Recent Downingtown West graduate Nick Gross ran into a tough customer in Liam Pasternak of Morristown, N.J. in the opening round of match play in the U.S. Junior Amateur Wednesday at Oakland Hills Country Club’s South Course in Bloomfield Hills, Mich. and Pasternak halted Gross’ bid with a stunning victory.
Gross, the 2021 PIAA Class AAA champion who will join the program at Southeastern Conference power Alabama next month, saw Pasternak, who will be one of the top returning seniors on the New Jersey scholastic scene this fall, rattle off three straight wins on the incoming nine at the South Course to take control of the match on his way to a 3 and 1 victory.
If you’re surprised, don’t be. The talent level at the U.S. Junior Amateur is off the charts these days. It’s hard to even get through the local qualifiers just to get there. And nobody makes the field of 64 for match play by accident. If you’re playing a match in the U.S. Junior Amateur, rest assured your opponent can play.
Nobody knows that better than Gross. It was two years ago that the then 15-year-old showed up at the U.S. Amateur at Ridgewood Country Club in Paramus, N.J. and marched all the way to the quarterfinals.
Plus, it’s match play and anything can, and usually does, happen in match play. The U.S. Junior Am is as good a place as any for Gross to build up some match-play scar tissue. The pain heals – eventually.
Pasternak won the second hole with a birdie and never trailed in the match. Gross would get even a couple of times, the first time when he won the fifth hole with a par. But Pasternak always had an answer.
Pasternak grabbed a 2-up advantage when he won the seventh and eighth holes with pars. And Gross again battled back by winning the ninth hole with a par and 11 with a birdie to square the match.
That’s when Pasternak took control of the match, winning the 12th hole with a birdie, the 13th with a bogey and the 14th with a par to take a commanding 3-up advantage with five holes to go.
Gross won the 16th hole with a birdie to cut his deficit to 2-down, but Pasternak closed it out with a win at 17 with a birdie.
Pasternak will take on Josiah Hakala of New Ipswich, N.H. in a second-round match Thursday morning. The winners of Thursday morning’s matches will advance to the round of 16, which will be played Thursday afternoon.
The other Pennsylvanian in the match-play bracket, recent Lake Lehman graduate Michael Lugiano, also suffered an opening-round setback as he fell, 5 and 4, to Owen Coniaris of Glen Ellyn, Ill.
Lugiano, who will join the program at Conference USA champion Liberty next month, got the jump in the match by winning the first hole, but it was all Coniaris after that.
Coniaris ripped off wins at the third, fourth, fifth, seventh, eighth and 10th holes to a commanding 5-up lead.
The match of the day saw Trevor Gutschewski of Omaha, Neb. pull out a victory in 23 holes over Rich Wills of Cramerton, N.C.
Gutschewski, the son of PGA tour player Scott Gutschewski and a Florida recruit, had a 4-up lead after eight holes only to see Wills, who is headed to Clemson, battle back. Wills won the 18th hole to finally draw even and force extra holes.
Gutschewski’s reward for his marathon win is a second-round match against qualifying medalist Blades Brown of Memphis, Tenn. Brown pulled away on the incoming nine at the South Course to claim a 3 and 2 victory over Alex Huang of Plano, Texas.
Probably the most interesting second-round match will pit Miles Russell, the reigning American Junior Golf Association (AJGA) Rolex Player of the Year from Jacksonville Beach, Fla., against Billy Davis of Spring Valley, Calif.
Russell, who teed it up in the PGA Tour’s Rocket Mortgage Classic earlier this month at Detroit Golf Club, had a 5-up lead through 10 holes over Hamilton Coleman of Martinez, Ga. in Wednesday’s opening round when Coleman conceded with an injured back.
Davis, the twin brother of 2022 Augusta National Women’s Amateur Championship winner Anna Davis, will join his sister at Auburn next month. Billy Davis rolled to a 4 and 3 victory over Zack Swanwick of New Zealand in Wednesday’s opening round.
Another New Zealander, Joshua Bai, the runnerup in the U.S. Junior Amateur a year ago at the Daniel Island Club in Charleston, S.C., advanced to the second round with a 3 and 2 verdict over Brayden Miller of Goshen, Ind.
If Bai can get past his second-round opponent, C.J. Winchenbaugh of Weston, Mass., he would get the winner of the Russell-Davis match in the round of 16 Thursday afternoon.
Winchenbaugh rolled to a 6 and 4 decision over Jack Birdwell of Blaine, Minn. in an opening-round match.
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