Alabama duffer takes medal, ready for match play at Western Amateur

Alabama's Robby Shelton got hot in the middle of the 36-hole conclusion of the stroke play portion of the 113th Western Amateur on Thursday, and that was clearly the right time.

Shelton made birdie on the last hole of his morning round at Rich Harvest Farms in Sugar Grove, and then made birds on the first four holes of the afternoon round. No one was close after that, as Shelton made bogeys on the 16th and 17th holes coming in but still won medalist honors by two strokes.

"It was just a hot streak, that's all it was," said Shelton, who leads 16 players into the match play portion of the championship on Friday. "I had the putter rolling on the first four holes in the afternoon, and the longest of those putts was only about 12 feet."

The tournament turns into an endurance test now. After playing 72 holes in three days, the 16 survivors from the 156-man starting field face four matches before the champion is crowned on Saturday afternoon.

"Nothing changes. You just play against one guy instead of the whole field," said Shelton, who also made the Sweet 16 in 2013. "I love match play. It should be fun. You just can't get tired out there."

That "fun" begins at 8 a.m. Friday, and Shelton should beware: The medalist didn't win the title in 2013 or 2014. The last to do it was Chris Williams in 2012, and he was the first to sweep both honors since 2008.

Shelton, who will be a junior at Alabama in the fall, has the game to do it, though. He has two collegiate tournament wins, was second in two others and third in the 2014 NCAA Championship. His most eye-popping showing, though, was a third-place finish in last month's Barbasol Championship, the PGA Tour event played opposite the British Open.

"That gave me a lot of confidence," said Shelton. "To be up there in a PGA Tour event was pretty cool. It showed me that I had the game to come here and compete."

He played the 72 holes of stroke play in 11-under-par 277. Gavin Hall, part of the Univeristy of Texas contingent in the field, finished two strokes back. Hall's collegiate teammate, Beau Hossler, was the tourney's defending champion and he didn't survive the first stroke play cut, when the field was reduced to Thursday's 45 players.

Charlie Danielson, a University of Illinois senior, and Roselle's Dan Stringfellow were the only players with local ties to qualify for Thursday's double round. Danielson finished seventh to advance to the Sweet 16. Stringfellow, a Medinah member who plays at Auburn, didn't advance.

Last year Danielson was one of three Illini to reach the Sweet 16. This time he was the only member of his team to do it, and he had to survive an opening triple bogey in the morning and a concluding double bogey in the afternoon to do it. He was paired with Jordan Niebrugge, a fellow Wisconsin resident who was low amateur at last month's British Open. Niebrugge, the Western Amateur winner two years ago, also reached the Sweet 16.

"Maybe I ran out of gas at the end," said Danielson. "Jordan and I played pretty well, and that's not always the case when we play together."