U.S. Amateur Golf Championship : Sigel, Gump Reach Quarterfinals

Two-time champion Jay Sigel and qualifying medalist Scott Gump won second- and third-round matches Friday to reach the quarterfinals of the 87th U.S. Amateur Championship at Jupiter Hills Club.

Sigel, winner of this six-day golf tournament in 1982 and ‘83, defeated U.S. Public Links champion Kevin Johnson, 3 and 2, in the morning and eliminated David White of Conroe, Tex., 2 up, in the afternoon on the par-72, 6,915-yard Hills course.

Gump, a former University of Miami star who has said this will be his last tournament as an amateur, overcame a three-hole deficit to beat Len Mattiace, 1 up, in the second round. He returned two hours later to beat John O’Neill of Arcadia, Calif., 7 and 6, to set up a quarterfinal match with Chris Webb.

Webb, a graduate of Louisiana State University, defeated 17-year-old Harry Rudolph III of La Jolla--the youngest player left in the tournament--on the 19th hole in the third round. A victory over Gump this morning would put Webb in the semifinals, which would clinch a berth in next year’s Masters.

“That’s my dream--to play in the Masters,” Webb, 23, said. “I don’t have any ambitions to play on the PGA Tour, so that would be the ultimate for me.”

Sigel, 43, is the oldest player in the tournament. He was eight under par through the 16 holes that his second-round match lasted but wasn’t as sharp against White.

“As well as I played in the morning, it was hard to get going. I didn’t expect to keep it up. I was flat,” the insurance executive from Berwyn, Pa., said.

Johnson, of Pembroke, Mass., played well against Sigel. He was four under par for the match, but the two-time champion never faltered.

Sigel’s next opponent will be Eric Rebmann of Plantation, Fla. Rebmann beat Leslie Ellis of Tupelo, Miss., 4 and 3, and Thomas Dyer of Melrose, Mass., 2 and 1.

The winners of today’s morning quarterfinals will advance to the 18-hole semifinals in the afternoon. The two survivors will meet in a 36-hole final Sunday.

Gump, 21, fell three holes behind Mattiace, medalist in the 1986 U.S. Amateur, after five holes and faced the prospect of an even bigger deficit after hitting his tee shot behind a tree on the sixth hole.

Gump scrambled to save par while Mattiace bogeyed, and the comeback was on. The pivotal hole was the par-4, 335-yard 16th, where Mattiace hit an 8-iron over the green into the back bunker on his way to a double bogey.

Gump settled for par on No. 16 to pull even and won when he shot par on the 18th hole and Mattiace hit his tee shot into the trees and had trouble making the green.

O’Neill was no match for the medalist. Gump was 5 up after nine holes and led by seven holes when O’Neill bogeyed No. 11.

Gump’s next opponent, Webb, of Shreveport, La., defeated Mike Gregor of Philadelphia, 3 and 2, in the second round. He won the playoff with Rudolph, a high school junior, with a par on the first extra hole.

The other quarterfinal matches this morning will pit Bill Mayfair of Phoenix against Miles McConnell of Tampa, Fla., and Robert McNamara of Frankfort, Ky., against Stephen Ford of Melbourne, Fla.