U.S. Amateur Match Play – Peter Uihlein vs. Connor Arendell
Introducing guest contributor John Morris. I met Mr. Morris at the U.S. Amateur on Tuesday while he was caddying for Brian Whittle of Golden City, Missouri. John attended the U.S. Amateur today, Thursday, and followed the match play round of Peter Uihlein and Connor Arendell and was gracious enough to submit his synopsis of the match.
The afternoon match between OSU’s Peter Uihlein and Connor Arendell was a compelling battle from the first tee to the sudden end on the 17th green.
Uihlein shot out of the gates with a 3-up lead after 3 holes, thanks in part to an errant approach shot by Arendell on the first hole. Arendell followed that error up with two poor tee shots. His drive on number two found the water hazard to the left of the fairway and although Uihlein was wide right, Peter was able to win the hole with a bogey.
Arendell’s tee shot on the third again went left preventing him from having a shot at the green. Uihlein bombed his tee shot over the creek crossing the fairway near the green, hit the green with his approach, and two putted for par and a seemingly commanding lead.
Just when it looked like Uihlein would win the fifth hole, hitting the green in regulation after a marvelous approach from 180 yards out of the rough and over a giant tree with 9-iron, Arendell made a great shot of his own. Laying 3 and in the deep greenside bunker, Arendell holed out for birdie while Uihlein’s 30 foot birdie putt stopped just short of the cup.
Uihlein regained his 3-up lead when Arendell bogeyed the par 3 6th. Uihlein gave back a hole on number 9 with a double bogey when he was unable to recover from the deep rough behind the green.
So with a 2-up lead at the turn and playing well, Uihlein looked posed to cruise to an easy victory. It was anything but. The see-saw battle had just begun.
Arendell cut into the lead and was only 1-down heading to the par 5 13th. Uihlein won that hole only to bogey the par 3 14th and was clinging to a slim 1-up lead.
Uihlein again missed the fairway on the long par 4 16th and looked to be completely hemmed in by a grove of trees. When he hit his shot there was the loud smacking sound of the ball hit dead into a tree branch. Miraculously the ball lost 19 yards of distance but was not knocked off its intended line and landed in the middle of the fairway just short of the green.
After this ball off the tee, it looked like the match would go to all square and Uihlein’s early advantage would be back to nil. While Arendell two putted for a routine par, Uihlein was able to get up and down, holing a hard left-to-right breaking putt to salvage par and keep his 1-up lead.
Arendell hit driver off the 17th tee and put his ball squarely in the fairway a mere 50 yards from the green. But when his approach shot sailed over the back of the green and his third shot rolled back into the fairway, he conceded the match to Uihlein who never had to putt. The final score was 2 & 1 with Uihlein advancing to the quarterfinal match on Friday morning.
2 Comments on “U.S. Amateur Match Play – Peter Uihlein vs. Connor Arendell”
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Excellent story. I’m glad your site was covering the U.S. Amateur in detail with the highlights of an individual match an added bonus.
C.J. – Thanks so much for the compliment! If you have any local/regional events or coverage that you’d like to see, please let me know and I will do my best to provide it. Thanks for reading…