Miles Russell’s run in the U.S. Junior Amateur ended on Friday with another match that went the distance.
Russell, the 15-year-old Jacksonville Beach native and the No. 1 player on the American Junior Golf Association Polo Rankings, fell to Jay Leng of San Diego 1-up after rallying from three holes down with seven to play at the Oakland Hills Country Club in Bloomfield Hills, Mich.
Russell won the 12th and 15th holes with pars but Leng, who will enroll at Stanford next month, matched Russell over the last three holes to advance to the semifinals later Friday against Tyler Watts of Huntsville, Ala.
The other semifinal will be Trevor Gutschewski of Omaha, Neb., who ousted stroke-play medalist Brian Blades in the second round, vs. Xihuan Chang of China.
Gutchewski beat Brooks Simmons of Dallas 1-up, Chang downed Nguyen Anh Minh of Vietnam 3 and 2 and Watts beat Matthew Diehl of Redlands, Calif., 3 and 2.
Russell was the last surviving Floridian and the only one to reach the third round. He also faced three consecutive opponents who will be playing college golf within a month: Leng (Stanford), CJ Winchenbaugh (Georgetown) and Billy Davis (Auburn).
Russell beat Winchenbaugh and Davis on Thursday by the same 2-up score.
The article "Miles Russell ousted in U.S. Junior Amateur; final four still battling" was originally published on https://golfweek.usatoday.com/2024/07/26/miles-russell-ousted-in-u-s-junior-amateur/
