PINEHURST - When Brady Exber's final tee shot of the day headed straight for the cup, he raised his arms. When the would-be hole-in-one lipped out, he fell to the ground.

After a second long, grueling day in the heat at Pinehurst Resort and Country Club, Exber worried that he might have needed an eagle on the ninth hole of Pinehurst's No. 2 course to advance to match play at the U.S. Amateur.

It turned out he needed only birdie to avoid a playoff, and while his short putt spun around the lip before dropping, it still may have been easier clinching a spot in the final 64 than it was getting up after his faux collapse on the tee.

At 52, Exber is the oldest of the 62 players who secured match-play spots Tuesday, with the final two determined in a 26-man playoff today.

"At my age, yeah, it gets a little long," Exber said. "My legs coming down the eighth hole [his 17th of the day], I could feel them. I had two holes to go and I could feel them. I said, 'You know what? I better just, I just had to hit a couple more shots and hang in there.' "

Most of the men his age here are serving as caddies for their college-age sons. It's the few who aren't, such as Exber, who make the Amateur special.

Anyone who spends a few minutes on the Pinehurst veranda this week could be forgiven for thinking he had wandered into a college tournament. The vast majority of the field is a few years on either side of the legal drinking age, iPods plugged in on the driving range while technicolor golf bags and stuffed-animal headcovers loudly proclaim their college allegiances.

Their fashionable white belts aren't just for show. They're actually holding up their shorts.

Of the players already in the field for match play, which begins today and will end with a 36-hole final Sunday, only five are older than 25. These guys turned professional in something other than golf long ago.

Exber is a member of the Southern Nevada Golf Hall of Fame and a two-time state amateur champion, the titles coming 19 years apart. Mike McCoy, a Des Moines, Iowa, insurance agent, is 45. David Bartman, 37, is an investment banker in Los Angeles. Kevin Marsh, 32, coached Pepperdine to an NCAA title when the coach fell ill -- a year after he graduated. Skip Berkmeyer, 34, owns a trophy business in St. Louis.

Without "true" amateurs like them -- or Raleigh insurance agent Paul Simson, who at 57 was the oldest player in his 15th Amateur appearance but missed the cut -- this might as well be the NCAA championship.

They are part of a long tradition of amateurs for whom golf really is a second job. Jay Sigel, yet another insurance agent, won back-to-back U.S. Amateurs, the second at age 39, before turning pro on the Champions Tour. John Harris and Allen Doyle, both eventual Champions Tour winners, were co-medalists in 1991. Harris was 39, Doyle 43.

"I grew up playing with my dad's group on Saturdays and Sundays, and they're all at least 40 or 50," said Cary's Kevin O'Connell, a rising sophomore at North Carolina who clinched a match-play spot with a birdie on his final hole. "I'm kind of used to that, but it is a little different playing in such a big tournament with guys that old. Obviously, they can play. Some of them are ex-pros, so they've proven their mettle all over the world."

Exber, on the other hand, was paired with a precocious 15-year-old from California and an incoming freshman at LSU, neither of whom made the cut.

"I love hanging with the young guys," Exber said. "I've picked up the lingo. My daughter's 15, so now I understand what she's saying when she's talking to me."

Exber has qualified for the Amateur four times in 16 tries, and this is his first trip to the match-play rounds. That differentiates him from much of the field, for whom this is their last chance at amateur glory before turning pro.

For Exber and his more experienced peers, it doesn't get any bigger than this.

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