73rd U.S. Junior Amateur Home

What Happened

Chinn, 18, of Great Falls, Va., had to wait until the last tee time (2:12 p.m.) before starting his contest against Brendan Valdes, 18, of Orlando, Fla., the last player to make the draw following Wednesday morning’s 13-for-10 playoff. But after a tight opening nine, the No. 39 player in the World Amateur Golf Ranking®/WAGR® and incoming Duke University freshman cruised to a 3-and-2 win.

“I guess a little bit harder opponent than I would expect for the [Round of] 64, but at the same time, though, I've just got to play whoever I play,” said Chinn, who matched the 36-hole U.S. Junior Amateur stroke-play scoring record of 132. “We both played some really solid golf. I don't think we made a bogey on the front nine. I knew if I just continued to play my game … that eventually my lead would grow, which is what happened.”

No. 2 seed Andrew Goodman, 18, of Norman, Okla., headed to hometown University of Oklahoma this fall, won four holes in a row from No. 5 in his 5-and-4 victory over Rylan Wotherspoon, of Cincinnati, Ohio.

Both Ford twins, 18, from Peachtree Corners, Ga., also advanced. No. 4 seed David, a left-hander headed to the University of North Carolina next month, claimed five of six holes starting at No. 8 en route to a 5-and-4 win over Rylan Johnson, of Gilbert, Ariz. No. 7 seed Maxwell, a Georgia signee, built a 5-up lead through nine holes before settling for a 2-and-1 win over Connor Williams, of Escondido, Calif.

And No. 3 seed Nicholas Dunlap, 17, of Huntsville, Ala., a former Punt, Pass & Kick national finalist and runner-up in last week's PGA Junior, eliminated Jack Turner, of Orlando, Fla., 3 and 2.

The lone upset among the top-16 seeds was Jonas Appel, 17, of Encinitas, Calif., taking out No. 11 Benjamin James, of Milford, Conn., 2 and 1.

One of the wildest matches of the day saw No. 5 seed Caleb Surratt, 17, of Indian Trail, N.C., last week’s winner of the PGA Junior Championship, overcome an early 3-down deficit to defeat Daniel Choi, of Keller, Texas, the son of eight-time PGA Tour winner K.J. Choi.

What’s Next

Two rounds of match play are on tap for Thursday, with the Round of 32 starting at 7 a.m. EDT and the Round of 16 scheduled to begin at 1:15 p.m. The quarterfinals and semifinals will be contested on Friday, with Peacock streaming live from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m., and Golf Channel re-airing the broadcast from 7:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. The 36-hole championship match is Saturday.

Notable

• Six players from North Carolina, led by Country Club of North Carolina member Jackson Van Paris, qualified for match play. The others were Spencer Turtz (Charlotte), Owen Kose (Holly Springs), Hampton Roberts (Cary), Caleb Surratt (Indian Trail) and Sihan Sandhu (Pinehurst). Van Paris, Surratt and Roberts were the only victors. California led the way with 11 competitors, followed by Florida with nine.
  
  
• Besides the USA, six other countries were represented in the match-play draw: the Russian Federation (Matvey Golovanov); the Netherlands (Benjamin Reuter), England (Conor Gough); France (Martin Couvra); Canada (Hunter Thomson) and the United Arab Emirates (Arjun Gupta).
  
  
• A pair of players produced 7-and-5 victories. Rowan Sullivan, of Charleston, S.C., won eight of his last nine holes in his win over Andrew Clark, while Carson Brewer, of Jacksonville, Fla., didn’t lose a hole in his triumph over Cole Ekert.
  
  
• The 13-for-10 playoff for the final match-play spots lasted four holes and 1 hour, 49 minutes.
  
  
• Two of the 32 matches went extra holes, the longest being Gupta’s 20-hole win over Jackson Koivun. Luke Clanton, of Miami Lakes, Fla., edged Ben Sluzas in 19 holes.
  
  
• Six members of the 82nd Airborne Division Paratroopers from nearby Fort Bragg served as caddies this week. One, specialist Zachary Wells, made match play only to see his player, Brady Siravo, lose to Cohen Trolio. The others who caddied are Jacob Kirkpatrick, Nathan Krupin, Tanner Nelson, Travis Bryant and Larry Lofley.  

Quotable

“Yesterday was kind of the same schedule in terms of waking up, eating and coming here. Kind of just stuck with that. Kind of took my mind off of golf this morning, just kind of relaxed. It wasn't too bad.” – Kelly Chinn on the wait to play his Round-of-64 match

“If you want to win the event you've got to beat them all anyways, so that's kind of the way I look at it. I don't look at it any differently even if I was playing a bunch of guys I've never heard of. You've just got to go out and try to play your game and play a little better than the guy you're playing against.” – Jackson Van Paris when asked about his potentially difficult draw

“It was a different type of pressure that I've never really been in, having to defend the [1-up] lead coming down 18, especially with a great player like Daniel [Choi]. It was a different level of intensity than I've had before, but I think it's great to put that under my belt for future play in match play.” – Caleb Surratt on the wild momentum swings of his opening-round match

“She was unreal at reading greens today. She was a huge help. I think she was a little tired out there and she kept going.” – David Ford on the assistance from caddie/girlfriend Amanda Sambach, a University of Virginia signee

“Coming back to the U.S. Junior, it's a little different, just the way guys play, period, the way junior golfers play and the way good amateurs play is different. But still, golf is golf and the grass doesn't know who's hitting the ball off of it.” – Cohen Trolio on playing his first U.S. Junior after two U.S. Amateur starts, including a semifinal showing in 2019 at Pinehurst

“We play a lot of match play in Europe. But on this level, I don't think there's a difference between match play or stroke play because you still have to make the best score you can.” – Benjamin Reuter, of the Netherlands on his experience with the format

“Every playoff is pressure, but especially to be in [match play] of the U.S. Junior Amateur. It was a lot of pressure and a lot of fun, actually.” – Brendan Valdes after surviving a four-hole playoff to get the 64th and final spot in the draw

David Shefter is a senior staff writer for the USGA. Email him at dshefter@usga.org.

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