Congratulations to the 2019 Virtual U.S. Amateur Champion, birchi!
Saturday's second annual Virtual U.S. Amateur Championship was a thrilling head-to-head competition between four of WGT's top players from all over the world.
Live from the TCL Lounge at Topgolf Las Vegas, Young46 (USA), fmagnets (UK), birchi (Germany) and malini4life (Canada) competed for the 2019 Champion title. Also on the table was the chance to win an exclusive Virtual U.S. Amateur trophy, $2,000 in gift cards, a Phigolf WGT Edition and a choice of tickets to the 2020 U.S. Amateur or U.S. Open.
In the first semifinal, #1 seed Young46 beat #4 seed malini4life in a well-fought match between two highly skilled players, securing his spot in the finals.
The second semifinal featured birchi (#3 seed) upsetting the #2 seed (and returning Virtual U.S. Amateur Champion) fmagnets, putting on an impressive show.
He followed that up with another upset over Young46 in the championship, finishing 3 & 2. (In other words, finishing 3 up with 2 holes left to play.)
Quick facts about birchi: He entered this year's live event as the #3 seed, making the long 22 hour journey from Berlin, Germany to be there. He began playing the game as an alternative to playing real golf, which was too expensive as a student, joining the WGT community in 2012. Safe to say that his first appearance in a Virtual U.S. Amateur Championship event has proven to be a memorable one!
You can watch the full broadcasts from the event on Twitch or YouTube here, in case you missed it:
Congratulations again to all four of the 2019 Virtual U.S. Amateur Championship players, it was a blast having you all at Topgolf and getting to see you compete live!