Buzz Fly advances at Senior Amateur

Former PGA Tour player Buzz Fly beat Patrick Tallent 5 and 3 on Wednesday to advance to the semifinals in the rain- and fog-delayed USGA Senior Amateur.

Fly, a 58-year-old reinstated amateur from Memphis, Tenn., will face Pat O'Donnell on Thursday morning at Wade Hampton Golf Club. The 59-year-old O'Donnell, from Happy Valley, Ore., beat David Szewczul 5 and 4.

Heavy rain delayed the start of the quarterfinals by 4 hours, 15 minutes, and the semifinals were later postponed to Thursday because of fog.

''The greens are still good, really good,'' Fly said. ''You can't even tell that it rained out there. They are still fast, even with water on them.''

In the other semifinal, 58-year-old Chip Lutz of Reading, Pa., will play 56-year-old Douglas Hanzel of Savannah, Ga. Lutz beat Ray Thompson 4 and 3, and Hanzel edged Don Erickson III 3 and 1.

''I was trying to relax. It was really difficult,'' Lutz said. ''It was a lot of starting and stopping and, in this format, you hope to get started and keep moving. We were here three times (at the club) until we finally got the word that we were going to tee it up. Then we had 45 minutes to get ready to go. It was a lot of waiting and a bunch of hurrying up.''