NCAA champion DeChambeau reaches US Amateur semifinals

OLYMPIA FIELDS, Ill. -- NCAA champion Bryson DeChambeau beat Ireland's Paul Dunne 3 and 2 on Friday at Olympia Fields to advance to the U.S. Amateur semifinals.

DeChambeau, the SMU player from Clovis, California, will face Southern California sophomore Sean Crocker of Westlake Village, California.

"I'm trying to keep the pedal to the metal and not letting my opponent have any opportunity to win a hole, and that's been my whole game plan this whole week going into match play," DeChambeau said. "I hope I can do that tomorrow."

In the other quarterfinals, Crocker beat Charleston Southern junior Austin James of Canada 2 up; Virginia junior Derek Bard of New Hartford, New York, rallied to beat Arizona State senior Jon Rahm of Spain 1 up; and Japan's Kenta Konishi edged Baylor transfer Matthew Perrine of Austin, Texas, 1 up.

DeChambeau won the par-4 11th and 13th with birdies to take a 3-up lead and halved the next three to end the match.

"He's an incredible player," DeChambeau said about Dunne. "Didn't have his `A' game. Luckily enough, I was able to capitalize on a couple of putts."

Dunne, coming off his senior season at UAB, tied for 30th in the British Open last month after sharing the 54-hole lead.

"Golf swing just wasn't there today," Dunne said. "I don't know what it was. ... I need a long range session to figure it out. So yeah, a little disappointing. Happy to only make one bogey. The way I was playing, I wasn't hitting it well. So managed to keep myself in it for a long time. Just Bryson had his game today. Five-under par is hard to keep up with on a U.S. Open golf course."

Three-down after 10 holes, Bard won Nos. 11 and 12 with birdies, took the 16th with a par, the 17th with a bogey and halved the 18th for the victory. Rahm is the top-ranked amateur in the world.

"Just kind of grinded away at him today," Bard said. "He had me early. I kept a positive outlook, stayed patient and it fell my way."

This article was from The Associated Press and was legally licensed through the NewsCred publisher network.