The 116th U.S. Amateur will have a 23 for 8 playoff Wednesday morning at 8 a.m. Two junior golfers, Matthew Wolff and Ethan Ng are in that group of 23 golfers, joining many current college players from Auburn, Kentucky, Oklahoma, Pepperdine, Stanford and Vanderbilt Matthew is a 2017 verbal commit for Oklahoma State, and Ethan is a highly ranked (and recruited) 2018 uncommitted player from New York. They are trying to join 2018 SMU commit Noah Goodwin, who was the "Low Junior Golfer" with at T11 finish and Joaquin Niemann, who finished T19 and is a 2017 verbal commit for South Florida.
Goodwin, who injured himself last week at the Junior PGA Championship in Providence, RI, wasn't able to take full swings in his two practice rounds leading up to the start of competition on Monday. However, because of the immediate treatment from Bill Collins, (a local PT and member of Wannamoisett CC where the Junior PGA was played), Noah was able tee off Monday at 9:30 a.m. on the North Course here at Oakland Hills CC. He made the turn at two over par, but was able to string together 4 birdies (with 2 more bogeys), to end up at even par. Today, on the tougher South Course, Goodwin was healthy enough to shoot a 2 under par round, and finish T11 in advancing to match play.
Niemann, from Santiago Chile, has had a pretty good year, to say the least. He finished 2015 with a T2 at the Junior Orange Bowl. He then won the AJGA Sergio Garcia Foundation Junior Championship in May, the TOYOTA Junior Golf World Cup in June, and the IMG Academy Junior World Championship in July. He won the Junior World's last summer, as well. So, his rounds of 70-69 are not uncommon.
Wolff also played last week at the Junior PGA and has had a busy summer as well. It included representing the winning Team USA in Japan, for the TOYOTA Junior Golf World Cup. Needing a birdie on his final hole today, the par-3 ninth, to get into the playoff, Wolff came through. The long hitting Californian used a combination of big drives and precise iron play to score 5 birdies, to go along with 7 bogeys. Like many of the golfers, getting putts to drop for more birdies was a challenge.
Ng is playing in his first USGA championship and used rounds of 71-71 to make tomorrow's playoff. He has a win, and 5 other top 10 in AJGA events dating back a year (his win coming a year ago to the day of the playoff).
