Donald Constable and Kelly Kraft advanced through Friday’s semifinal round and squared off Saturday on Pinehurst No. 2 in the 36-hole championship pairing of the 110th North and South Amateur Championship.

Kraft knocked off defending champion David Chung in a semifinal match that went 22 holes, after Chung, a Fayetteville native and the tournament’s top seed, scored a 7 and 5 win in the morning’s quarterfinals. Meanwhile, Kraft, the 13th seed from Denton, Texas, had to grit out a 19-hole victory over 12th seed Riley Arp in the quarterfinals.

“I am just exhausted right now,” said Kraft, a rising senior golfer at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. “It really has been the most stressful golf tournament I have every played in because of all the playoffs.”

It was Kraft’s fourth straight match to go extra holes. After winning 3 and 1 in Wednesday’s opening round, he played 42 holes on Thursday, winning in 20 holes in the second round and 22 in the third. By Friday afternoon, Kraft had played 100 holes through the first five rounds of the championship.

Kraft drew first blood in the semifinal match with a birdie to win the 407-yard, par-4 seventh. However, Chung squared the match on the ensuing hole with a par. Things then stayed all-square until Kraft sank a mid-range birdie putt on the par-4 13th hole to grab a 1-up edge. It was his second birdie of the back nine and third of the day.

Next, the pair each parred holes 13-15 as Kraft still held a 1-up lead. But Chung mounted a charge, carding back-to-back birdies on the 525-yard, par-5 16th and 190-yard, par-3 17th to grab the momentum and a 1-up advantage as the match entered the homeward hole.

After bombing a high drive down the center of the 18th fairway, Kraft nestled a low iron approach in tight. Needing to sink the putt to force extra holes, he smoothed the 5-footer for a birdie as the match was again all-square for a fourth time.

“I was feeling good coming in on the late holes of regulation,” said Kraft. “He made good birdies on 16 and 17 to take a 1-up lead, but I still felt good. I told myself if I could just get my drive down the fairway, I would be OK, because I birdie 18, so there was no reason why I couldn’t do it again.”

Chung had makeable birdie putts on holes 19 and 21 that would have given him the win, but one grazed the edge of the cup and another lipped out.

“I had my opportunities in the playoff, but I must have had some adrenaline flowing,” said Chung. “I just could not get one to drop.”

Kraft had a long birdie putt on the 472-yard, par-4 20th but could not convert.

First off the tee on the third extra hole, Kraft pushed his driver well right, and his ball landed among a tall patch of wooded area and came to rest in the pine straw. Chung then pulled out an iron and placed his ball down the center of the fairway. However, Kraft made a nice out and followed it with a skillful flop over the left greenside bunker to get up and down and extend the match.

He again let his wedge do the talking by getting up and down for a birdie on the par-5 22nd. Moments after Chung got a sizeable cheer from the gallery after stiffing a 30-yard explosion flop from a bunker to just under 4 feet from the flag, Kraft hit a pitch-and-run from off the front left that came to rest close to 5 feet from the hole.

Kraft putted first and poured in his birdie try. It would prove to be the match-clincher, as Chung’s attempt missed on the low side of the cup, marking the end of his title defense.

“While it was nice to make it back to the semis, only the winner matters,” said Chung. “I played well today, but you have to give Kelly his due. He stepped up when he needed to and was very clutch down the stretch.”

Meanwhile, Constable, the 31st seed from Deephaven, Minn., was the first semifinalist to secure a spot in Saturday’s final with a 3 and 2 win against 19th seed Kyle Peterman.

“Making it to the final match feels great,” said Constable, a rising senior at the University of Minnesota. “I barely was exempt into the top 32 and beat some good players along the way, including Patrick Reed, who was the two-seed, so it really feels good.”

Through six holes, Constable was 3-up. However, the match stood at all-square as the players made the turn. From there, Constable claimed the next four holes to take a commanding 4-up advantage through 13. After both players parred the 14th, Peterman won the next hole with a birdie.

However, that was as close as he would come. On the 16th hole with the contest dormie, Constable matched Peterman’s birdie to advance on to the championship match.

“On this golf course, if you hit a lot of greens, you can do OK,” said Constable. “Today, I came out and hit the first five greens, which helped me take an early lead. Then I missed a few greens, and as result, Kyle was able to fight back and tie things at the turn.

“Fortunately, I hit the ball on the back side as well as I have all week. Winning 10 with a solid par and then holing out from the bunker on 11 for birdie to go 2-up was really big.”

Contact F.W. Manning II at (910) 639-5481 or by e-mail at frankwm2@gmail.com