Jackson gives western Pennsylvania a U.S. Amateur quarterfinalist with a pair of wins at Pinehurst

   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 13^th hole with a birdie and the 14^th hole with a par to build that 2-up advantage for the fourth time. But Salinda got back to even by winning the 15^th hole with a birdie and the 16^th 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 17^th and 18^th 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 14^th 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 11^th and 12^th holes with pars to turn his 2-down deficit to a 1-up advantage. Solomon got even by taking the 13^th with a birdie, but then gave away the 14^th 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 10^th hole with an eagle and the 11^th and 12^th 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.