When the 32-year-old made a 20-foot birdie putt on the fourth hole of his Round-of-16 match on Wednesday morning in the 40th U.S. Mid-Amateur Championship at wind-whipped Sankaty Head Golf Club, he recognised some familiar shouts.

“Two of my best friends didn’t tell me they were coming, but when I made that birdie, I heard their yells and I knew straightaway,” said Brown, who continued his dreamlike run through the match-play bracket with a pair of victories and some unexpected on-site support. “It took me a hole to readjust. Who knows what kind of flight they took last night to make the 5 am ferry from Hyannis to be here?”

Brown won that match, 4&2, over Richard “Skip” Berkmeyer, and followed that performance by ousting Colby Harwell, 6&5, in the afternoon to continue the farthest advance ever for a No.64 seed in this championship.

No previous No.64 seed had won more than two matches. Brown, who secured his spot in match play with a 95-yard hole-out for an eagle in what became a 6-for-1 play-off on Monday, has since won four matches, starting with a come-from-behind, 1-up victory over top-seeded Yaroslav Merkulov. The medallist had set the championship stroke-play record before Brown rallied from 3-down with six holes to play.

Brown will face past champion Stewart Hagestad in the semi finals. PHOTO: USGA.

The task doesn’t get easier for Brown. His semi final opponent on Thursday is championship stalwart Stewart Hagestad.

Hagestad, the 2016 champion, has become a fixture in the U.S. Mid-Am semi finals, having now reached this stage in four of his five starts in the championship. He did it on Wednesday with impressive play and a sportsmanlike gesture that highlights the best instincts of the game.

Hagestad defeated Stephen Behr Jr. in 23 holes in the morning by making a birdie on the 416-yard, par-4 fifth hole after the players had tied the seven previous holes, a match that Hagestad called perhaps the best 18-hole duel he had ever been involved in.

In the afternoon, Hagestad led Christian Sease, 2-up, as they played the 14th hole. Having asked Hagestad to move his ball marker, Sease reminded Hagestad that he had failed to move the marker back to its original spot before attempting his birdie putt.

Had Hagestad putted from the incorrect spot, he would have lost the hole. Hagestad re-marked his ball and missed his birdie try, then immediately conceded Sease’s par putt from eight feet as a thank you for the reminder by his opponent. Hagestad went on to win, 2-up.

“It just felt like the right thing to do to give him the 8-footer,” said Hagestad, a three-time Walker Cup competitor. “He could have easily said nothing, and I could have lost the hole. It’s more important to be a good guy than anything else. Obviously winning the hole is a plus, but it was the right thing to do, and I would do it again.”

Now Hagestad, the highest remaining seed at No.13 with an 18-3 record in this championship, will try to make his second final. He defeated Scott Harvey in 2016 in 37 holes at Stonewall Links by rallying from a late four-hole deficit with a flurry of five birdies.

The other semi final features Nick Maccario, representing his home state in this championship on Nantucket Island, squaring off against No.23 seed Mark Costanza. The No.59 seed, Maccario got into the field in the same 13-for-7 play-off as Brown on Monday afternoon, advancing along with five others with a par one hole earlier.

On Wednesday, he defeated 2014 runner-up Brad Nurski 3&2, and Gregor Orlando 5&4.

“I played a really heavy national schedule this year and didn’t necessarily get the results I wanted,” said Maccario, the 2020 Massachusetts Player of the Year. “But it certainly taught me a lot about the game, taught me a lot about how some of the best players play those golf courses. And now, being in the home state, knowing the weather and having played in the wind and everything else has certainly been helpful.”

Costanza, a graduate of St. John’s University who was the 2020 Player of the Year in both his home state and the Metropolitan Golf Association, married his wife, Meredith, on Septemer 18 and is enjoying something of a honeymoon prelude this week with her as his caddie.

“I would call this the first leg of our honeymoon,” said Costanza. “On Friday we are going to Italy for a week, so we weren’t sure how many matches and how long we’d be playing golf this week, but it’s been fun, and we’re obviously going to see it through.”

Costanza topped Brett Viboch 4&3, in the morning, and he defeated Andrew Bailey 5&4, in the afternoon quarterfinals.

Bailey had eliminated Garrett Rank, the No.2 seed, 2&1, in the morning Round of 16. Rank, who will begin his eighth year as an NHL referee next week, was the runner-up in the 2012 U.S. Mid-Am.