OAKMONT, Pa. — Nick Gabrelcik knew his game was something special back in 2018.
The Trinity, Florida, native was a junior at JW Mitchell High School and won the state match play that year, as well as a few junior events. The next summer he earned low-amateur honors at the 2019 Florida Open.
“That was the turning point where I knew I could compete with these guys on a regular basis,” Gabrelcik said on Thursday at the 121st U.S. Amateur at Oakmont Country Club. The rising sophomore at North Florida won a hard-earned match against Liberty’s Kieran Vincent, 1 up, to continue what’s been an impressive year of play.
As a freshman for the Ospreys, Gabrelcik won three events and finished inside the top 10 in seven of nine tournaments. He set a program season record with 69.59 stroke average thanks to only four rounds over par.
“Just playing amateur events, playing against college kids as a junior leading up to college, it really got me comfortable with them,” said Gabrelcik. “I knew a lot of them and I’ve succeeded against a lot of them, so I just took that into college and ultimately worked out.”
Gabrelcik shot rounds of 69 and 71 in the stroke-play portion of this week’s USGA championship, finishing T-29 at even par to earn the No. 35 seed and a match against Vincent, who provided a stout test in the first round of match play. Gabrelcik held a 3-up lead with four holes to play, but Vincent clawed his way back into the match thanks to a few miscues from Gabrelcik down the stretch.
“Normally my ball striking is the strength of my game. Unfortunately, that was kind of going away towards the end,” said Gabrelcik. “I don’t know if it was nerves or anxiousness to finish the match. I just talked to my brother who’s one of my closest friends, he’s my caddie, and he was telling me, ‘Calm down, you’ve done this before.’
“Me and him we were joking around a lot on the course just trying to keep the mood light and not get too serious,” Gabrelcik explained. “I know Kieran, too. We’re both in that Atlantic Sun Conference, so we knew each other.”
After losing Nos. 15 and 17, Gabrelcik settled down and clutched up, making par on the 18th to advance to the afternoon’s Round of 32 against one of the hottest players left in the field, recent Western Amateur champion and Stanford sophomore Michael Thorbjornsen.
“Normally towards the end of the round here I would have got frustrated but I’ve learned over the years that just keeping calm is always the better way to go,” said Gabrelcik. “Hopefully throughout the next few matches I don’t lose it towards the end but I know that I can obviously go out here and play well, win a match. Hope I can carry it to the next match.”
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