Keaton Vo won four straight matches by one hole at the North and South Amateur.
But it takes five victories to win the championship. And Vo lost the fifth to Joshua Bai — by one hole.
Bai, a University of Florida golfer from New Zealand, rallied from a three-hole deficit Saturday afternoon on the back nine at Pinehurst No. 2 to beat Vo, 1-up.
Bai took the lead with a 12-foot birdie putt on No. 17. At 18, he punched his approach from pine straw through a small opening in the trees right of the fairway onto the green and closed out the match.
Vo, an Austin, Texas, native who played two years at Texas before finishing his collegiate career at the University of North Carolina, made a brave run after earning one of the two final spots in the 32-player match-play bracket in a six-player playoff.
On Saturday morning, Vo slipped past Ayden Fynaut of Fresno, California, an incoming freshman at Pepperdine, in 19 holes in the semifinals.
