The 36-hole, stroke-play phase of the 120th U.S. Amateur Championship at Bandon Dunes Golf Resort is now in the books. With all but three spots in the 64-player match-play draw secured – an 18-for-3 playoff on Wednesday morning decides Nos. 62-64 – the match-play portion of the competition can now commence. From now until Sunday’s 36-hole championship, competitors will look to win six matches to hoist the Havemeyer Trophy.

A new player will have his name etched into history, as defending champion Andy Ogletree failed to qualify for match play. The player he beat in last year’s final, John Augenstein, shot solid rounds of 70-68 to earn the No. 7 seed and a chance to end with a different result this time.

All but a handful of the remaining players are college standouts. Five mid-amatuers (25 and older) and two current high school golfers survived the two grueling days of stroke play at Bandon Dunes and stroke-play co-host Bandon Trails.

Pepperdine leads the way with three players, while a handful of schools have multiple players, including Charlotte, Georgia, Georgia Tech, Florida Gulf Coast, Louisiana State, Notre Dame, Southern Methodist, Tennessee, Texas Tech and Vanderbilt.

Here are three things to know for the opening round of match play:

Changing Philosophy

Many players love match play due to its head-to-head nature; unlike stroke play, one bad hole doesn’t turn into a Waterloo. And now that each player has completed a competitive round at Bandon Dunes, they have a better understanding of where and when they can take risks with their on-course strategy.

“Bandon [Dunes] is obviously really tough,” said McClure Meissner, who opened with a 64 on the layout. “My goal is just to give myself as many [birdie] looks as possible, keep myself in each hole and let my ability to be creative shine, and then kind of par my opponent to death. [If I can] make a couple of birdies every now and then, I think that’s going to be a tough [combination] to beat.”

Fellow Texan Travis McInroe qualified for match play a year ago at Pinehurst but lost in the Round of 64. McInroe, a rising redshirt junior at Baylor who shot 7-under 136 to earn the No. 4 seed, hopes that experience will help him this time around.

“Just learning from last year … and kind of having a plan for both parts of the tournament, because the two stroke-play rounds are only two of nine rounds total if you go all the way.”

Seeds Planted

Most match-play veterans will say that seed number is irrelevant in match play. While stroke-play performance determines those numbers, everyone starts each match on level ground. Then again, it doesn’t hurt to get a high seed. While the medalist hasn’t won the U.S. Amateur in 16 years, statistics over the past decade say that seeds 1 to 32 have a 54.7 percent chance of advancing out of the opening round.

Breaking it down even further, the chances of a top-eight seed advancing from the Round of 64 is 57.5 percent. The numbers are almost nearly identical for seeds 27 to 32 (56.3). Interestingly, it’s only a 50-50 proposition that seeds 9 to 16 will survive the opening round.

Mid-Am Musings

Will the long mid-amateur victory drought finally end in 2020? John Harris (1993) is the last mid-am to hoist the Havemeyer Trophy. The last mid-am finalist was Tom McKnight in 1998, while Austin Eaton III (2005) is the last to reach the semifinals.

Some believe Bandon Dunes is the perfect layout for a mid-amateur to succeed, because precision and imagination are just as important as power and strength. The ever-present wind also places a value on creative shot-making.

“You might hit an 8-iron from 110 yards, not a full one but just kind of flight it,” said Scott Harvey, who teamed with Todd Mitchell to win the U.S. Amateur Four-Ball Championship last year at Bandon Dunes’ Old Macdonald layout. “Obviously the [young] kids are unbelievable. All I’m saying is I’ve done that as much as they have. Not just me, but mid-ams.”

Harvey, who also won the 2014 U.S. Mid-Amateur, is joined in the draw by fellow U.S. Mid-Amateur champions Stewart Hagestad (2016) and Kevin O’Connell (2017), as well as two-time U.S. Mid-Amateur quarterfinalist Andres Schonbaum and USGA championship stalwart Derek Busby.

David Shefter is a senior staff writer with the USGA. Email him at dshefter@usga.org.