It’s Scottie Scheffler versus Rory McIlroy at the 77th U.S. Junior Amateur.
Well, sort of.
The top two ranked players in junior golf, No. 1 Miles Russell and No. 2 Luke Colton, will face off in one of four quarterfinal matches on Friday morning at Trinity Forest in Dallas.
Russell, a 16-year-old from Jacksonville Beach, Florida, survived a scare in Wednesday’s first round of match play, rallying from 2 down through three holes to win in extra holes. He made easier work of his opponents on Thursday, beating Lucas Latimer, 3 and 2, before taking down Miguel Garcia, 4 and 2.
Colton, 17 years old and from nearby Frisco, rolled Texas A&M signee Shiv Parmar, 6 and 5, in the Round of 32 and then eliminated 15-year-old Chase Bauer, 3 and 1, to earn himself a second date with Russell in about a month.
Colton and Russell last played a match against each other in the Round of 16 at the North and South Amateur in June. Colton won that match in 21 holes.
Need further proof that this encore will be closely contested, look at these numbers:
• In 48 common rounds since the start of 2024, Colton and Russell are 21-21-6 against each other
• During that same span, they both boast 70.1 scoring averages
It’s possible that Friday’s match also helps decide the 10-man U.S. Walker Cup team that will compete at Cypress Point this September. Russell, at No. 18 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking, had the greater shot starting this week, but the 26th-ranked Colton’s stock would shoot up should he beat Russell and ultimately win this championship.
That match begins at 8:30 a.m. ET.
In Friday’s other matchups:
Hamilton Coleman of Augusta, Georgia, who won last year’s AJGA Junior Players in a playoff over Blades Brown, will meet Sohan Patel, who joins fellow lefties Russell and Colton in the top half of the bracket. Just two lefties have ever won the U.S. Junior – Brian Harman (2003) and Cory Whitsett (2007). Coleman won each of his last three holes against the red-hot Tyler Watts (also a lefty) in a 2-and-1 win in the Round of 16.
England’s Ben Bolton will play China’s Qiyou Wu. No Englishman has ever won, while Wu would be the second champion from China, following Wenyi Ding in 2022. Wu needed 21 holes to eliminate Ronin Banerjee, who on Wednesday won his first-round match, 9 and 8, tying the championship record.
Nicholas Gross, a rising sophomore at Alabama, draws Vietnam’s Nguyen Anh Minh, who is currently ranked No. 52 in WAGR.
The article "It’s Scheffler versus McIlroy at U.S. Junior Amateur – well, sort of" was originally published on https://www.nbcsports.com/golf/news/its-scheffler-versus-mcilroy-at-u-s-junior-amateur-well-sort-of
