Fifty-three more players qualified last week for the U.S. Junior Amateur at Baltusrol Golf Club in Springfield, NJ to be played July 16 - 21. Twenty-three sites hosted these players, with the first group of college players advancing. Nick Willis advanced out of the Florence, SC site. He was a freshman last year at Wofford College, playing in 11 events with a top finish of T6 this past spring at the Wofford Invitational. Another college freshman last year moving on to Baltusrol is Division III National Champion's Lynn University's Chandler McDowell, who redshirted. Chandler, from Canada, got the only spot from Coeur D'Alene, ID. Mark Turner is a third player who graduated in 2017 to qualify. Mark is a student at Dartmouth and got one of three spots from Bernardston, MA.
Don't worry, the youth movement established in the first week of qualifying continued last week. Jonathan Griz from the 2022 graduating class moved on from the Florence, SC site. A consensus top 10 player in his graduating class, Griz is committed to Clemson. Another future Tiger (this fall), Jacob Bridgeman also advanced from Florence, SC. Bridgeman was a member of the inaugural U.S. Junior Presidents Cup team. His WAGR ranking of 408 is the highest among week two qualifiers.
The top-ranked junior from the week is the third-ranked player in the 2018 class according to Rolex/AJGA rankings, Logan McAllister. An Oklahoma signee, he is the lone player to advance from the Norman, OK site after shooting a 64. The seventh-ranked player in the 2019 class in the Golfweek rankings in Nicolas Cassidy, a Georgia commit. He played in the Birmingham, AL site, where all 3 players advancing are apart of the 2019 class. He is joined by Alabama commit, Thomas Ponder, ranked as high as 31 in Junior Golf Scoreboard's class rankings. Ken Goforth is ranked 204 in his class by Golfweek.
Out west at the Woodland, CA site, 2018 TCU signee Justin Gums (ranked 95th in his class by Golfweek), 2018 Long Beach State signee Byrce Kvick (128th, Golfweek) and 2019 prospect Chase Sienkiewicz (136th, Golfweek) advanced. Moving north to the Aloha, OR site, Nate Stember a 2019 Oregon commit once again qualified for the U.S. Junior (184th, Junior Golf Scoreboard), along with Graham Moody, a 2021 prospect (187th, Junior Golf Scoreboard). Continuing up the coast to Bremerton, WA, three more players advanced, including 2020 Washington commit Drew Warford (77th, Junior Golf Scoreboard), 2018 Seattle signee Nathan Cogswell (241st, Junior Golf Scoreboard) and 16-year-old Canadian Ilirian Zalli who is ranked 4106 overall in WAGR.
Moving east, from the Las Vegas, NV site, 2018 Boise State signee Cameron Barzekoff (65th, Junior Golf Scoreboard) grabbed the lone spot. Grant Wilson, a 2018 prospect, did the same from the American Fork, UT location. Maple Plain, MN had three tickets to give away, and they were grabbed by 2019 prospects: Brady Arnett (502nd, Junior Golf Scoreboard), Henry May (706, Junior Golf Scoreboard), and John Fischer (1289th, 2019, Junior Golf Scoreboard). The lone player moving on from Cedar Rapids, IA is 2018 player Jake Marvelli (508th, Rolex/AJGA).
In the Lone Star states Dallas site, University of Texas signee in the 2018 class Parker Coody (10th, Golfweek) advanced. Deven Ramachandran, a 2018 signee with Seton Hall (184th, Golfweek) joins Coody. As do 2018 prospect Jackson Tuthill (248th, Golfweek) and 2021 prospect Rohan Reddy Aerrabolu (47th, Golfweek). Owensboro, KY had 2 spots, and they were taken by Campbell Kremer (2020, 69th, Junior Golf Scoreboard) and C.M. Mixon (2019, 519th Rolex/AJGA). Oakland University signee Colin Sikkenga (142nd, Golfweek) and 2019 prospect Nick Krueger (104th, Rolex/AJGA) advanced through the Wyoming, MI site. In Carlisle, PA, three more prospects moved on in 2021 players Jolo Timothy Magcalayo (30th, Rolex/AJGA) and Matthew Monastero (147th, Rolex/AJGA). 2019's Palmer Jackson (42nd, Junior Golf Scoreboard) moves on as well.
From the Bernardston, MA site, advancing with Mark Turner are a couple of recent high school graduates, Peter Bowie (1071st, Junior Golf Scoreboard) and T. Andrew Dipetrillo. Down in Oxford, CT, University of Maryland signee Dillon Brown (304th, Junior Golf Scoreboard) grabbed a spot along with the class of 2019's Justin Mathew (404th, Rolex/AJGA).
The state of New York had two qualifying sites last week. In Elmsford, four spots were awarded to Nathan Han (2019, 117th, Rolex/AJGA), Alex Kyriacou (2019, 525th, Junior Golf Scoreboard), Jud Langille (2020, 236th, Rolex/AJGA) and Douglas Beney (2020, 869th, Junior Golf Scoreboard). Three players from the New Hartford site got the opportunity to advance, led by 2019 North Texas commit Alejandro Madariaga. Jeremy Sisson (2018, 105th, Golfweek) and Ian Rivers (2019, 1651st, Junior Golf Scoreboard) also punched their tickets to Baltusrol.
In Scotch Plains, NJ, recent grads William O'Neill, a Georgetown signee, and Sean Taylor, a Rhode Island signee, will get another opportunity to play in the Garden State this summer. Wake Forest's 2019 commit Connor Creasy (13th, Rolex/AJGA) took one of the three entries from the Annapolis, MD site. Joining him will be Kevin Johnson (2019, 106th, Rolex/AJGA) and Trent Geritz (2019, 201st, Rolex/AJGA). And finally, Saint Augustine, FL offered up a couple entries to the U.S. Junior. The University of North Florida commit for 2019, Peyton Billings (153rd, Golfweek) and Agustin Segundo Oliva Pinto from Argentina took those spots.
(Note: All rankings are class rankings, except for overall WAGR rankings).
