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U.S. AMATEUR Photo from AP Dan Houlihan of Canada peers off into the Pacific Ocean, while waiting his turn to putt on Spyglass Hill's first green. '97 champion fails to make cut Allred, Tredway also miss match play phase The Associated Press PEBBLE BEACH, Calif . -- Matt Kuchar stood on the edge of the 18th green, his back to the Pacific Ocean, and looked skyward. Then he let out a sigh. Kuchar, the 1997 U.S. Amateur champion and a favorite in this year's event, had just been ousted before reaching match play. He shot a 10-over 81 Tuesday on the Pebble Beach course, giving him a two-day total of 154 and missing the cut by two strokes. Kuchar, one of the rising stars in golf, was among the leaders after shooting a 73 Monday on the Spyglass Hill course in the first round of stroke play. But he was unable to work out of several tough situations Tuesday. "It was more unlucky than bad today. All the breaks that could go wrong went wrong," he said. "The lack of knowledge of the course really hurt. Each time I made a little bit of a mistake it multiplied itself and became a big mistake. I kept being in places you couldn't be." Former Ashland High stars Jason Allred and Andrew Tredway missed the 36-hole cut score of 152. Allred followed up with his first-day 77 with a 79 to finish at 156. Tredway matched his first-day 81. Kuchar, who on Monday said he enjoyed amateur golf so much he might never turn pro, talked in recent weeks of how much he was looking forward to competing for another amateur title. Now he'll be watching as 64 others move on to match play. "It's disappointing. This is a tournament I really wanted to reprove myself," he said. "The putting was poor today. It's usually my strong point, but they seemed to spin out today." Todd Miller had a much better day, though he lost his caddie while advancing to the match-play portion that begins Wednesday and ends, six rounds later, on Sunday. Miller, 19, was accompanied around the course by a man who's quite familiar with the Monterey Peninsula -- his father, Johnny Miller, who twice won the AT&T Pro-Am tournament held each year at Pebble Beach. "He helps me out here, he's played the course a bunch," said Miller, the youngest of six children. "He knows what club I should hit and he knows my game pretty well. And I'm not an easy guy to caddie for, I get mad. He keeps me calm." Miller shot a 4-over 75 Tuesday on Pebble Beach, following his par 72 Monday on Spyglass Hill. His two-round total of 147 easily qualified him for match play. The cut was at 9-over 152. "At least you can't say I'm a jinx. It's not easy for a father to tell his kids what to do," said the elder Miller, a former U.S. Open champion who won the AT&T tourney in 1987 and 1994. "He's real strong-minded, but that's what you want in a player. I think I'm a little bit of a security blanket. I think I know Pebble Beach better than anybody in the world." Johnny Miller won't be able to caddie for his son the rest of the week. He'll be doing TV commentary on the championship -- perhaps passing judgment on his son's shots. And that would only be fair, because the younger Miller has his own opinions on his father's TV work. "He's my father, so I'm not going to criticize him," Todd Miller said. "But some of his comments are a little over the edge sometimes." Gene Elliott, president of a heavy machinery company in West Des Moines, Iowa, had the best two-day score, even-par 143. He's a former pro who was reinstated as an amateur in 1995 after six undistinguished years on the American and European tours. Elliott usually has his 12-year-old son caddie for him, but Nick Elliott is back home in Iowa after an asthma attack. So his dad spent the past two days working with a caddie named Jack Daniels and trying to stay focused on golf. "I'm trying not to be in awe of this place. I tried not to look at the ocean, I tried to look down and play," Elliott said. "I'm trying not to think about the beauty of this place until it's over." Among those advancing to match play was 16-year-old Christo Greyling, a South African who lives in Orlando, Fla., and was the youngest player in the original field of 312. Joining Kuchar on the sideline was Tom McKnight, runner-up in the Amateur last year, who shot a 10-over 82 on Spyglass on Tuesday and failed to reach match play. "It was pretty embarrassing the shots I hit. I just played terrible," said McKnight, a petroleum distributor from Galax, Va. "I was playing poorly before I came out here, and I just followed it up by playing badly here." Today's Sports Index Mail Tribune Copyright� The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, OR U.S.A.