The Georgia teammates advanced to the U.S. Amateur semifinals Friday and kept alive the possibility of an all-Bulldog championship round.
Mitchell rallied to defeat Charlie Holland 2 and 1 in one quarterfinal, and Patrick Reed defeated Graham Hill 4 and 3 to reach a Saturday semifinal matchup against perhaps the field's hottest player: fellow 18-year-old Danny Lee.
``I like our odds we're 50 percent right now over here. We have four people playing, two Bulldogs,'' Reed said. ``Adam's playing really well, and if I can get by Danny Lee, it's going to get interesting.''
Lee, who hasn't needed more than 15 holes to win any of his four match-play rounds, beat Morgan Hoffmann 4 and 3.
Mitchell will face Florida State's Drew Kittleson, who defeated former Louisville player Derek Fathauer 3 and 2.
The semifinal winners will square off in a 36-hole final on Sunday at Pinehurst's renowned No. 2 course, which is playing at par 70. And just like Georgia's top-ranked football squad, Mitchell and Reed each are looking to bringing a championship to Athens.
``It's fun to have your football team win, but it would be really cool to have a Georgia Bulldog win the U.S. Am,'' Mitchell said.
Mitchell, a senior at Georgia, trailed Holland by two before winning three straight on Nos. 7-9 to take the lead for good. His 40-yard chip-in on the seventh started the decisive string.
``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,'' Mitchell said. ``It did it just like I planned.''
Mitchell eagled the par-4 11th, then closed out his victory with a gimme par putt on 17 that put the pressure on Holland, a Texas player who missed a roughly 20-foot par putt to end the match.
Now he advances to face Kittleston, his playing partner when Mitchell shot a 62 last month during the first round of the Porter Cup.
``Nothing will surprise me out there,'' Kittleston said of Mitchell.
Reed is an 18-year-old Georgia freshman who barely advanced out of stroke play with a 4-over 144 and needed 23 holes to escape the third round. This time, he trailed Hill after one before overtaking him for good with a birdie on the par-5 fourth.
``I started hitting my irons a little better, had chances to make birdie putts and kept having to make him beat me with birdie putts, rather than always having to scramble to get up and down,'' Reed said.
Lee's latest dominant performance came despite an injury. His left shoulder was sore for the first five holes after he ``clicked'' it while practicing his driver roughly 2 hours before his tee time, but said he felt fine after treating it with ice, ibuprofen and a massage.
But that strong play might comes with one drawback he might not know how to approach holes Nos. 16-18 because he hasn't played them since his stroke-play round Tuesday.
``Maybe (I've) just got to keep playing well and don't play those holes,'' he quipped.
http://accesswdun.com/article/2008/8/212615