The team of Reid Hatley (Hayden Lake, Idaho) and Jacob Koppenberg (Bellingham) defeated No. 18 seed Carter Loflin and Wells Wiliams, 3 and 2, in today’s Round of 32 at the 2021 U.S. Amateur Four-Ball Championship.
The championship is being held this week at Chambers Bay in University Place, Wash.
Hatley and Koppenberg had made it into the match-play portion of the championship by shooting rounds of 65-68 in the two qualifying rounds, held over the weekend at Chambers Bay and The Home Course in nearby DuPont. They are the No. 15 seed in the bracket.
Hatley and Koppenberg were behind immediately in the match, losing the first hole when Loflin and Williams birdied the par-5 opening hole. But Hatley and Koppenberg turned on some firepower, going birdie-eagle-birdie in winning holes three, four and five, to go 2-up in the match. They would never relinquish their lead.
When they parred the “Lone Fir” par-3 15th, they were dormie – 3-up on Loflin and Williams with three holes to play. They closed out the match, 3 and 2, on the short par-4 16th, when both sides made par.
In tomorrow morning’s Round of 16, Hatley and Koppenberg will face No. 2 seed Brent Ito of Ardsley, N.Y. and Patrick Sullivan of Grosse Pointe, Mich. with the match teeing off the first hole at Chambers Bay at 7:48am.
Click here to view live scoring of the championship.
There were 11 players from Washington Golf territory who made it to the first two days of stroke-play qualifying, after Local qualifying. Hatley and Koppenberg were the only local players to advance to match play.
Koppenberg, 34, is a volunteer assistant coach for the men’s golf team at Western Washington University, his alma mater, in Bellingham, and helped the Vikings capture the 2019 Great Northwest Athletic Conference title. While he was a player at Western, he was a two-time NCAA Division II All-American and two-time GNAC Player of the Year. He is competing in his seventh USGA championship, including four U.S. Amateurs. He works in business development for a communication services company.
Hatley, 40, is the owner of a golf course accessories company. He played in the 2016 U.S. Amateur Four-Ball with partner Nate Hair, who is the husband of LPGA Tour player Wendy Ward. A veteran of 12 USGA events, Hatley won the 2019 Washington State Amateur in a playoff, and has been named Washington Golf’s Men’s Mid-Amateur Player of the Year for six consecutive years and counting.
