Nick Gross, whose standout scholastic career at Downingtown West included a PIAA Class AAA Championship as a sophomore in 2021, easily earned a spot in the match-play bracket in the U.S. Junior Amateur Championship Tuesday, finishing in a tie for 13th place after two rounds of qualifying in the Texas heat.
Gross, coming off a solid freshman season with Southeastern Conference power Alabama, carded a 2-over-par 72 at Brook Hollow Golf Club after opening with a 3-under 68 Monday at Trinity Forest Golf Club for a 1-under 140 total. Both courses are in Dallas.
This is Gross’ fourth appearance in the U.S. Junior Amateur and the deepest he’s taken it is the second round of match play the first time he teed it up in the biggest event in junior golf in 2022 at the Bandon Dunes Resort in Oregon.
Later that summer, Gross stunned followers of the amateur golf scene by reaching the quarterfinals of the U.S. Amateur at Ridgewood Country Club in Paramus, N.J. a week before his 16th birthday.
Gross got off to a slow start Tuesday. After teeing off at the 10th hole at Brook Hollow, an A.W. Tillinghast classic, Gross made a double bogey at 11.
After getting a shot back with a birdie at the 12th hole, Gross made bogeys at 14 and 16 and headed for the front nine at 3-over for his round.
Gross followed up a birdie at the second hole with a bogey at 3, but righted the ship with a birdie at 7 to finish off a 2-over round over the par-70 Brook Hollow layout.
Gross will open match play Wednesday against Raines Watson of College Station, Texas, who will join the program at Rice, out of the American Athletic Conference, later this summer. Match play will all be contested at Trinity Forest. Gross is scheduled to tee off at 12:20 p.m. Pretty sure that’s Central time, so it will be 1:20 p.m. Eastern.
Watson added a 4-over 74 at Brook Hollow in Tuesday’s second round of qualifying to his solid opening round of 1-under 70 at Trinity Forest.
That left Watson among a group of 15 players tied for 50th place at 3-over 144, all of whom made the cut for match play on the number.
That should give you an idea just how much talent is out there in the junior ranks. Shoot 4-over in two rounds in 100-degree real-feels on two tough golf courses and your week is over.
Mason Howell of Thomasville, Ga. signed for a sparkling 4-under 67 Tuesday at Trinity Forest to claim medalist honors in qualifying with a 7-under 134 total.
Howell, who plans to become a Georgia Bulldog at the end of next summer, had opened with a 3-under 67 at Brook Hollow Monday. The 18-year-old teed it up in last month’s U.S. Open at Oakmont after getting through 36 holes of final qualifying.
Howell got off to a good start in Tuesday’s second round with birdies at the third and fifth holes. He gave a shot back with a bogey at the sixth hole, but closed out the outgoing nine at Trinity Forest with birdies at seven and nine to get to 3-under for his round.
After making a bogey at the 11th hole, Howell bounced back with birdies at 15 and 18, his fifth and sixth birdies of the day, to finish at the top of a talented leaderboard.
Howell’s closest pursuer was England’s Ben Bolton as he added a 2-under 68 at Brook Hollow in the second round to his opening round of 4-under 67 at Trinity Forest for a 6-under 135 total that left him a shot behind Howell in second place.
Tyler Watts of Huntsville, Ala., who became the youngest winner in the storied history of the Sunnehanna Amateur at Sunnehanna Country Club, a Tillinghast gem in Johnstown, last month, headed a trio of players tied for third place in qualifying, each landing on 5-under 136.
Watts lost in the final of the U.S. Junior Amateur a year ago at Oakland Hills Country Club in Bloomfield Hills, Mich., droppined a 4 and 3 decision to Trevor Gutschewski of Omaha, Neb.
Watts, who plans to join the program at another SEC power in Tennessee at the end of next summer, added a 2-under 68 at Brook Hollow Tuesday to his opening round of 3-under 68 at Trinity Forest.
The kid, obviously, has an affinity for Tillinghast courses as he set a tournament record by going a whopping 19-under at Sunnehanna to cruise to the title over a typically robust field of amateur golfers.
Joining Watts at 5-under were Sage Bradshaw of Bluffton, S.C. and Stuart Boulware of Fairway, Kan., both, like Watts, Class of 2026 entries.
Bradshaw, who plans to join the program at the College of Charleston, a Coastal Athletic Association power, next summer, recorded a sparkling 4-under 67 at Trinity Forest in Tuesday’s second round after opening with a 1-under 69 at Brook Hollow.
Boulware was just a shot out of the lead with his opening round of 4-under 67 at Trinity Forest and added a solid 1-under 69 at Brook Hollow in Tuesday’s second round.
Miles Russell of Jacksonville Beach, Fla., the highest-ranked player in the World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR) in the field at No. 18, was one of five players who finished in a tie for eighth place at 2-under 139.
Russell added a 2-over 72 at Brook Hollow Tuesday to his opening round of 4-under 67 at Trinity Forest.
The two players who captured PIAA Championships last fall, Class AAA winner Carson Kittsley of Fox Chapel and Wyoming Seminary’s Nick Werner, a repeat winner in Class AA, failed to advance to the match-play bracket in Dallas.
Kittsley, who will be a junior this year, added a 5-over 76 at Trinity Forest Tuesday to his opening round of 6-over 76 at Brook Hollow for an 11-over 152 total.
Werner, who will join Mark Leon’s Penn State program later this summer, bounced back from an opening-round 82 at Brook Hollow by matching par at Trinity Forest Tuesday with a 71 for a 12-over 153 total.
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