Men's Golf | 7/18/2018 12:14:00 PM

FAIRFAX, Va. - Connor Messick will represent George Mason on the national stage next month – before he's ever played in a Patriot uniform.

The graduate student qualified for the 2018 U.S. Amateur Championship at historic Pebble Beach in California. Messick will compete in the prestigious tournament, which begins from Aug. 13-19 and will be held at the Pebble Beach Golf Links and the Spyglass Golf Course. Portions of the tournament will be televised nationally on FS1 and Fox. 

He is the second Mason standout to qualify for the U.S. Amateur Championship in three years as recent alum Eric Edwards qualified in 2016 heading into his junior season. 

Messick, a native of nearby Oak Hill, Va., is a graduate transfer from the University of Virginia, where he spent the last four years. The Chantilly High grad will have one season of eligibility remaining at Mason.

Messick qualified for the U.S. Amateur by tying for second at a sectional qualifier on Monday and Tuesday at The Country Club at Woodmore in Mitchellville, Md. He shot a 2-under 142 (73-69) for the tournament. 

He had the second-best round of the day on Tuesday, shooting a 3-under 69. He posted four birdies on the day, including three on the front nine, to climb up the leaderboard. He tied Matthew Bassler, a former standout at Loyola University (Md.), and finished three strokes behind tournament champion and George Washington senior Logan Lowe.

Messick, a four-time All-ACC Honor Roll honoree, redshirted his freshman year at UVA in 2014-15 but lettered the next three years. 

Rising junior Jeff Wilson earned second alternate status at his U.S. Amateur sectional qualifier in Texas last week. He finished 1-under at the two-day tournament in San Antonio to finish fourth. If players from his region or a select number of exempt players nationally cannot compete, the Austin, Texas, product will tee it up in mid-August at Pebble Beach, which will host the U.S. Open in 2019.