By Stuart Hall

Village of Pinehurst, N.C. — On the way to winning a U.S. Amateur Championship, a little luck can sometimes go a long way. On Friday, Adam Mitchell parlayed good fortune into a semifinal berth at Pinehurst Resort & Country Club’s No. 2 course.

Mitchell chipped in for birdie at the seventh hole to slow a surging Charlie Holland and later eagled the par-4 11^th en route to a 2-and-1 victory. Mitchell will face Drew Kittleson in the first semifinal match on Saturday.

"Definitely you’ve got to have some breaks go your way if you’re going to win any tournament," said Mitchell, 21, of Chattanooga, Tenn., and a senior at the University of Georgia. "You just never know which way a ball will bounce. I certainly had some good bounces today."

Despite winning the first hole, Mitchell admittedly did not come out sharp after winning Thursday’s second- and third-round matches in a combined 29 holes. Through the fourth hole he was 1 down and after the sixth he found himself 2 down.

"I didn't get up and down on six, I was 2 down and really wasn't panicking just yet, but still was a little unnerved," said Mitchell, who won the 50^th anniversary Porter Cup in July. "I wasn't happy with myself."

Mitchell was not about to panic, as there remained plenty of holes to swing the match, but his karma was taking a beating when he drove into the rough at the 404-yard, par-4 seventh and pitched out to 40 yards short of the green.

Then a funny thing happened on the way to possibly being 3 down.

"I told my dad I was going to land it just short and it was going to take one hop and roll right to it. And I did it just like I planned. Went right in the middle," said Mitchell of his birdie that won the hole and began a three-hole stretch that swung the lead in his favor for good.

Holland could only control his game and, despite his best efforts, lost the seventh and eighth holes despite pars. He then three-putted the ninth green for a bogey 4.

"I came out playing well, and hit some good shots early on, but then I let it slip there," said Holland, 22, of Dallas and a University of Texas junior who was a third-team All American in 2007. "But Adam made the shots when he needed and that’s what you have to do in order to win."

Holding a 1-up lead going into the 476-yard, par-4 11^th hole, Mitchell worked his magic again. Standing over a 152-yard downwind approach shot, Mitchell hit a wedge that started out a little to the right, but then drew back in with the wind.

Thinking he had hit the shot over the green and unable to see the ball land, Mitchell suddenly heard a bunch of yells and applause, which could only mean one thing — eagle on the sixth most difficult hole during match play qualifying. Ben Hogan once referred to the 11^th as the most difficult on the course.

"That's something I can take home with me, I guess," Mitchell said. "It's the hardest fairway out there to hit, very narrow and it's slanting to the right."

Holland twice got to within 1 down, but could not trim the deficit any further. Mitchell won the match with par at the par-3 17^th.

"Sure, I’m disappointed, but I accomplished my goal, and that was to make match play and see how far I could go," Holland said.

As for Mitchell, he envisioned being in Saturday’s semifinals, not to mention Sunday’s scheduled 36-hole final.

"Oh, without a doubt," he said. "You go into every tournament thinking you have a chance to win, you're not just playing to make the cut or playing to do this, you're playing to win," Mitchell said. "And I was; I saw myself being here."

With a little good luck sprinkled in along the way.

Stuart Hall is a freelance writer whose work has previously appeared on www.usamateur.org.