Gross rallies on the back nine to reach second round of match play in U.S. Junior Amateur

 

   Nick Gross might be only 18, but he’s been around enough high-level golf the last three years to know you can lose to anyone in match play.

   When you get to the opening round of match play in the U.S. Junior Amateur Championship, it’s just survive and advance.

   With a year of college golf under his belt at Alabama in the ultra-competitive Southeastern Conference, Gross, whose outstanding scholastic career at Downingtown West included a PIAA Class AAA crown as a sophomore in 2021, probably has a bit of a bulls-eye on his back at Trinity Forest Golf Club in sweltering Dallas, Texas.

   Gross had to come on strong on the incoming nine at Trinity Forest Wednesday to pull out a 1-up victory over Raines Watson of College Station, Texas, who will join the program at Rice in the American Athletic Conference later this summer.

   Gross was staring at a 2-down deficit heading to the back nine after Watson won the ninth hole with a birdie.

   Gross, however, rattled off three straight wins, taking the 13^th hole with a par and 14 and 15 with birdies to turn his 2-down hole into a 1-up advantage.

   Watson hardly went quietly as he and Gross halved the 16^th hole with birdies and again halved 17 with birdies. A par at the last gave Gross the 1-up victory.

   Gross will take on Adam Villanueva of Austin, Texas, who will join the program of his hometown Longhorns later this summer, in a second-round match that tees off at 9:25 a.m. Central (10:25 a.m. Eastern) Thursday.

   The winners of Thursday morning’s matches will meet in the round of 16 in the afternoon. If weather permits, there will only be eight quarterfinalists still standing by the end of the day.

   Villanueva survived a tough challenge as well, as he pulled out a 1-up decision over Andrew Hinson of Huntsville, Ala. in his opening-round match.

   The upsets and near-misses came fast and furious on the opening day of match play at Trinity with the qualifying medalist, Mason Howell of Thomasville, Ga., and the defending champion, Trevor Gutschewski of Omaha, Neb., getting taken out early in the day.

   Howell, who will join the program at SEC power Georgia at the end of next summer and who had a starting time in last month’s U.S. Open at Oakmont Country Club, couldn’t catch Henry Guan of Irving, Texas, who built a nice cushion and held on for a 1-up stunner.

   Guan, who will join the program at reigning national champion Oklahoma State later this summer, was 2-down after Howell won the first two holes.

   Apparently unfazed, Guan rattled off wins at third, fourth, fifth, seventh and 10^th holes around a Howell win at six to take a 2-up lead with eight holes to play.

   Howell cut his deficit in half by taking the par-4 12^th hole with an eagle, but Guan showed plenty of grit – if you don’t have grit in match play, you’re just not going to survive – in halving the final six holes to maintain his 1-up advantage.

   It was the first time a medalist or co-medalist in qualifying in a U.S. Junior Amateur lost in the first round of match play since 2002 when the victim was Jarred Texter, a Lancaster County guy.

   Gutschewski was knocked out by Chase Bauer, a Class of 2028 kid – the equivalent of a high school sophomore -- from Gotha, Fla., who surged to a 3 and 1 victory with wins at the 14^th, 15^th and 17^th holes.

   The tournament nearly lost another of its most recognizable names, but Miles Russell, the 16-year-old phenom from of Jacksonville Beach, Fla., who is No. 18 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR), rallied to defeat an upset-minded Jackson Ormond of Webster, N.Y. in 20 holes.

   Russell had to make birdies at the 16^th and 18^th holes to send the match to extra holes before finishing off Ormond on the 20^th hole.

   There may be no hotter player in junior golf at the moment than Tyler Watts of Huntsville, Ala., the runnerup to Gutschewski in last year’s U.S. Junior Amateur at Oakland Hills Country Club in Bloomfield Hills, Mich. who has risen to No. 42 in the WAGR.

   Watts stayed hot Tuesday as he rolled to an 8 and 7 victory over Rayhan Latief of Indonesia in his first-round match.

   Watts beat a top field of amateurs with a record 19-under total in last month’s Sunnehanna Amateur at Sunnehanna Country Club in Johnstown. He plans to join the program at another SEC power in Tennessee at the end of next summer.