Palmer Jackson added a chapter to the long and storied
history of golf in western Pennsylvania Thursday with a pair of wins in the
U.S. Amateur at the Pinehurst Resort & Country Club’s Donald Ross classic
No. 2 Course in Pinehurst Village, N.C.
Don’t look now, but Jackson, who became Franklin Regional’s
first state champion when he won the PIAA Class AAA Championship as a senior
last fall, is in the U.S. Amateur quarterfinals.
Jackson, who will join the Notre Dame program – wonder if
the Irish thought they had a U.S. Amateur quarterfinalist coming on board? – in
a couple of weeks, took out a couple of seasoned veterans of the Division I
college wars in the second round Thursday morning and in the round of 16
Thursday afternoon.
And he’ll get another college veteran in the quarterfinals
when he takes on Vanderbilt senior John Augenstein of Owensboro, Ky. and the
No. 38 player in the World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR) Friday afternoon.
Jackson reached the quarterfinals with a hard-fought 2-up
decision over Isaiah Salinda of South San Francisco, Calif. and No. 20 in the
WAGR. Salinda was one of the veteran seniors, along with Brendan Wu, who led
Stanford to a national crown in the NCAA Championship at The Blessings Golf
Club in Fayetteville, Ark. in the spring.
Salinda was a semifinalist in the U.S. Amateur a year ago at
the Pebble Beach Golf Links, falling to Pac-12 rival and eventual runnerup
Devon Bling of UCLA.
Only two holes were halved in Jackson’s match with Salinda.
Jackson was 2-up four different times in the match, but Salinda, as you would
expect, refused to go away.
Jackson won the 13th hole with a birdie and the
14th hole with a par to build that 2-up advantage for the fourth
time. But Salinda got back to even by winning the 15th hole with a
birdie and the 16th hole with a par.
The kid’s had a great summer with strong showings in the
U.S. Junior Amateur and the Boys Junior PGA Championship, but surely he was
going to fold now. Right? Didn’t happen.
No, it was Jackson who won the 17th and 18th
holes with pars to advance to the quarterfinals. Pretty sure that means he
doesn’t have to worry about qualifying for the 2020 U.S. Amateur next summer.
Thursday morning, Jackson’s victim was Jacob Solomon of
Auburn, Ala., who completed a solid college career at Auburn in the spring. It
was a grinding match with Jackson taking advantage of bad hole by Solomon to
win the 14th hole with a bogey and then grimly holding on by halving
the final four holes with pars. And that final stretch at Pinehurst No. 2 has
been doing some damage this week.
Solomon had grabbed a 2-up lead through eight holes before
Jackson won the ninth hole with a birdie and the 11th and 12th
holes with pars to turn his 2-down deficit to a 1-up advantage. Solomon got
even by taking the 13th with a birdie, but then gave away the 14th
with a double bogey. Jackson wouldn’t let him get even again.
Augenstein probably isn’t surprised to see a talented young
player in his way after taking out a couple of youngsters ranked in the top 10
in the WAGR Thursday.
In Wednesday’s post I touted Augenstein’s match with the
immensely talented Akshay Bhatia of Wake Forest, N.C. and No. 5 in the WAGR as
the most intriguing battle of the second round.
But Augenstein drained the drama out of the meeting when he
rattled off wins at the sixth, seventh and eighth holes, all with birdies, to
take a 3-up lead on his way to a 4 and 2 win over the left-hander.
That earned Augenstein a round-of-16 meeting Thursday
afternoon with Ricky Castillo of Yorba Linda, Calif. and No. 9 in the WAGR.
Augenstein won four of the first eight holes, three with
birdies, to build a 4-up lead before Castillo, who will join the Florida
program later this month, won the 10th hole with an eagle and the 11th
and 12th holes with birdies to cut his deficit to just 1-down.
But much as Jackson had done in his second-round win over
Solomon, Augenstein halved the final six holes of the match, all with pars, to
hang on for a 1-up victory.
You’d think Augenstein has already done enough to join
Bhatia on the U.S. Walker Cup team, which will battle Great Britain &
Ireland next month at Royal Liverpool in Hoylake, England, but who knows.
Jackson might have pulled off the biggest upset of the day
with his win over Salinda, but upsets were the rule, not the exception in the
round of 16.
Austin Squires of Union, Ky. reached the quarterfinals for
the second straight year at the expense of Florida State junior John Pak of
Scotch Plains, N.J. and No. 25 in the WAGR. Squires, who completed an
outstanding college career at Cincinnati in the spring, edged Pak, the Atlantic
Coast Conference’s individual champion in the spring, 2 and 1.
Squires’ quarterfinal opponent will be 17-year-old Cohen
Trolio of West Point, Miss., who cruised to a 5 and 4 win over England’s Alex
Fitzpatrick, a sophomore at Wake Forest and No. 41 in the WAGR. Fitzpatrick
will probably be representing GB&I in the Walker Cup next month.
There will be an interesting quarterfinal match between
Georgia Tech senior Andy Ogletree, a senior who was the runnerup to Pak in the
ACC Championship, and Georgia’s Spencer Ralston of Gainesville, Ga. and No. 45
in the WAGR.
Ogletree rolled to a 5 and 4 decision over St. Mary’s senior
Blake Hathcoat of Fresno, Calif. while Ralston, who helped the Bulldogs win the
Athens Regional on their home course in the spring, was an impressive 6 and 5
winner over Texas sophomore Parker Coody of Plano, Texas.
Parker Coody’s twin brother Pierceson Coody, No. 31 in the
WAGR, was also a round-of-16 victim as he fell to Sam Houston State senior
William Holcomb V of Crockett, Texas as Holcomb pulled out a 2 and 1 decision.
The Coody twins helped the Longhorns reach the NCAA Championship’s Final Match
at The Blessings, where they fell to Stanford.
Holcomb’s quarterfinal opponent will be talented Australian
teen Karl Vilips, who stunned Oklahoma senior Brad Dalke of Norman, Okla., 3
and 1. Dalke lost in the final of the 2016 U.S. Amateur at Oakland Hills Country
Club to another Aussie, Curtis Luck.
Looks like the quarterfinal matches will be broadcast live
on FS1 Friday afternoon.
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