Yenser knocked out in second round of U.S. Junior Amateur by Patel at Saucon Valley

 

   Recent Daniel Boone graduate Chase Yenser saw his U.S. Junior Amateur bid halted in Thursday morning’s second round of match play at Saucon Valley Country Club’s Old Course in Bethlehem.

   Yenser, who will join the program at Big 12 power Baylor later this summer, dropped a 4 and 3 decision to Sohan Patel of Weston, Fla., one of the three co-medalists in 36 holes of stroke-play qualifying for match play earlier in the week.

   Patel, who will join the program at Southeastern Conference power Vanderbilt at the end of next summer, came back in the afternoon to claim a 4 and 2 victory over Brayden Forte of Denver, Colo. in a round-of-16 match that sent Patel into a quarterfinal showdown with Tyler Mawhinney of Fleming Island, Fla. Friday morning.

   Patel jumped on Yenser right from the outset, building a 4-up lead with wins at the first, second, fourth and fifth holes.

   Yenser, a repeat winner of the Pennsylvania Junior Boys’ Championship last month at Hershey Country Club’s East Course, cut his deficit to 3-down with a win at the seventh hole.

   Patel, however, won the eighth and ninth holes to take a commanding 5-up lead into the incoming nine at the Old Course.

   Yenser battled back with consecutive wins at the 10^th and 11^th holes to cut his deficit to 3-down, but Patel closed out Yenser when he took 15 with a par.

   The other Pennsylvanian still alive in the match-play bracket when a gorgeous Thursday morning in the Lehigh Valley dawned, Nico Ward, a senior at West Allegheny, ran into a buzzsaw while suffering an 8 and 7 setback at the hands of Mawhinney.

   Taking into consideration the usual match-play concessions, Mawhinney was 5-under for the 11 holes of the match. When you’re trying to win two matches a day Thursday and Friday while trying to get to a scheduled 36-hole final Saturday, any chance you get for a quick match, you take it.

   In the afternoon, Mawhinney, pulled out a 2 and 1 victory over Louis Klein, a talented player from Czechia.

   The bottom of the match-play bracket, which includes the Patel-Mawhinney matchup, is loaded. Mawhinney is joining the program at Vanderbilt next month, so it’s a meeting of possible future teammates in his match with Patel.

   The other quarterfinal Friday morning at the bottom of the bracket will feature the star of this U.S. Junior Amateur, Miles Russell, the left-hander from Jacksonville Beach, Fla. who is No. 7 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR).

   Russell was locked in a tough round-of-16 match with Reed Arnaldo of Encinitas, Calif. who is coming off a solid freshman season with San Diego in the West Coast Conference. Arnaldo birdied the 17^th hole, his third birdie of the round, to send the match to the final hole with Russell clinging to a 1-up lead.

   The USGA loves them a drivable par-4 and so the tees were moved up on the Old Course’s finisher to 324 yards. Russell obliged by driving it over the trees on the left side of the hole, his ball finishing two feet from the hole.

   The conceded eagle gave Russell a 2-up victory and a spot in the quarterfinals against Dylan Baenning of Scottsdale, Ariz. and a sophomore on the Washington State golf team.

   Baenning reached the quarterfinals by pulling out a victory over Owen Coniaris of Glen Ellyn, Ill., an incoming freshman at national champion Auburn, on the 19^th hole.

   In the top half of the bracket, Noah Maclauchlan of Moseley, Va. pulled off the biggest upset of the day with a 2 and 1 victory over Brayden Jones of Seal Beach, Calif., the third co-medalist along with Russell and Patel in 36 holes of qualifying, in a round-of-16 match Thursday afternoon.

   Maclauchan’s quarterfinal opponent will be Kuan Zhou of Houston, Texas, who will join the program at Big Ten power Northwestern next month.

   Zhou knocked off Michael Asselta of Ramsey, N.J., who will join the program at Loyola of Maryland in the Patriot League next month, 2 and 1, in another round-of-16 match Thursday afternoon.

   The final quarterfinal will be an all-Kiwi affair as New Zealanders Ryan Xie and Cooper Moore will meet for the right to take on the Maclauchan-Zhou winner in Friday afternoon’s semifinals.

   Pretty good week for the Kiwis with Ryan Fox becoming just New Zealand’s third major champion with his Open Championship victory Sunday at Royal Birkdale.

   Xie reached the quarterfinals with a 4 and 3 victory over Troy Storm of Singapore in his round-of-16 match. Moore pulled out a 1-up decision over Dawson Lew of Canada in his round-of-16 match.