Cavalier fourth-year Amory Davis continued his stellar run at this year’s US Amateur, knocking off #1 seed Jeff Wilson 3&1 in the first round of match play Wednesday.
Davis began the day by winning the final match play spot in a 16-player- for-six-spot playoff with a birdie on the par-4 11th. He was at the course at 6:15am for the 7:15 playoff and his match was the last of 32 to finish, well after 7pm on the west coast.
Despite the long day, Davis played some of his best golf of the week, grabbing the lead on the seventh hole against Wilson, a five-time USGA medalist and never trailing after that. Shooting the equivalent of five under par with match play concessions, Davis said, "Jeff is a great player. If he had run into somebody who played pretty good golf today, he would have smoked him. But, I didn’t play pretty good golf". Bogeys by Wilson at 15 and 17 closed out the match for Davis.
In the second round of match play, Davis will face-off against former Memphis standout Brad Benjamin, the 2009 US Amateur Public Links Champion.
2011 UVa commit Denny McCarthy lost his first round match against Alex Ching, a Freshman All-American last year at San Diego. Ching was the equivalent of 6 under par through 17 holes, including two eagles on the front side in knocking out McCarthy.