John Daly II rallies to make match play in 2025 U.S. Amateur at Olympic Club
SAN FRANCISCO — Little John is moving on to match play.
John Daly II, the son of two-time major winner John Daly, rallied Tuesday at the 2025 U.S. Amateur, shooting 3-under 67 on the Ocean Course to get in the clubhouse at 1-over 141, which is inside the cut line. That means Daly is heading to match play at the biggest amateur championship in the world for the first time.
"I got off to — I mean, I missed the fairway on one, made a really good 10–15 footer, and then, I don't know, I just putted really well today," Daly said. "I just hit it in the right spots to miss. I feel like when I did hit bad tee balls, I was fine, and then I just putted insane."
His round featured five birdies to only two bogeys, and while his seed won't be set until the end of stroke play Tuesday night, he's likely to have a top-25 seed heading into match play.
Daly, playing in the more difficult wave and course Monday, opened in 74 on the Lake Course, but he was seven shots better Tuesday morning.
He got into the field thanks to his win in the Southern Amateur last month at Blessings Golf Club in Arkansas. Now he's one of 64 left duking it out for the Havemeyer Trophy.
Is Dad going to make it out for match play?
"I don't think so, no. I'm not sure. He might."
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Olympic's graveyard is D-3 product's proving ground at U.S. Amateur
SAN FRANCISCO – The Olympic Club has earned the nickname, 'The Graveyard of Champions,' for a reason. It all started with Jack Fleck, the improbable 1955 U.S. Open winner on the Lake Course after outlasting Ben Hogan in an 18-hole playoff, a day after the television broadcast signed off by declaring Hogan the champion, not considering that Fleck still had holes to play. Billy Casper followed in 1966, rallying from seven shots back of Arnold Palmer with nine holes remaining to claim his second U.S. Open. Lee Janzen, in 1998, also made up seven strokes on the final day as he beat Payne Stewart. There was Scott Simpson over Tom Watson late in 1987, and Yuka Saso ending Lexi Thompson's U.S. Women's Open dreams by erasing five shots down the stretch in 2021. This week at the 125th U.S. Amateur, there is no Fleck, but there is an Abdo. Meet Jimmy Abdo, the 19-year-old from Edina, Minnesota, and a rising sophomore at Division-III Gustavus Adolphus, though only because he sat in the transfer portal all summer, drawing no real interest from Division-I programs. He sits No. 4,292 in the world amateur rankings with just four counting events, and he isn't shy about the sizable chip that rests on his shoulder. 'I love proving people wrong,' Abdo said. 'I just have to keep telling myself that I belong.' Abdo birdied three of his last six holes on Tuesday on the adjacent Ocean Course just to get into a 20-for-17 playoff for match play. Two pars later and he was on to the knockout stage, where he knocked off Logan Reilly, the much-ballyhooed Auburn incomer, in the Round of 64 on Wednesday evening. Having just rattled off four straight birdies, Abdo left himself about 10 feet for par on the Lake's par-4 finishing hole. He then stepped up and confidently holed the lightning-fast putt before punctuating the 1-up victory with a thunderous fist pump. 'That's the kind of putt you dream of,' Abdo said. 'The biggest moment of my golf career for sure.' And it's only getting bigger. Abdo will face Houston grad Wolfgang Glawe in Thursday morning's Round of 32. Glawe produced an equally thrilling finish on the 18th green, finding the rough long and then whiffing on his first chip by sliding his wedge right under the ball, only to then regroup and hole his next chip for par and a 1-up victory over Ole Miss' Tom Fischer. There were some other cool moments on Wednesday: John Daly II, son of the two-time major champ, tied 17 holes with Louisville's Cooper Claycomb, with Daly's birdie on the par-4 11th hole marking the only hole won by either player. Medalist Preston Stout of Oklahoma State carded seven birdies in 15 holes to beat high-schooler Pennson Badgett, while world No. 1 Jackson Koivun didn't make birdie until the last hole of his 2-and-1 win over Illinois' Ryan Voois. Scotland's Niall Shiels Donegan, an adopted Bay Area product, arguably had the loudest gallery as members of both public Mill Valley and private Meadow Club made their way across the Golden Gate Bridge to watch the North Carolina transfer and Walker Cup hopeful drain an 8-footer at the last to defeat Florida's Luke Poulter. Two matches went extra holes, including Georgia commit Mason Howell's bout with sixth-ranked amateur Tommy Morrison, who led for 16 holes until Howell prevailed in 19 with a winning bogey on the par-4 first hole. And perhaps the craziest match was contested between Princeton's Reed Greyserman, the youngest brother of PGA Tour player Max Greyserman, and Texas Tech's Tim Wiedemeyer, who found himself 5 down after seven holes before winning five of his last six holes and closing out Greyserman on the par-5 17th. But when it comes to underdog stories, there isn't a longer shot left in this field than Abdo. Never even the best player on his teams at Edina High, Abdo signed with the Gusties and immediately rooted himself at the program's practice facility, which, unlike many schools at that level, features multiple hitting bays with TrackMans and other high-end amenities – more than enough for the mustachioed range rat to develop quickly. Abdo won his first tournament in April, a victory that landed him in the world ranking, and followed with a runner-up showing before being named the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference's rookie of the year. With the iron hot, Abdo decided to test the portal waters. It wasn't that he needed to get out of St. Peter, but it had always been his dream to play Division-I golf. Having also qualified this summer for his first U.S. Amateur – in his first try, too – via a 4-for-2 playoff, Abdo thought he'd at least field a few offers from schools. But weeks went by, and to date, just one Big Ten program, which Abdo wouldn't address by name, has shown marginal interest. 'After a couple of calls, I was told that there wasn't enough time to make a decision,' Abdo explained. 'I accepted that and used it as fuel to come out here and prove them wrong, and I think, so far, I've done that.' Abdo birdied the treacherous first hole, a converted par-5 playing as a 522-yard par-4 on Wednesday – and a hole that yielded just three birdies in stroke play. He won the second hole, too, to take a 2-up lead out of the gates. But Abdo knew Reilly was too talented not to mount a charge, which came immediately; the Lovettsville, Virginia, native, whose dad, Terry Reilly, is the EVP of Wasserman, holed a 30-yard bunker shot to win the par-3 third and two holes later chipped in for birdie to flip the match to 1 up in his favor. Reilly led 2 up after 11 holes. 'I think a lot of people would've folded and gave up,' Abdo said, 'but me and my caddie (childhood friend Evan Raiche) were like, we got to this point, there's no point in backing down now. … What kept me fighting is knowing that there's not much pressure on the 61 seed. I knew I had nothing to lose and everything to gain. I knew that if I just stayed aggressive and stayed with it – I'd been hitting the ball too good to not make something happen.' Did he ever. And he doesn't plan on folding either, no matter who he's matched up against. 'I'm not afraid of anybody,' Abdo replied when asked what he hopes people will learn about him this week. 'This is the best opportunity of my career to make myself stand out, and that's the way I'm going to view everybody," he added. "Doesn't matter if it's the No. 1 player or like me, the No. 4,000 player; the better the player, the more focused I'm going to be, and I'm going to use that to my advantage because I know I can trust myself out there. 'You don't get chances like this to play against the best players in the world very often. This is probably going to be one of my few opportunities, and I just have to go out there and take care of it.' On Olympic's graveyard, Abdo's proving ground.
NBC Sports
an hour ago
- NBC Sports
Olympic's graveyard is D-3 product's proving ground at U.S. Amateur
SAN FRANCISCO – The Olympic Club has earned the nickname, 'The Graveyard of Champions,' for a reason. It all started with Jack Fleck, the improbable 1955 U.S. Open winner on the Lake Course after outlasting Ben Hogan in an 18-hole playoff, a day after the television broadcast signed off by declaring Hogan the champion, not considering that Fleck still had holes to play. Billy Casper followed in 1966, rallying from seven shots back of Arnold Palmer with nine holes remaining to claim his second U.S. Open. Lee Janzen, in 1998, also made up seven strokes on the final day as he beat Payne Stewart. There was Scott Simpson over Tom Watson late in 1987, and Yuka Saso ending Lexi Thompson's U.S. Women's Open dreams by erasing five shots down the stretch in 2021. This week at the 125th U.S. Amateur, there is no Fleck, but there is an Abdo. Meet Jimmy Abdo, the 19-year-old from Edina, Minnesota, and a rising sophomore at Division-III Gustavus Adolphus, though only because he sat in the transfer portal all summer, drawing no real interest from Division-I programs. He sits No. 4,292 in the world amateur rankings with just four counting events, and he isn't shy about the sizable chip that rests on his shoulder. 'I love proving people wrong,' Abdo said. 'I just have to keep telling myself that I belong.' Abdo birdied three of his last six holes on Tuesday on the adjacent Ocean Course just to get into a 20-for-17 playoff for match play. Two pars later and he was on to the knockout stage, where he knocked off Logan Reilly, the much-ballyhooed Auburn incomer, in the Round of 64 on Wednesday evening. Having just rattled off four straight birdies, Abdo left himself about 10 feet for par on the Lake's par-4 finishing hole. He then stepped up and confidently holed the lightning-fast putt before punctuating the 1-up victory with a thunderous fist pump. The No. 4292 amateur in the world is moving on ‼️ Jimmy Abdo — a sophomore at Gustavus Adolphus College (@GustieGolf) — wins 1 up with this par save on 18. 'That's the kind of putt you dream of,' Abdo said. 'The biggest moment of my golf career for sure.' And it's only getting bigger. Abdo will face Houston grad Wolfgang Glawe in Thursday morning's Round of 32. Glawe produced an equally thrilling finish on the 18th green, finding the rough long and then whiffing on his first chip by sliding his wedge right under the ball, only to then regroup and hole his next chip for par and a 1-up victory over Ole Miss' Tom Fischer. There were some other cool moments on Wednesday: John Daly II, son of the two-time major champ, tied 17 holes with Louisville's Cooper Claycomb, with Daly's birdie on the par-4 11th hole marking the only hole won by either player. Medalist Preston Stout of Oklahoma State carded seven birdies in 15 holes to beat high-schooler Pennson Badgett, while world No. 1 Jackson Koivun didn't make birdie until the last hole of his 2-and-1 win over Illinois' Ryan Voois. Scotland's Niall Shiels Donegan, an adopted Bay Area product, arguably had the loudest gallery as members of both public Mill Valley and private Meadow Club made their way across the Golden Gate Bridge to watch the North Carolina transfer and Walker Cup hopeful drain an 8-footer at the last to defeat Florida's Luke Poulter. Two matches went extra holes, including Georgia commit Mason Howell's bout with sixth-ranked amateur Tommy Morrison, who led for 16 holes until Howell prevailed in 19 with a winning bogey on the par-4 first hole. And perhaps the craziest match was contested between Princeton's Reed Greyserman, the youngest brother of PGA Tour player Max Greyserman, and Texas Tech's Tim Wiedemeyer, who found himself 5 down after seven holes before winning five of his last six holes and closing out Greyserman on the par-5 17th. But when it comes to underdog stories, there isn't a longer shot left in this field than Abdo. Never even the best player on his teams at Edina High, Abdo signed with the Gusties and immediately rooted himself at the program's practice facility, which, unlike many schools at that level, features multiple hitting bays with TrackMans and other high-end amenities – more than enough for the mustachioed range rat to develop quickly. Abdo won his first tournament in April, a victory that landed him in the world ranking, and followed with a runner-up showing before being named the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference's rookie of the year. With the iron hot, Abdo decided to test the portal waters. It wasn't that he needed to get out of St. Peter, but it had always been his dream to play Division-I golf. Having also qualified this summer for his first U.S. Amateur – in his first try, too – via a 4-for-2 playoff, Abdo thought he'd at least field a few offers from schools. But weeks went by, and to date, just one Big Ten program, which Abdo wouldn't address by name, has shown marginal interest. 'After a couple of calls, I was told that there wasn't enough time to make a decision,' Abdo explained. 'I accepted that and used it as fuel to come out here and prove them wrong, and I think, so far, I've done that.' Abdo birdied the treacherous first hole, a converted par-5 playing as a 522-yard par-4 on Wednesday – and a hole that yielded just three birdies in stroke play. He won the second hole, too, to take a 2-up lead out of the gates. But Abdo knew Reilly was too talented not to mount a charge, which came immediately; the Lovettsville, Virginia, native, whose dad, Terry Reilly, is the EVP of Wasserman, holed a 30-yard bunker shot to win the par-3 third and two holes later chipped in for birdie to flip the match to 1 up in his favor. Reilly led 2 up after 11 holes. 'I think a lot of people would've folded and gave up,' Abdo said, 'but me and my caddie (childhood friend Evan Raiche) were like, we got to this point, there's no point in backing down now. … What kept me fighting is knowing that there's not much pressure on the 61 seed. I knew I had nothing to lose and everything to gain. I knew that if I just stayed aggressive and stayed with it – I'd been hitting the ball too good to not make something happen.' Did he ever. And he doesn't plan on folding either, no matter who he's matched up against. 'I'm not afraid of anybody,' Abdo replied when asked what he hopes people will learn about him this week. 'This is the best opportunity of my career to make myself stand out, and that's the way I'm going to view everybody,' he added. 'Doesn't matter if it's the No. 1 player or like me, the No. 4,000 player; the better the player, the more focused I'm going to be, and I'm going to use that to my advantage because I know I can trust myself out there. 'You don't get chances like this to play against the best players in the world very often. This is probably going to be one of my few opportunities, and I just have to go out there and take care of it.' On Olympic's graveyard, Abdo's proving ground.
Yahoo
5 hours ago
- Yahoo
John Daly's son among winners in first round of US Amateur at Olympic Club
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The son of two-time major champion John Daly was among 32 players who won their matches Wednesday in the first round of match play at the U.S. Amateur, where five of the top 10 amateurs in the world also advanced at The Olympic Club. John Daly II, a senior-to-be at Arkansas, had a scorecard that looked nothing like the 'wild thing' reputation of his famous father. In a 1-up victory over Cooper Claycomb, Daly won the 11th hole with a birdie and the other 17 holes were halved. Jackson Koivun of Auburn, the No. 1 player in the world amateur ranking, was all square with Ryan Vools until Koivun made par on the 16th for a 1-up lead and closed out his opponent with a two-putt birdie on the par-5 17th. It was Koivun's only birdie of the match. Ben James, the No. 2 amateur in the world and a Virginia senior, had a 2-and-1 victory over Parker Claxton, while fourth-ranked Preston Stout won, 4 and 3, over Pennson Badgett. Two players from the top 10 lost in extra holes. Tommy Morrison of Texas (No. 6) , lost to 18-year-old Mason Howell when Morrison made bogey on the par-5 17th hole with a 1-up lead, and then made double bogey on the 19th hole. Filip Jakubcik (No. 5) lost to Eric Lee in 19 holes. Other top-10 players from the amateur ranking to advance were Jace Summy (No. 7) and Christiaan Maas (No. 9). Tim Wiedenmeyer of Germany staged the biggest comeback. He lost five of the opening seven holes to Reed Greyserman and won his final four holes for a 2-and-1 victory. In one of the most roller-coaster matches of the opening round, the son of a former British golf writer rallied to beat the son of a Ryder Cup stalwart. Niall Shiels Donegan of Scotland, whose father Lawrence was a longtime golf correspondent for The Guardian, birdied the last two holes for a 1-up victory over Luke Poulter, a junior at Florida and the son of Ian Poulter. Donegan was among 17 players who advanced from a 20-man playoff Wednesday morning to determine the final 64 for match play. ___ AP golf:
