A score of 5 under wasn’t enough for the Texas twosome to advance in South Carolina.
The most high-profile pairing in U.S. Amateur Four-Ball history is heading home early.
Former Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo, now the lead NFL analyst for CBS, and his partner, 6-foot-10 University of Texas freshman Tommy Morrison, failed to qualify for match play after the duo finished three shots outside the 8-under cut.
Romo and Morrison were in prime position to advance at the 2023 U.S. Amateur Four-Ball Championship at Kiawah Island Club after a 4-under 67 at Cassique on Saturday, but a 1-under 70 on Sunday at the River Course wasn’t enough.
“It was great,” said Romo after his first USGA championship experience. “The USGA put on an incredible tournament. The course setup was amazing and just the way they go about the process, it’s just a special championship to be part of. It was rewarding.”
“This week was a great way for us to extend our friendship. I think we got closer after this week,” added Morrison. “Four-ball is a perfect format for that. We had a lot of fun, and I look forward to more events with Tony.”
Tony Romo smiles as he walks down the third hole fairway during the first round of the 2023 U.S. Amateur Four-Ball at Kiawah Island Club (Cassique) in Kiawah Island, S.C. on Saturday, May 20, 2023. (Chris Keane/USGA)
Tony and Tommy met at a golf club when the Morrisons moved to the Dallas-Fort Worth area back in 2019. The pair connected and started playing golf together and immediately hit it off. Over the years the two athletes have grown to cherish their unique relationship.
“I think ever since we met, I don’t want to speak for Tony, but I think we got off to a good start and became friends quickly,” said Morrison. “I mean, only age difference is I probably have to warm up my body a little bit less than he does.”
The 25-year age gap between Romo (43) and Morrison (18) was tied for the fourth largest gap in the field.
Morrison now heads to Arizona for the NCAA Div. I Men’s Golf Championship, which begins on Friday at Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale, while Romo will go back to his offseason from calling NFL games for CBS.
The U.S. Amateur Four-Ball Championship and U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball were played for the first time in 2015 and were the first additions to the USGA competition roster since the U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur was added in 1987.
Ten teams were in a playoff for the final two spots in match play at this year’s Four-Ball, and after the Monday morning playoff the first round of match play will begin, followed by the second and quarterfinal rounds on May 23. The semifinal matches will be played the morning of May 24, with the championship match slated for later that afternoon. Sampsonyunhe Zheng and Aaron Du claimed a share of stroke-play medalist honors with 2022 semifinalists Carter Loflin and Wells Williams.
Everything you need to know for the 2023 U.S. Amateur Four-Ball Championship.
Most golf fans have their attention on the PGA Championship at Oak Hill in Rochester, New York this weekend, but don’t forget about the amateur championship being held down in South Carolina.
The USGA is hosting the 8th U.S. Amateur Four-Ball Championship, May 20-24, at Kiawah Island Club, where a field of 128 teams (256 players) will tee it up for 36 holes of stroke play May 20-21 before a cut to the low 32 teams is made. There will then be five rounds of match play with the first round on May 22 and the second and quarterfinal rounds on May 23. The semifinal matches will be played the morning of May 24, with the championship match slated for later that afternoon.
The U.S. Amateur Four-Ball Championship and U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball were played for the first time in 2015 and were the first additions to the USGA competition roster since the U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur was added in 1987.
Get to know more about the field below, which includes a former NFL quarterback and a rising college star, a team of former college All-Americans, a current NHL referee and former goaltender, an Olympic swimmer and more.
The duo combined to shoot a best-ball score of 9-under-par 63 at Winter Creek Golf Club in Blanchard, Okla.
Former Dallas Cowboys quarterback and current CBS NFL analyst Tony Romo teamed with Tommy Morrison, a 17-year-old University of Texas commit, to qualify for the 2023 U.S. Amateur Four-Ball Championship slated for May 20-24 at Kiawah Island Club.
The duo combined to shoot a best-ball score of 9-under-par 63 at Winter Creek Golf Club in Blanchard, Oklahoma, on Monday to tie for medalist honors and earned one of two qualifying spots.
Romo, 42, shot 66 on his own ball with eight birdies (five of which were used for the team score) while Morrison, a 6-10 high school senior from Frisco, Texas, shot a 72 with a pair of birdies.
Romo has been an active competitive golfer since he retired from the NFL in 2016, playing in numerous PGA and Korn Ferry Tour events through sponsor exemptions. He advanced to the 2010 U.S. Open sectional qualifying at Carton Woods Golf Club in The Woodlands, Texas, and qualified for PGA Tour Qualifying School’s first stage in 2018. He is a three-time winner of the American Century Celebrity Championship.
Tony Romo fired a 66 (-6) today at Winter Creek in Blanchard to qualify for the USGA 4-Ball with his partner Tommy Morrison, a Texas golf commit.
A pair of teens take the No. 1 seed into match play at the U.S. Amateur Four-Ball, but there’s plenty of experience on the bracket, too.
The U.S. Amateur Four-Ball owns a short history as one of the newest U.S. Golf Association championships. The tournament has only been played since 2015 (minus 2020, when – like many USGA championships – the Four-Ball was canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic), but this year has been one for the books.
In the previous five iterations of the championship, a combined 19 sides managed to post 36-hole totals of 10 under or better in stroke play. Over the weekend at host site Chambers Bay in University Place, Washington (and stroke-play co-host the Home Course), 20 sides produced such scores.
At the top of that list, and with the No. 1 seed now that stroke play is set to begin, are two teenagers: David Ford and Kelly Chinn. They are the Nos. 1- and 3-ranked players in the Golfweek Junior Rankings, respectively, and Chinn is the reigning AJGA Rolex Player of the Year. The two combined for rounds of 62-65 for medalist honors.
“I know David and I were trying to go as low as possible,” said Chinn, who is headed to Duke University in the fall, while his partner will enroll at Atlantic Coast Conference in-state rival North Carolina. “To shoot [that low of a score] for 36 holes is awesome.”
The cut was made on Sunday evening to the top 32 sides that will advance to match play – or at least, it was almost made. Eleven sides returned to Chambers Bay first thing Monday morning to play off for the final six spots on the bracket.
So far, both youth – like Chinn and Ford – and experience – like defending champions from 2019 Scott Harvey and Todd Mitchell (who finished T3 at 14 under) – are represented.
In the youth category, don’t overlook Luke Potter, who won the Maridoe Amateur last winter, and Preston Summerhays, the 2019 U.S. Junior Amateur championship, who combined to take the No. 5 seed.
Teens Carter Loflin and Wells Williams as well as Maxwell Ford (David Ford’s twin brother) and Bruce Murphy also advanced.
The bracket will also include current collegians and 2017 champs Frankie Capan (Florida Gulf Coast) and Shuai Ming Wong (SMU) plus inaugural Four-Ball champs Nathan Smith and Todd White – both of whom have taken turns on the U.S. Walker Cup squad.
Alex Higgs left his partner to go it alone at the U.S. Amateur Four-Ball while he caddies for brother Harry Higgs at the PGA Championship.
KIAWAH ISLAND, S.C. – Max Homa’s caddie Joe Greiner wasn’t the only PGA Tour looper to qualify for the U.S. Amateur Four-Ball Championship at Chambers Bay. So did Alex Higgs, sidekick for his brother Harry Higgs, who made birdie on the final two holes at The Ocean Course at Kiawah Island Resort on Friday to comfortably make the 36-hole cut with his 1-under 143.
That means Alex Higgs’s partner, Park Ulrich, a financial advisor and the 2020 Kansas Amateur champion, is going to have to play solo on Saturday in the two-man team event when 36-hole stroke-play qualifying gets underway.
“We love you, Park, and hopefully you play your tail off and qualify for match play so then we can get Al all the way across the country to play some matches on Monday,” Harry Higgs said.
While Greiner was given the week off by his boss, Alex Higgs opted to work for his brother and booked a Friday night flight to Seattle, where the championship is being held, that was scheduled to depart at 6:45 p.m., just in case his brother failed to make cut.
“Made it a while ago, and I think I told him about it in some way, shape or form,” Alex Higgs said. “The wave that we got obviously kind of made that tough with all the traffic getting back to the airport, and obviously it’s not exactly close to here in Seattle. But it was a win-win going into the week for me.”
Harry Higgs and brother Alex Riggs talk to the media on Friday at the PGA Championship. (Golfweek photo)
Alex has been on the bag for his big brother the last few years and Harry gave an example of how helpful it is to have his brother around this week.
“He did a good job on 13,” Harry said. “He said, ‘Harry, I think you should tee your driver up high and hit it as hard as you can over that bunker.’ He kind of knows, that’s why he is great for me.”
On the treacherous water-laden 17th, Alex stepped in and told his brother, “if you hit this ball in the bunkers, I’ll make you a cocktail tonight, because anything left there is fine.” Harry followed directions, keeping it dry to the left and made it from off the green from 59 feet for birdie. That earned Harry a Tito’s and water. And Alex should make it a double given that his brother rolled in a 64-foot birdie on 18 for good measure.
Asked how he felt about missing out on the competition, Alex said, “I love Park to death, but I think I probably would have picked this outcome over the other one. We can always qualify next year.”
Andrew Von Lossow made a hole-in-one before U.S. Amateur Four-Ball qualifying. Then he made another on, on the same hole, the next day.
Andrew Von Lossow grew up in a golf shop. His dad ran Von’s Golf and Putter Studio in Seattle until retiring three years ago. It’s the kind of golf-immersed upbringing that brings a man like Von Lossow, 32, to operate an Instagram revolving entirely around lead tape (see: @leadtapechronicles).
“I’ve been around the game my whole life,” he said.
Given that, there remained a surprising pair of boxes unchecked for Von Lossow, who currently plays to a plus-3 handicap. He took care of one this week in the most memorable of ways: Von Lossow holed his first ace in the practice round for his U.S. Amateur Four-Ball qualifier on Oct. 6 then came back the next day and aced the exact same hole.
Von Lossow, who plays out of Indian Canyon, a public course in his hometown of Spokane, Washington, had only ever made a hole-in-one on an executive-length course.
On Oct. 5, he played a practice round for the following day’s U.S. Amateur Four-Ball qualifier at Wine Valley Golf Club in Walla Walla, Washington. He stood on the tee and watched his friend run his tee shot seemingly right past the pin on the 163-yard hole.
“I get up there right after him, I hit an 8-iron from 163, kind of a flighted shot, a little lower, a little breeze, not much,” Von Lossow said. “It lands 20 feet short and left of the hole. It took two hops, took the ridge, had pretty good speed and the hole just gobbled it up.
Andrew Von Lossow after making his hole-in-one in the U.S. Amateur Four-Ball qualifier.
“We were going nuts. I threw my hat in the air.”
That was just before 5 p.m. The next day, Von Lossow was in the first group off at 8 a.m. with his partner Alex Simcox and reached the 14th hole just before noon. The other players in his group had heard about his good fortune the day before.
This time, the 14th was playing 157 yards, to a pin on the far right quadrant of the green. Von Lossow flushed a 9-iron with a two-yard cut that took one bounce, checked up and started rolling toward the hole.
Then it disappeared. Again.
“Instead of the hat throw, I did the club drop and just put my arms out to the side,” Von Lossow said. “Then it hit me, that went in again.”
After the first hole-in-in one, the post-round celebration was somewhat tame, Von Lossow said, because a spot in the USGA championship was still on the line. On the day of the qualifier, Von Lossow admitted he didn’t know too many people in the field with whom to celebrate.
“It might be a two-part series,” he said.
The par-3 14th at Wine Valley.
The only bit of bad news was that despite the hole-in-one, Von Lossow and Simcox still failed to qualify for the Four-Ball. They tied for seventh and missed advancing by three shots.
Von Lossow remains without a USGA start on his resume (he’ll keep trying), but there have been plenty of Pacific Northwest golf events. He finished 15th in the Washington State Amateur this summer and after his Four-Ball qualifier this week, immediately teed it up in the PNW Pacific Golf & Turf Pro Amateur.
Von Lossow has worked as a caddie and now is making use of a graphic design degree to start his own apparel company called Glen Cove Trading Company.
The elder Von Lossow mostly does hickory club repair since closing the golf shop a few years ago. Father and son played the World Hickory Open in Scotland in 2018.
If there’s something golfy, chances are Von Lossow has done it.
“In amateur golf, they are the majors,” says Todd Eckstein, who had qualified for the Four-Ball, his first USGA Championship.
Todd Eckstein was, appropriately, on the golf course on March 17 when he heard this year’s U.S. Amateur Four-Ball would be canceled. The message came through the Virginia Tech men’s golf team chat and ended with a crying face emoji. As another player read it aloud, Eckstein was just about to step into his shot.
“I don’t think I’d hit that bad of a golf shot in 2020 to this point,” Eckstein, the Hokies assistant men’s golf coach, said later. He immediately started trying to reach his Four-Ball partner, former Davidson teammate Sam Echikson.
The Four-Ball would have been Eckstein’s (but not Echikson’s) USGA debut after many unsuccessful attempts (three U.S. Junior qualifiers, four U.S. Amateur qualifiers, three U.S. Open local qualifiers) to reach a level that many consider the pinnacle of amateur golf.
At 27, Eckstein is beginning to understand how limited these opportunities are. The stars must align on many fronts, from having your best game on the right day to simple geography. He looks at next year’s U.S. Amateur Four-Ball in Washington state and knows it would be tough to get there.
“It’s still what I would consider the apex of my playing career, especially getting to qualify with one of my best friends,” he said. “I think that’s what a lot of people view a USGA championship as, it’s an apex of some sort, whether it’s your junior or amateur career. In amateur golf, they are the majors.”
The U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball, scheduled for April 25-29 at Quail Creek Country Club in Naples, Florida, and the U.S. Amateur Four-Ball to be played May 23-27 at Philadelphia (Pennsylvania) Cricket Club, were the first USGA events to be affected by the coronavirus pandemic.
The U.S. Open and U.S. Women’s Open took an indirect hit the same day with the cancellation of local qualifying, but both of those events have been moved back on the calendar, to September and December, respectively. The U.S. Senior Open and U.S. Senior Women’s Open were canceled on April 6.
The USGA refunded Four-Ball qualifiers their entire entry fee but didn’t exempt them into the 2021 events. John Bodenhamer, the USGA’s senior managing director of championships, said the option was discussed and after much deliberation, decided against.
“We have 12 additional championships that could also be faced with similar circumstances and the prospects of carrying some or all of them over into the following year was not an option,” Bodenhamer told Golfweek by email. “Further, by carrying over a field for a championship into the following year, it eliminates the opportunity for thousands of other players to attempt to qualify for the 2021 championships and after much deliberation, we decided against doing so.”
Asked about exempting first-time USGA qualifiers, like Eckstein, into the 2021 event, Bodenhamer indicated that a similar discussion took place.
“In the end, we felt it best not to make the determination that playing in a first USGA championship is more special than a second or a fifth or a tenth,” he wrote. “In talking to players, it is apparent that every opportunity to play in a USGA championship, at any level, is special.”
The first conversation Eckstein and Echikson had was one of “disappointment followed by a little spike of hope and then getting disappointed again.”
Soon after, Eckstein’s sister Anna, a nursing student at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston, brought him back to life. She is currently a home-care provider but had signed up to go to work at the MUSC hospital. “When you’re called, you go,” she reasoned.
“If the worst thing that happened to me is a golf tournament got canceled, then I should be pretty thankful,” Eckstein said.
No championship like it
Scott Harvey’s heart goes out to the players whose first USGA championship experience will be undeniably unforgettable but for a different reason than his was. Harvey, who teamed with Todd Mitchell to win last year’s Four-Ball, qualified for the 2007 U.S. Amateur on his first attempt at USGA qualifying. He was 29.
“It’s kind of sad when you have a lot of people that have qualified for their first USGA event being the Four-Ball and they’re not going to get to play,” he said.
Harvey is a two-time USGA champion, having also won the 2014 U.S. Mid-Amateur. As a multiple-time USGA champion, Harvey’s voice resonates. In the aftermath of the cancellation, he also reached out to the USGA seeking clarification on the decision not to exempt the 2020 field into the 2021 event.
Scott Harvey, left, with partner Todd Mitchell after they won their semifinal match at the 2019 U.S. Amateur Four-Ball at Bandon Dunes (Oregon) Golf Resort. (Photo: USGA/Steve Gibbons)
Harvey thinks back to last year’s Four-Ball “all the time.” Team golf has a completely different feel because you share every aspect with your partner. Harvey loves it so much he helped create this year’s inaugural East West Matches, a Ryder Cup-style event for U.S. mid-amateurs to be played Nov. 5-8 at Maridoe Golf Club in Carrollton, Texas.
“We had a blast,” Harvey said of the 2019 Four-Ball. “We’ve always had a blast in all of them, but we’ve only won this last one. We had fun and then we lost in years past, it’s a quick ending to a really fun week. That one just never ended.”
In fact, Harvey said chuckling, the USGA still hasn’t asked for the trophy back.
The U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball was the event that made Ellen Secor a USGA champion. The Oklahoma senior (a transfer from Colorado State) won with former teammate Katrina Prendergast in 2018. It’s among Secor’s favorite golf memories.
“It’s probably one of the proudest moments of my career,” she said. “Being a USGA champion is something every golfer wants to achieve, professional or being an amateur.”
The 2018 Four-Ball was Secor’s sixth USGA start. As past champions, she and Prendergast would have been exempt into this year’s event had Prendergast not already turned professional. Secor elected not to try qualifying with another partner considering the event runs up against the college postseason.
Haley Greb was back at school watching on TV when Secor and Prendergast, former Colorado State teammates, won their title. She had made her first USGA start that week alongside teammate Jessica Sloot but missed match play.
Greb has since transferred to the University of Tulsa. This past August, her entire team – including coach Annie Young, the 2002 U.S. Amateur Public Links champion – paired off and entered a qualifier at Tulsa Country Club. Greb and Lorena Tseng won the sole qualifying spot with a round of 62, and Greb laughs remembering that as she left the course to go to class, Young and her partner were engaged in an epic playoff with two other team members for the first alternate spot.
Greb is ready to do it all a gain.
“We did really well in the qualifier and we were pretty hyped about it that if we need to go and do that again … we’re going to do whatever we need to do to make sure we earn the spot for the following year,” she said. “It would have been pretty great to have a guaranteed opportunity, but we’re going to go out and earn it either way.”
Perhaps the third time, it will happen
When the Four-Balls were canceled, it left the Women’s Four-Ball host club in a peculiar position. Quail Creek Country Club in Naples, Florida, had also been awarded the 2017 U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur but was unable to host the event after Hurricane Irma swept through the area weeks earlier and left the course unplayable.
Quail Creek now finds itself in the unique position of being 0 for 2 in its USGA hosting duties. Director of Golf Jon Balyeat arrived at Quail Creek at the end of 2017 by way of Sycamore Hills Golf Club in Fort Wayne, Indiana. In fact, he was sitting in the airport awaiting a flight south to interview at Quail Creek as Hurricane Irma was bearing down.
The championship banners have been up for six months now at Quail Creek, and will fly until the end of April, which would have been the week of the Four-Ball. That the USGA awarded Quail Creek this second championship indicates it will be awarded a third.
“A lot of those (championship committee members) were involved in the committee process for the 2017 Mid-Am,” he said of the Four-Ball prep effort. “It was just a very difficult and disappointing conversation to have with them. Eighteen months of preparation for this event as well as roughly the same time in 2017.”
Balyeat remembers well the 2013 U.S. Girls’ Junior hosted at Sycamore Hills – one of two USGA events the club hosted. He particularly enjoyed seeing the caliber of players qualified for the championships and having the chance to interact with them.
“For me, I know what it is like to host at your facility and what that can mean. For me as a golf professional, it’s about hosting the championship to showcase your facility and give back to amateur golf,” Balyeat said. “I think that was the message and the understanding that the majority of our members had. Without the USGA, without the amateur players, facilities like ours would not exist.”
Balyeat played collegiate golf at Indiana University and Purdue University – Fort Wayne. He figures he’s entered a USGA qualifier, whether for an amateur event or the U.S. Open, 19 of the past 20 years. For now, however, his sights are firmly set on seeing a USGA championship host gig through – provided Mother Nature will step aside.
“I’m hopeful that that day will come, regardless of whether it’s 50 years down the road and I’m gone or if it’s in the next three to five to 10 years.”
The USGA has taken its first two events off the competition calendar in wake of the coronavirus.
The start of the USGA’s competition calendar is still more than a month away. But as the first scheduled event, the U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball, draws closer, the organization has joined nearly every other major golf association in reacting to the coronavirus threat.
On Tuesday, the USGA announced it would cancel the Women’s Amateur Four-Ball, scheduled for April 25-29 at Quail Creek Country Club in Naples, Florida, in addition to the U.S. Amateur Four-Ball, scheduled for May 23-27 at Philadelphia (Pennsylvania) Cricket Club.
Neither event will be rescheduled in 2020.
In addition to those events coming off the calendar, the USGA also announced changes to its qualifying structure for the U.S. Open and U.S. Women’s Open. Local (or first stage) qualifying in its current form has been canceled. The USGA has said it will now look to redesign the qualifying process going forward as events unfold.
“We will continue to hold the dates for the 2020 U.S. Women’s Open at Champions Golf Club and the 2020 U.S. Open at Winged Foot Golf Club,” the USGA said in its announcement.
The USGA acknowledged that it was too early to speculate what might happen regarding the remaining championships on the schedule, but that it is working with the CDC, WHO and other federal, state and local authorities to be prepared.
