed out his faint hope, signing for a 70 and finishing alongside Coletta in T24.
The previously hot Endycott had two early birdies in round three to reach one over, but four subsequent bogeys meant a 75 and trouble. That was underscored with a quadruple bogey eight on the first hole in the afternoon session and book-ended by another double on the last for a 77 and nine over in total.
John came out cold with four bogeys in his opening six holes, then compounded that with a triple-bogey on the par-three seventh in a disappointing morning 78 before another uncharacteristically flat afternoon 75 to finish at 14 over.
The medal was won by Englishman Sam Horsfield, whose remarkable 15-under four-round total has only been bettered once in the tournament’s storied history – by four shots by Sydneysider Aron Price in 2004.