Chattanooga's Fox knocks off World No. 1 at Cherry Hills

Wednesday morning, Fox was among the 17 players who attempted to grab one of the final 14 spots in the match play field, securing the No. 63 seed. On Thursday, both his second- and third-round matches were close contests not decided until the 18th hole.If Fox's early foes had provided struggles, facing Williams, a U.S. Walker Cup team member in 2011 who had won the Western Amateur earlier in the month, would seemingly be his toughest challenge of all. Yet Fox embraced the moment. "I was nervous the first couple matches, and for some reason this match I kind of felt at home," Fox said. "I was finally playing with galleries and enjoyed myself out there and really just had fun."It helped that Fox got off to a quick start, winning the third and fourth holes. (It was the first time Williams had trailed in a match all week.) A birdie on the par-3 sixth and a par on the ninth extended the lead to a surprising 4-up margin at the turn. "Beyond expectations," Fox described the circumstances.The roughly 100 folks in the gallery more than likely "expected" Williams to make a comeback charge, considering the many they witnessed the previous day. But Williams couldn't make a move, making pars that only halved holes on Nos. 10-14. A birdie to win the 15th was too little too late, as Fox closed out the match on the 16th with a birdie."He just played great the whole time," Williams said. "And I couldn't get anything going. It's tough to beat a guy when he's making a lot of pars and you're already down. I just really didn't have that much out there."Suffice it to say, the week at Cherry Hills has been the highlight of the summer for Fox, who also competed at the U.S. Amateur Public Links last month, advancing to the third round. He also bolstered his match-play experience by getting to the semifinals of the Tennessee Match Play.With his interview over, Fox went into clubhouse's dining area for some lunch, but not before retrieving his phone. So who would he call back first?"Mom," he said. "It's funny, she hadn't talked to me all week, just talking to my dad each night. But last night we talked. I asked her, 'why didn't you want to talk with me [before]?' and she said 'You were doing fine. I didn't want to jinx you.' "***** Fox will face Hagy, a redshirt senior at Cal, who knocked off another Washington golfer, Cheng-Tsung Pan, 4 and 3. On the other side of the bracket, Thomas, the 2012 NCAA player of the year from Alabama, defeated Australia's Oliver Goss, 1 up to set up a semifinal match with Weaver, who defeated Ricardo Gouveia, 4 and 3. It marks the first time since 2004 that all four semifinalists are from the U.S. The way the brackets shapes up, there's also the potential for Hagy and Weaver to face each other in the final. USGA officials believe that would be the first match-up of college teammates in one of their championships. Cal men's coach Steve Desimone flew into town last night, arriving late in the evening, to watch his charges."It's exciting to see the guys step up," said Desimone, who actually had four of his players reach match play. "The guys really like each other and help push each other. I know everybody is excited to see this happen."Powered By iWebRSS.co.cc