Bandon hosts USGA Four-Ball

Todd Mitchell approached his partner, Scott Harvey, on the 17th green of Bandon Dunes Golf Resort’s Old Macdonald course and planted a hearty bear hug, the kind of embrace one gives for a big moment. This was one of those appropriate situations.

After some close calls, including a runner-up finish in the 2008 U.S. Mid-Amateur, Mitchell had finally arrived at the mountaintop. Finally, he could call himself a USGA champion just like his partner, Harvey, did in the U.S. Mid-Amateur five years ago.

Playing in some of the most challenging conditions all week, Mitchell, 40, of Bloomington, Ill., and Harvey, a Kernersville, N.C., resident defeated East Carolina University rising seniors Blake Taylor, 21, of Wilmington, N.C., and Logan Shuping, 21, of Salisbury, N.C., 2 and 1, in the 18-hole championship match of the 5th U.S. Amateur Four-Ball Championship.

After five trips to match play in this team event that began in 2015, including a semifinal showing in the inaugural competition at The Olympic Club in San Francisco, Harvey and Mitchell will have their names inscribed on a USGA trophy and forever be immortalized inside the USGA Golf Museum’s Hall of Champions. They are the second mid-amateur side to claim the title, joining 2015 winners Nathan Smith and Todd White.