“I am playing with house money,” said a thrilled Tassell. “I have already won in my mind. Just go out have fun and enjoy playing with a great player.

“I had some back spasms at one point in the round. There were a couple of holes where I just couldn’t swing and then they calmed down. He gave me [hole] 8 when he put it in the bunker left and hit it over the green, then we were even. I went 1-up on 10. I hit it in the water on 15. And this [on 18] where I made a 25-footer. I am glad it hit the hole.”

Added Simson: “All good things must come to an end. I played pretty solid. When I got some momentum, I stubbed my toe a few times. We gave a few back and forth.”

Simson and Tassell traded gifts on Holes 8 and 15, the latter finding the water on the par 4. Then Simson miraculously made par from an awkward lie in a greenside bunker on the 17th hole to keep the match tied.

It was another hot and sunny day in southern Tennessee with temperatures creeping into the 90s for the third consecutive day.

Defending champion Todd White, 56, of Spartanburg, S.C., hardly broke a sweat in rolling to a 5-and-4 victory over 2023 quarterfinalist Curtis Holck, of Ankeny, Iowa. White birdied the first two holes, took a 4-up lead after a winning par on No. 6, increased the advantage to 5 up with a birdie on No. 10 and then closed out his match on the par-3 14th with a par.

It was a far cry from last year at Martis Camp Club when the then-medalist had what ESPN college basketball analyst Dick Vitale calls a “Maalox Masher” for his first two matches. No. 64 seed Jerry Gunthorpe took him to 18 and he needed 21 holes to oust Brent Paterson, of New Zealand, in the Round of 32.

White next faces Tennessean Todd Burgan, 55, of Knoxville, who defeated 2023 runner-up Jody Fanagan, of the Republic of Ireland, by that same 5-and-4 margin.

“On this golf course you are one swing away from losing every hole,” said White, who has progressively played better since the championship began on Saturday. “That’s a good championship golf course because it will test every second that you are out there.”

Both co-medalists, John Kemp, 56, of England, and Roger Newsom, 60, of Virginia Beach, Va., advanced in entirely different fashions. Newsom, an ophthalmic surgeon who performs upwards of 25 operations per week, won three of his first seven holes in recording a 3-and-2 win over playoff survivor Brian Ferris, of Atlanta, Ga. Since being runner-up in 2019 to Bob Royak, Newsom has advanced to the quarterfinals (2022) and semifinals (2023), losing to eventual winner White at Martis Camp.

“Brian (Ferris) is a good competitor,” said Newsom, who has reached the Round of 32 in all five of his U.S Senior Amateur starts. “He is a member at Pine Valley and a good player. We had a good match. [My motto is] get ahead early. It’s match play, you try to choke them out early like the wrestlers do.”

Top seed Kemp sweated out a 23-hole affair against Harris Podvey, of West Caldwell, N.J. It equaled the 10th longest match in U.S. Senior Amateur history. Kemp’s 5-foot par putt on the par-4 fifth hole was enough to advance as Podvey, a 1988 University of the South (Sewanee, Tenn.) graduate, failed to convert his 4-footer for par.

“The grain spooked his [4-foot par] putt,” said Kemp. “I had a putt and it must have moved two feet more than I was expecting it to.”

Neither player had their best stuff through the first nine holes – they tied Nos. 7 and 8 with double bogeys – and it wasn’t until the 10th hole that the first birdie was recorded by Kemp to go 1 up. Podvey birdied No. 11 to tie the match and took a brief 1-up lead on No. 12 with a par. Kemp took the par-3 14th with a par, and the two tied the next eight holes.

The last place Gene Elliott thought he would be standing on Monday was the entrance to the clubhouse being interviewed by media. Several hours earlier, the 62-year-old Iowan had just made a bogey-5 on the first hole of the 9-for-8 playoff to determine the last spots in the match-play draw. But when a 7 was recorded in the middle of the three groups, Elliott felt better, until he saw his opening-round opponent. Jerry Gunthorpe, the Michigan man he defeated three years ago to win this championship.

Only this time, Gunthorpe, 61, of Ovid, was the No. 4 seed after playing 1-under golf in stroke play. But just like the narrative in that title match at the Country Club of Detroit, Elliott never led until the final hole, in this case the par-3 21st. Gunthorpe three-putted from a tough spot and Elliott coaxed his 45-footer to tap-in range. In 2021, Elliott only led after the 18th hole in a 1-up victory. Gunthorpe’s three losses since have been in 19 holes (No. 1 seed Miles McConnell), 1 down (No. 1 seed Todd White) and today’s match.

“I didn’t realize that about today [that he never led until the last hole],” said Elliott, who shot 13-over 157 in stroke play. “Jerry is a helluva player. It was just a battle.

“I am starting to play better than I did in the [stroke-play] qualifying. I am hitting the ball a little more solid and putting a lot better.”

Dan Sullivan, 57, of Pasadena, Calif., arrived at The Honors Course this week feeling as confident as anyone could be at the challenging Pete Dye layout. This past spring, Sullivan finished second in the senior division of the Lupton Memorial. Then just prior to the U.S. Senior Amateur, Sullivan won the Southern California Golf Association’s Senior Match Play, defeating 1996 U.S. Amateur Public Links champ Tim Hogarth in the semis and past U.S. Senior Amateur semifinalist Craig Davis in the final at Spanish Hills in Camarillo.

Sullivan posted 7-over 151 in stroke play before posting a 5-and-4 victory on Monday over Philip Josephson, of Miami, Fla. Down 2 after three holes, Sullivan won seven of the next nine to put away his opponent.

“I am comfortable here,” Sullivan, a first-time U.S. Senior Amateur competitor who reached the semifinals of the U.S. Mid-Amateur in 2016 and 2017. “I think this can be an uncomfortable place to play. The more often you play it the more comfortable I think you get at being uncomfortable here. I have hit it just about everywhere you can hit it in bad spots. It tends to narrow my focus.”

Jon Brown, of Adel, Iowa, gave himself a nice present on his 57th birthday, as he rallied from 3 down to defeat Edward Wyatt in 20 holes. Brown, a quarterfinalist in 2022, tied the match with a two-putt birdie from 25 feet on the par-5 17th, then won it with a 5-foot birdie on the par-5 second hole when he pitched his third from behind the green.

Bob Royak, 62, of Alpharetta, Ga., the 2019 champion, also rallied from a 3-down deficit after three holes to eliminate playoff survivor Robert F. Gerwin II, of Cincinnati, Ohio. With the match tied on 18, Royak, a semifinalist a year ago, got up and down from greenside rough left of the putting surface, while Gerwin three-putted for bogey, missing a 5-footer to force extra holes.

What’s Next

Match play continues on Tuesday with the Rounds of 32 and 16. The first match is scheduled for 7:30 a.m. EDT, with the Round of 16 slated to start at 1 p.m. The quarterfinals and semifinals will be played on Wednesday, with the 18-hole championship match on Thursday at 8:30 a.m. Admission is free and spectators are encouraged to attend.

Notable

- The 9-for-8 playoff lasted just one hole and took 44 minutes to complete. Steve Harwell was the odd man out after making a triple bogey on the par-4 10th hole. Gene Elliott, the 2021 champion, was among the eight who advanced.

- Of the 64 players who advanced to match play, 25 were exempt and 39 were qualifiers. From that group 58 were from the United States, two from England, and one each from Canada, the Republic of Ireland, New Zealand and Scotland. No international player has won the U.S. Senior Amateur, and just one – Jody Fanagan from the Republic of Ireland (2023) – has advanced to a final.

- Florida led the way with the most match-play qualifiers (7), followed by California and Georgia with six apiece. South Carolina and Iowa each were represented by four golfers.

- Besides Bob Royak, Todd White and Elliott, one other past champion advanced. Chip Lutz (2015) defeated recently retired high school teacher/golf coach Joe Sawaia, 5 and 4.

- Two other past champions were sent home: Doug Hanzel, the No. 6 seed from Savannah, Ga., and 2013 champ, was eliminated by playoff survivor Andrew Whitacre, of The Woodlands, Texas, 2 and 1; Jeff Wilson, the 2018 champion from Fairfield, Calif., fell to Iowan Joe Palmer, 2 and 1.

- Another playoff survivor, 1997 U.S. Mid-Amateur runner-up Rick Stimmel, of Pittsburgh, Pa., outlasted 1979 U.S. Junior Amateur champion and No. 5 seed Jack Larkin Sr., 3 and 2. Stimmel saw an early 4-up lead nearly evaporate before holding on for the win.

- Six matches went extra holes. Besides the aforementioned wins by John Kemp, Jon Brown and Gene Elliott, Jack Hall, 67, of Savannah, Ga., outlasted Mike Henry, of Bloomington, Ill., in 25 holes, which matched the second-longest in championship history. Henry’s tee shot on the par-4 25th found the penalty area. Last year, Henry went 23 holes in winning his second-round match over Tim Hogarth. On four other occasions, a match has gone 25 holes, and the longest remains a 27-holer by Egon F. Quittner in 1963 at Sea Island Golf Club.

- John Adams, of San Clemente, Calif., only needed 19 holes to defeat Tim McKinnis, as did Mark Knecht, of Paducah, Ky., over Craig Miyamoto.