Another glorious day has arrived at Bandon Dunes Golf Resort -- is there ever a bad day at this place even when the wind is howling or the rain is sideways -- for the 2011 U.S. Amateur Public Links Championships. Both the men and women will be over at Old Macondald today for the quarterfinal and semifinal matches. By day's end, we'll have our finalists for Saturday's 36-hole APL and WAPL finales.
Our weatherman, Jake Swick, has promised us sunny skies with winds gusting to 20 mph by midday. Those gusts could reach 30 mph by the afternoon. Welcome to links golf.
Found out an interesting nugget on APL medalist Corbin Mills. You might have noticed on television yesterday that he was wearing ear plugs. He does not have a hearing problem. He developed an ear infection when he arrived from South Carolina and the plugs have eased the pain. He also had pink eye before he got here and his physician prescribed some anti-biotics. Whatever medicine he's taking, he should stay on it. Mills has played phenomenal golf since shooting a 4-under 67 on Old Macdonald in the final round of stroke-play qualifying on Tuesday. He faces the only Oregonian left in the field, Andrew Vijarro of Bend, in the first quarterfinal match at 8:10 a.m. PDT. Vijarro will be a senior at the University of Oregon in the fall, along with Daniel Miernicki of Santee, Calif., who goes off in the final quarterfinal match at 8:40 a.m. against sweet-swinging Derek Ernst of Clovis, Calif., the reigning Mountain West Conference champion from the University of Nevada-Las Vegas.
The second quarterfinal will match University of Georgia All-American Harris English against San Diego State's J.J. Spaun. English is hoping to bolster his resume for a USA Walker Cup spot this September. A win this week wouldn't hurt those chances.
And Spaun's San Diego State teammate, Todd Baek, meets second-seeded Jonathan Randolph in the third quarterfinal. Randolph, who recently completed his eligibility at the University of Mississippi, has only played 43 holes of match play the past two days. Baek is a Korean-born golfer who spent a lot of his childhood in New Zealand before emigrating to the U.S. a few years ago to attend Rancho Bernardo High in the San Diego area.
For folks who want to watch the action, Golf Channel will televise the WAPL and APL semifinal matches live today at ^:30 p.m. EDT. Charles Rymer, the 1985 U.S. Junior Amateur champion (he won at Brookfield C.C. in my hometown of Clarence, N.Y., and I also worked at the club for 5 years), is working the booth with Mark Rolfing. Another USGA champion, two-time U.S. Women's Amateur titlist Kay Cockerill, will be one of the roving on-course reporters. -- David Shefter