Eight holes in a row at Oakland Hills
The 116th U.S. Amateur was all square after 18 holes of the final. Then Curtis Luck, a 20-year-old from Perth, won eight straight holes on the South Course and beat Brad Dalke 6 and 4 on August 21, 2016.
The afternoon 18, hole by hole
Match status after each hole of the second 18. Red is Luck up, green is Dalke up, and the shaded holes are Luck’s eight in a row. The match ended on the 32nd.
How the final turned
The morning round was close. The two traded wins early, and the match went to lunch all square. The afternoon started badly for Luck: on the 19th he chunked his second shot out of the right rough and advanced it about 40 yards. His father, Stuart, was caddying, and told him they now needed to play some good golf. Dalke won the hole to go 1 up.
Luck then won the 20th through the 27th, starting with an eagle on the par-5 second, to go from 1 down to 7 up. The 25th, the par-4 seventh, was the hole Dalke needed. Dalke, four down, hit his approach from the rough to four feet; Luck holed from 22 feet and Dalke missed. Dalke won the 28th and 29th when Luck bogeyed. Luck holed a birdie putt on the 32nd, Dalke’s putt to halve slid past on the right, and the match was over.
Luck became the third Australian to win the U.S. Amateur, after Walter Travis, who won three times between 1900 and 1903, and Nick Flanagan in 2003. Both finalists got places in the 2017 U.S. Open at Erin Hills. Luck also got Masters and Open Championship invitations.
The week
312 players from 29 countries played two rounds of stroke play, one on each of Oakland Hills’ North and South courses. Duke’s Alex Smalley was medalist at 133. The low 64 went into match play, all on the South Course.
Luck needed 21 holes to beat Nick Carlson in Saturday’s semifinal. Carlson was a Michigan sophomore from Hamilton and had most of the gallery. Luck didn’t lead until the last hole, when he reached the par-5 12th in two with a 3-wood from about 260 yards.
- Dates
- August 15–21, 2016
- Venue
- Oakland Hills Country Club, Bloomfield Township, Michigan
- Champion
- Curtis Luck, Australia
- Runner-up
- Brad Dalke, Norman, Oklahoma
- Final score
- 6 and 4, over 36 holes
Match play, from the quarterfinals
Quarterfinals, Aug 19
Semifinals, Aug 20
Final, Aug 21
Where they went
Six players from the round of 16 and later rounds, and what they did after Oakland Hills.
- Collin MorikawaLost to David Boote, round of 16Won the 2020 PGA Championship and the 2021 Open Championship.
- Joaquin NiemannLost to Sahith Theegala, round of 16Turned pro in April 2018 after a year as the world’s top-ranked amateur, finished sixth on debut, and won on the PGA Tour the following year.
- Sahith TheegalaReached the quarterfinalsWon the Haskins, Hogan and Nicklaus awards at Pepperdine in 2020, then won the 2023 Fortinet Championship.
- Cameron YoungLost to Curtis Luck, round of 16Won twice on the Korn Ferry Tour in 2021, was PGA Tour Rookie of the Year in 2021–22, and later became a PGA Tour winner.
- Sam HorsfieldLost to Dylan Meyer in 19 holes, round of 16Won the 2020 Hero Open, his first European Tour title.
- Brad DalkeRunner-upPlayed for Oklahoma, part of the program’s 2017 NCAA championship team.
Bags
We couldn’t find published bags from Oakland Hills. These are the earliest setups on record for each player, dated, so they show what each player carried soon after 2016 rather than that week. Luck, Niemann and Morikawa all signed their first pro equipment deals with the brands they’d played as amateurs. Bettinardi, which makes Horsfield’s putter, says it has known him since he was 10.
| Player | Driver | Woods and long clubs | Irons | Wedges | Putter | Ball |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Curtis LuckApril 2017, pro debut | Callaway Great Big Bertha Epic, 9° | Callaway XR Pro 3-wood, 16°; Apex UT 3-iron | Callaway Apex prototype (4–9); Mack Daddy 2 PW | Mack Daddy 2 (50°); Mack Daddy 2 Tour Grind (56°, 60°) | Odyssey Metal-X Milled 330M | Non-Callaway, model not reported |
| Joaquin NiemannApril 2018, pro debut | Ping G400 LST | Ping G400 fairway and hybrids | Ping iBlade | Ping Glide 2.0 | Ping Anser | Titleist Pro V1x |
| Collin MorikawaJune 2019, pro debut | TaylorMade M5, 9° | M5 Rocket 3-wood, 14°; GAPR LO, 17° | TaylorMade P730 (4–PW) | Not reported | Not reported | Not reported |
| Sam HorsfieldAugust 2020, Hero Open win | TaylorMade SIM, 8° | TaylorMade M6 (15°, 18°) | TaylorMade P750 (4), P7TW (5–PW) | TaylorMade MG Raw (52°, 56°, 60°) | Bettinardi Dass BBZero Tour | Titleist Pro V1x |
| Cameron Young2021, Korn Ferry Tour | Not reported | Titleist T100 (3–4) | Titleist 620 MB (5–PW) | Titleist Vokey SM8 (52°, 56°, 62°) | Scotty Cameron Circle T T11 | Titleist Pro V1 |
| Sahith TheegalaFall 2021, rookie season | Ping G425 LST, 10.5° | Ping G425 hybrid, 17° | Ping iBlade (2–6), Blueprint (7–PW) | Ping Glide (50°); Glide 2.0 (54°, 58°) | Ping Anser 2 | Titleist Pro V1 |
| Brad DalkeJuly 2026, no earlier bag on record | Callaway Quantum Triple Diamond, 10.5° | Callaway X Forged UT, 16° | Callaway Apex CB (3–9) | Callaway Opus SP (46°, 52°, 56°, 60°) | Odyssey Ai-Dual Square 2 Square Max | Bridgestone Tour B X |
Sources: Golf Digest (Luck), Golf Monthly and GolfWRX (Niemann), TaylorMade via Inside Golf (Morikawa), GolfWRX (Horsfield), National Club Golfer (Young), GolfWRX (Theegala), GolfWRX (Dalke).
Oakland Hills
The South Course is a Donald Ross design from 1918, in Bloomfield Township outside Detroit. It has hosted six U.S. Opens, the 2004 Ryder Cup and the 2008 PGA Championship. Ben Hogan called it a monster after winning the 1951 U.S. Open there, and the name stuck.
The 2016 championship was the club’s second U.S. Amateur, after Ricky Barnes beat Hunter Mahan in the 2002 final.
The USGA has the full results and 64-player bracket: final report, semifinal report.