Sheppard advances to match play

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UNIVERSITY PLACE, Wash. -- ACU golfer Tyler Sheppard is still alive after two rounds at the U.S. Amateur Championships, finishing stroke play tied for 33rd place.

Sheppard followed up his first-round 73 with another 73 on Tuesday to finish the first two rounds at 3-over-par 146. He made the cut by three strokes and will now advance to match play, which begins Wednesday.

ACU's other entrant in the tournament -- 2010 freshman sensation Alex Carpenter -- never got untracked Tuesday and finished at 11-over-par 82 on the day and 12-over-par 155 for the tournament, missing the cut by six strokes.

Sheppard -- playing the Chambers Bay Golf Course on Tuesday -- started his round on the back nine and had back-to-back pars before a bogey on his third hole of the day (No. 12). He then responded with three straight pars before another bogey on his seventh hole (No. 16). However, he parred his eighth hole and finished the first nine with a birdie on the par-5, 604-yard ninth hole to cap his first nine at 1-over-par 36.

But he started the back nine with back-to-back bogeys on holes No. 1 and 2 to fall to 3-over-par. However, a birdie on No. 3 got him back to 2-over-par before a bogey-birdie combo on Nos. 5 and 6 brought him back to 2-over-par for his round.

"This is probably one of the harder courses I've ever played," Sheppard said late Tuesday night. "It's a links-style course like one you'd probably find in Ireland, not in America. The greens are really firm with lots of hills and slopes. Everything on this course is about placement. You don't ever really go at the pin. You just have to throw it out to the right of the pin and let it catch the slope and move toward the hole.

"You're almost playing to land the ball in the front of the green and let the ball bounce a few times," he said. "I'm hitting a lot of knockdown shots, which I'm comfortable doing after growing up in West Texas. You can't go out and hit the same shot every time you swing the club. You've got to be creative, which is fun. I've found through two rounds that this course sets up pretty well for me because I'm a grinder and this course is about staying away from big numbers and making pars. There are a lot of holes on this course where par feels like birdie."

Sheppard didn't know late Tuesday who he would be playing in the single-elimination match-play round. He'll likely find out when he gets to the course Wednesday morning.

"This is the first step, just getting to match play," Sheppard said. "What's cool about this now is that it's just me against the other guy. All week I've tried to focus on each shot, hitting that shot and going and hitting the next shot. I don't want to get ahead of myself. I've got a game plan and I want to stick to that plan."

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Sheppard advances to match play

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