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Senior Travis Johnson played well in Pennsylvania but failed to capture the U.S. Amateur Title.

The U.S. Amateur has eluded the grasps of a UCLA golfer for over a hundred years and will continue to do so this year.

Four current Bruins and two former Bruins participated in the grueling six-day event held at historic and brutal Oakmont Country Club in Oakmont, Pa.

Seniors Steve Conway, Travis Johnson, and John Merrick, along with junior John Poucher, each qualified to earn one of the 312 spots in the two-round stroke play competition.

Stroke play is used to whittle the field down to 64. Conway and Johnson both made the cut at 3-over par and 6-over par, respectively. Former Bruins Parker McLachlin and Spencer Levin also made the cut.

Merrick’s 11-over performance and Poucher’s 21-over two round total were not good enough to advance on into the later rounds of the competition. Aug. 20 was the first day of match play, with Conway and McLachlin earning the higher seed in their matches, and Johnson and Levin playing the role of underdogs in their matches.

McLachlin scored a 3 and 2 victory over Greg Reynolds and advanced to the second round of match play (McLachlin was 3 up with two holes to play). Levin was quickly eliminated 4 and 3 by Billy Hurley.

Johnson’s match with Division II standout Marc Lawless came down to the 18th hole with Johnson 1-up. Both golfers drove their balls into the right rough and drew nasty lies. While Lawless was forced to play short of the green, Johnson smacked an iron from a hanging lie onto the middle of the green. Johnson 3-putted his way to victory to earn him more playing time on Thursday.

“This course is tough,” Johnson told ESPN. “It rivals where we played nationals at Karsten in Stillwater.”

Conway, the only player to shoot under-par at Oakmont CC during stroke play, was in a dog fight with Nebraska native Nate Lashley.

Coming into the short par-4 17th hole 1 down, Conway elected to play conservatively and hit an iron off the tee. On his approach to the green, Conway’s ball carried a tad too far, and instead of the ball spinning back right toward the flag, the ball hung up on the fringe inches from the green. Electing to take a drop because of a sprinkler head near his ball, Conway drew a more difficult lie and then went on to hit a sub-par chip. Conway’s subsequent putt inched past the hole. Lashley’s par on the hole earned him a 2-up victory.

With most of their teammates eliminated, Johnson and McLachlin were UCLA’s last hope of obtaining the crown. However, their runs at the Amateur title came to a halt Aug. 21 in the second round of match play.

McLachlin’s match with West Virginian Patrick Carter came down to the 18th hole all square. McLachlin’s double bogey on the final hole gave Carter the victory and McLachlin an early ticket home.

Johnson began his match with Sacramento’s Jason Hartwick on a good note, birdieing the first two holes to quickly go 2-up. But Hartwick quickly answered the challenge by winning the next two holes. All square through eight holes, Hartwick went 1-up on the ninth hole and never relinquished the lead from that point forward, closing out Johnson 3 and 1.