Miles Russell didn’t make a birdie until the 17th hole on Aug. 15 in his quarterfinal match of the U.S. Amateur at the Olympic Club Lake Course.
But the 16-year-old from Jacksonville Beach and the world’s No. 1-ranked junior player with a mental game beyond his years was still very much in the match. Russell was 1-down against Oklahoma State junior Eric Lee, and Lee was in trouble, his ball buried in deep rough on the right, seemingly blocked out by two trees while Russell hit a perfect drive in the fairway and had only 103 yards to the middle of the green.
What happened next was a simple matter of the quirks of match play.
Lee miraculously found the green with a sliced pitching wedge and three-putted for bogey and Russell knocked his wedge shot over the green and into deep rough, eventually leading to a bogey when he needed par to extend the match.
Lee won 1-up after an exhausting day for both that ended in waning daylight and falling temperatures by the San Francisco Bay. Russell has now been denied in the quarterfinals of a USGA national championship for the second time this summer. He was one victory away from the semifinals of the U.S. Junior in Dallas before falling 4 and 3 to Luke Colton.
However, Russell gave Lee, the player who clinched the national championship for the Cowboys with a singles victory over Virginia’s Josh Duanganamee, all he could handle.
Miles Russell rallied from two-down deficit
Russell lost the first hole and was 2-down through eight before winning the ninth and 10th holes with pars to even the match.
He then won the 12th hole with a par to go 1-up but Lee rebounded to win Nos. 13 and 14 with pars to regain the lead.
Both players two-putted the par-3 15th hole for par, and then both parred the 16th, the first of back-to-back par-5 holes at the Lake Course.
Russell’s drive found a fairway bunker on the right and he was unable to do much more than pitch out about 100 yards. With a third shot of more than 200 yards, Russell hit into a front-right bunker but got out to within 4 feet and made the par putt.
In the meantime, Lee hit the fairway and his second shot was just short of the green. He pitched on to 10 feet but missed for birdie and a chance to go two holes up with two to play.
Miles Russell and Eric Lee both birdie No. 17 — again
The two moved to the par-5 17th, the site of clutch shots for both the day before in the round of 16.
Russell found the fairway and Lee was in on the edge of the first cut of rough. With 236 yards to the hole, Russell put his second shot in the right rough, while Lee, with 234 to the middle, found the left rough, tight to the pin.
Russell pitched 12 feet past the hole, but for the second day in a row, Lee hit a marvelous chip to within inches of the hole. Lee chipped in for a birdie in his round of 16 match against Duangamanee and won 2-up.
Undaunted, Russell dropped his putt for birdie to match Lee to take the match to the 18th hole. Russell also staged his own brand of heroics on the 17th hole the previous day, making a fast-breaking 25-foot birdie putt to beat Manath Chirrivura 2 and 1.
Miles Russell’s fortunes rose, then fell at No. 18
It appeared to be advantage, Russell when he split the fairway at the 18th while Lee smothered his drive to the right. Golf Channel announcer Colt Knost pronounced on the air that Lee had no chance to reach the green but Lee, 124 yards from the hole, purposely put a big slice with a wedge shot, with the ball bounding onto the green, 30 feet from the hole.
Russell then overcooked his wedge from the fairway, with the ball landing on an embankment behind the hole.
Advantage, Lee?
Not yet.
Lee knocked his first putt 6 feet past the hole, while Russell pitched out to 8 feet past the hole. Russell missed the par attempt and Lee had two putts to win.
He did it, but not without more drama. He hit his par attempt 4 feet past the cup and had to make that to end the match.
Miles Russell by the numbers in U.S. Amateur
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Miles Russell of Jacksonville Beach denied in U.S. Amateur quarterfinals 1-up by Eric Lee
Reporting by Garry Smits, Jacksonville Florida Times-Union / Florida Times-Union
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
