Minnesota golfer goes from No. 4,292 in the world to the U.S. Amateur quarterfinals

In the eminently quotable golf movie “Caddyshack,” Bill Murray’s Carl Spackler character in one scene daydreams about pulling off “an incredible Cinderella story” as the ultimate underdog.

Jimmy Abdo, an Edina native who golfs for Division III Gustavus, is living that dream this week at the U.S. Amateur Championship in San Francisco.

Ranked No. 4,292 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking heading into the tournament, which started with 312 players, Abdo has been on a remarkable run.

He’s advanced all the way to final eight and will tee off in a match play quarterfinal against Jackson Herrington at 3:45 p.m. Central time Friday (1:45 in San Francisco, where the tournament is being held).

I talked about his remarkable run and story on Friday’s Daily Delivery podcast.

You can follow scoring from Friday’s action on the USGA web site. TV coverage of the quarterfinal matches runs from 6-7 p.m. on Peacock and from 7-9 p.m. on the Golf Channel.

John Daly II is also in the quarterfinals.

“Being the underdog, I feel like there’s way less pressure on me to perform well,” he said after winning two matches Thursday over more well-established opponents to reach the quarterfinals. “I feel like I can go out there and play pretty free. That’s what we did for most of the holes out there.”

Abdo, who said he was not really recruited out of high school and wasn’t even in Edina’s state tournament lineup until his junior year, had a strong freshman season at Gustavus in 2024-25.

He entered the transfer portal but again received no interest, so he took himself out of the portal and is slated to golf again as a sophomore at Gustavus, located about 75 miles southwest of the Minneapolis.

“This is my first time trying to qualify for the U.S. Am. I never felt like I was ready,” he said Thursday. “Coming out of high school, I was never really recruited at all. That kind of adds into this underdog story where no one really believes I’m capable of playing good golf like this. I know I am, and I’ve had that confidence even when I was in high school.”