Thursday's Championship Notes

With three rounds in the books, it’s time to take a look at how the seeded competitors have fared.  The seeds are determined after the two days of stroke play Monday and Tuesday.  The medalist is seeded number one and plays the last competitor that qualifies.  In this case, the last player that qualified was from the nine-for-five playoff that occurred Tuesday – Kyle Davis.  

In the first round, 22 of 32 seeded players (69 percent) advanced, including all four top seeds – Sung Hoon Kang, Patton Kizzire, Brian Harman, and Jon Curran.  The lowest-seed competitor to advance to the second round was Jesse Speirs.  Speirs, seeded 60th, made a birdie on the first playoff hole Tuesday to get into the round of 64.

In the second round, eight of the 16 seeded players (50 percent) won their matches, including three of the top four seeds.  The lone exception was Curran, who lost to 14-year-old Philip Francis, 4 and 2.  

In the third round, the cream rose to the top with the higher seeds winning six of eight matches. The only exceptions were James Lee topping Adam Cohan, 6 and 4, and James Sacheck winning in 19 holes.

In the first round, 13 of the matches were decided by lopsided results, 4 and 3 or better, while six of the matches went to extra holes. The longest match was Philip Francis’ victory over Robert Gates in 23 holes.  

In the second round, none of the 16 matches went to extra holes, but seven of the matches were won either 4 and 2, or 4 and 3.  

In the third round, only one of the eight matches went to extra holes, when Sacheck defeated Will Osborne on the 19th hole.  Two of the matches were blowouts - Jordan Cox defeating Francis, 5 and 4, and Lee ’s 6 and 4 win.  In all, the seeded player has won 36 of 56 matches (64 percent of the time) with Lee the lowest remaining seed left, at 59th.

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The feature match of the third round was between this year’s medalist Sung Hoon Kang, 16, of Korea , versus last year’s medalist, Jarred Texter, 17, of Lancaster, Pa.  With lead changes occurring six times and a total of one eagle and 13 birdies between the two competitors, the match lived up to expectations, with Kang winning, 1-up.  

“Really hard,” Kang said of his match through an interpreter.  “I have never been in a situation like this.”  

With the lead seesawing back and forth through the first 11 holes, it was difficult to pick a favorite.  When Texter bogeyed the 11th hole, the match was back to square for the third time, but when Texter conceded an 8-footer for eagle on the par-5 12th and then conceded a birdie on the par-3 13th, Kang was 2 up for the first time since the second hole and was riding the momentum going into the final five holes.  

But Texter would storm back with birdies on the next two holes to bring the match back to even with three holes remaining and, for a brief period, garnered the momentum he had lost over the previous three holes.  With Texter’s tee shot safely in the middle of the green on the par-3 16th, Kang hit an indifferent tee shot, which left him with a stance that required him to straddle the bunker and the rough.  Kang would eventually bogey the hole after trying to hit a delicate chip shot from the rough that never made it over the bunker he was straddling.  

With Texter in control of the match, Kang knew he had to make birdie on the short uphill 320-yard par-4 17th.  After Texter hit his shot under the hole, just on the fringe 15 feet away, Kang was left with the shot of the match for him.  He hit a lob wedge from 55 yards up in the air that landed past the hole and spun back to eight feet.  When Texter’s putt just went by the left edge of the hole, Kang had a chance to square the match, which he did when his putt touched all sides of the cup and fell in.  

With the momentum now back in Kang’s corner, both players would hit tee shots in the fairway and both hit the green in regulation.  Kang was first to putt and when his 15-footer hit the edge and lipped out it was up to Texter to make his slightly up hill 10-footer to win the match.  Texter would later say he hit the first putt too hard – misjudging the uphill slope – and ran his initial putt six feet past. He missed comebacker to lose the match, 1 up.  

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There were two eagles and 42 birdies in the third round. One of the eagles and 19 of the birdies came from two matches.  The Kang/Texter match was responsible for one eagle and 13 of the birdies, and six more birdies came from the Lee match, when he made six birdies and no bogeys in defeating Cohan 6 and 4.

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In four of the eight third-round matches, the winner never trailed. Webb Simpson, Jordan Cox, Brian Harman and James Lee all won their matches without trailing.  Will Osborne never trailed until he lost on the 19th hole to James Sacheck, 1 up.  

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Since 1964, only seven medalists have won the U.S. Junior Amateur, most recently in 2000, when Matthew Rosenfeld was the medalist and won 3 and 2 over Patrick Moore in the final.  Tiger Woods won the Junior three times in a row and was medalist two of those three years, in 1991 and 1992.

Notes compiled by Alex Miceli, a frequent contributor to the USGA Web site.