Couture and Hunter Reach Championship Semifinal; Upsets Shake the Brackets at Garden City

Rob Couture and John Hunter both advanced through two rounds of match play on a dramatic Saturday at Garden City Golf Club, reaching opposite sides of Sunday's Championship Flight semifinal bracket. Couture, the medalist and No. 1 seed, dispatched Joe Saladino 2&1 in the morning round, then beat Daniel Abbondandolo 2&1 in the quarterfinals. On the bottom half, John Hunter knocked off Matt Parziale 3&2 before grinding past Joseph Deraney 2&1. They'll face Chris DeJohn and Pat Wilson, respectively — DeJohn survived a 19-hole thriller against Kyle Downey before beating Matthew Mattare on 18 in the quarters, while Pat Wilson beat Stephen Nicholas Jr 1-up in the morning and then dispatched Jordan Utley in the quarterfinals. Utley had earlier ousted Christian Cavaliere on the 20th hole in the Round of 16.

The Devereux Emmet Cup produced its own fireworks. No. 16 seed Garett Engel stunned top-seeded Dan MacDonald 3&2, but Griffin McQuilling ended Engel's run with a dominant 5&3 win to reach the semifinals. Matthew Naumec handled Trip Kuehne 3&2 and then Andrew Biggadike 3&2 to advance from the top half. In the bottom half, Colby Anderson upset Brian Williams 5&4, while Andrew Lane beat Patrick Knott 4&3. Brett Cooper edged Jay Crowley 1-up, and Jonathan Jeter knocked off Mike Connors 3&2. The semifinalists are McQuilling vs Naumec and Lane vs Cooper. The 8-player flights set their semifinal matchups: John Patterson vs Jack Downey and Steve White vs Kevin Miller in the Macdonald Cup; Connor Casey vs Jesse Bull and Billy Kreitsek Jr vs Brian Falk in the Jones Cup; Oscar Maxfield vs Richard VanderMass and Derek Rogers vs TJ Shuart in the Taft Cup. All finals are Sunday afternoon. Live scoring on the midamgolfHQ tournament hub.