Surratt, Ding advance to championship match at Bandon Dunes

US Junior Amateur: Sarratt vs. Dean in Saturday'south final

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The goal of the US Junior Amateur Championship, like all USGA competitions, is to determine the best player. Well, this week'southward top two golfers, at to the lowest degree according to the World Amateur Golf game Ranking®, volition battle it out for the championship on Saturday at Bandon Dunes Golf Resort.

Caleb Sarratt, 18, of Indian Trail, North Carolina, who is WAGR No. 19, and World No. 20 Wenyi Ding, 17, of the People'south Republic of Mainland china, each won a pair of matches on a windy Friday at the resort. The Bandon Dunes course for the 36-hole concluding of the 74th U.Southward. Inferior Amateur Tournament.

Surratt, a new University of Tennessee freshman, eliminated defending champion Nicholas Dunlap, 18, from Tuscaloosa, Alabama 4 and 3 in one semi-final match, while Ding, who plans to attend Arizona State University in 2023, outlasted Eric . Lee, 17, from Fullerton, California, 20 holes.

The winner of Saturday's match will not simply join legendary champions Johnny Miller, Tiger Woods, Hashemite kingdom of jordan Spieth and 2022 Masters champion Scotty Sheffler for the trophy, but will also authorize for the 123rd US Open adjacent June at the Los Angeles Country Order .

Ding, the 2d histrion from China to reach the junior apprentice final (Bo Jin, 2019), hopes to become the fifth international golfer to win the championship after three players from the Democracy of Korea (Terry Noe, Sihwang Kim and Andy Hyeon Bo Shim ) and Min Woo Lee from Australia, whose sister Minjee won the The states Women's Open this yr. He will also become the first Chinese male histrion to win any USGA championship; Fumi (Alice) Jo and current Stanford tiptop athlete Lei Ye were the winners of the 2014 U.South. Women's Amateur and 2019 Junior Girls, respectively.

Meanwhile, Surratt has been 1 of the hottest amateur golfers in the country since the calendar moved to 2022. He hasn't finished exterior the top 10 in his last nine events, including victories at the prestigious Sage Valley Junior Invitational and the Terracotta Invitational. . He came to Bandon Dunes, finishing second in the Pacific Declension Apprentice terminal week in Portland, Oregon, and he currently leads the Elite Amateur Series, a group of 7 elevation-notch events that concludes with the Western Amateur side by side month.

Connected: 120th Western Apprentice: Preview, Boob tube Fourth dimension and Players to Lookout man

It was another typical summer twenty-four hours in the Bandon dunes as the sea layer gave style to crystal bluish skies. By the end of the morning quarter-final and the start of the afternoon semi-final, the wind was steady in the mid-teens and gusted into the 20s with temperatures well into the 50s.

"I felt similar I was in command of my ball most of the day, and in this wind it really is necessary," said Surratt, who has Tennessee men's golf jitney Brennan Webb on his shoulder. "I was just trying to get my head downwardly and hit where I was looking and so let the results add up because I can't control what happens."

As in his previous four matches, Surratt hit Dunlap early, winning 2nd and 5th and moving up 2 on the turn. He won 11th par-iv with ghost and twelfth par-3 to come out on superlative. Dunlap, who had hoped to go the second player in junior amateur history to win back-to-dorsum titles (Forest did in 1991-93), managed to score 13th on par-5 and play one hole, but Surratt won 14th with par and finished the match on par-iii 15th.

Surratt has however to autumn behind this week on a 74-hole stretch and has only drawn five of them. On Saturday, he volition get the quaternary North Carolina player to win a title, afterward Larry Beck (1957), John Crooks (1967) and Jason Widener (1988).

Dean never fell behind Lee either, but saw the lead vanish in half on the last 5 holes, including a scarecrow six on the closing hole when he had to fold due to an unplayable lie subsequently a wayward drive. However, Lee's run concluded with a 30-foot triple on the second playoff hole, the 14th par-4 hole, after Dean pared the irascible 7-foot ball.

For the first time in U.S. inferior apprentice history, each quarterfinal match went likewise far (or even farther), causing a lot of excitement and drama.

Luke Potter of Encinitas, Calif., a new Arizona Country freshman who was a semi-finalist in 2021, watched a 20-human foot birdie hitting the left edge of the hole at #18, which would have prompted extra holes confronting Dean.

Some other 2021 semi-finalist, Luke Clanton of Miami Lakes, Florida, guided Dunlap to the 19th hole before being eliminated. Neither actor held a lead of more than than one earlier Dunlap made a 54-foot birdie on the start extra pigsty.

Two-time Australian junior champion Geoffrey Guan went from 4 downward four to play birdies on 16 and 17 and a par on 18, merely to lose on the 20th hole to Lee's 35-pes birdie.

Preston Stout, of Dallas, Texas, airtight the gap on Surratt with two losses but saw his opponent accept 16th and and so held on to win by ane atomic number 82. It was the first fourth dimension this week that Surratt was taken to the 18th hole.

What's adjacent

Sat's 36-hole championship game starts at 7:45 AM PT and is scheduled to resume subsequently the lunch interruption at ane:xv PM. Live on the Golf game Channel begins at 6:00 PM EST (iii:00 PM PT). Admission is free, spectators are invited.

Significant

While both finalists have already been exempted from next month's U.s. Amateur at Ridgewood State Gild in Paramus, NJ, the champion will receive an additional waiver from the 2023 US Amateur at Ruby Hills Country Order in Cherry Hills Village, Colorado.

According to the World Amateur Golf Ranking®, seven of the top nine players this week accept avant-garde to the quarter-finals.

Eric Lee (Us) and Veni Dean (INT) may run into each other over again in September at the Junior Presidents' Cup, a two-day event in suburban Charlotte, North Carolina, ahead of the Presidents' Loving cup in Quayle Hollow. Golf Channel annotator Nota Begay III leads the United states of america team.

Speaking of Begey, he reached the round of sixteen at the US Junior Apprentice Championships in 1989 and the quarterfinals in 1990 when he lost to Tiger Woods in third and 2nd places. That same year, Woods lost in the semi-finals to Dennis Hillman but won three titles in a row. from 1991-93 Smiley Kaufman, this calendar week'south golf game reporter, missed a game in 2006 as a 14-year-former girl. That week, the Alabama native received a four-year participation medal for 2005 runner-up Bradley Johnson, who died in a car accident in March 2006.

Peyton Symonds, the fifteen-twelvemonth-old son of Bandon Dunes Golf Resort assistant general manager Jeff Symonds, was the caddy for Eric Lee. This is Peyton'due south third yr as a Bandon Dunes caddy. Three Bandon Dunes caddies advanced to the final eight. As well Symonds, Wil Lozano was in Dean'due south bag and Carl Everts was carrying Luke Clanton. Lozano and Everts accept been in the resort since 2019.

Caddy and Jeffrey Guan'southward girlfriend, Abby Bull, are prepare to play at Marshall University in Huntington, Westward Virginia this autumn.

Nicholas Dunlap had the deepest run past a reigning champion since Kevin Tway reached the semi-finals in 2006 at Rancho Santa Atomic number 26 Golf Club in California.

QUOTES

"Information technology means a lot. Only in a fashion it'south only another mean solar day. I'm going to wake up tomorrow and do the same thing I did today. That'south how you have to train your mind to be able to compete, especially in high force per unit area like tomorrow." – Caleb Surratt on his mood for the final

"Of course I didn't have my best stuff this week. I didn't play great. just constitute something [this week] and went with him. I had the best shot ever. I had many matches to the cease. To make it to the semi-finals, I but want to have my stuff today." — Nicholas Dunlap on reaching the semi-finals in his title defence force

"This is the hard part. You've been preparation all your life, and just looking at information technology, I thought, wow, that would exist cute. I was prepping my fist pump…I thought this was happening. I have been training well all week. I made a good hitting; that'southward all you can practice. At the end I had to brand a precipitous left plough, but that's golf game." — Quarter-finalist Luke Potter on his 18 baboon attempt that would take called for actress holes.

I just want to at-home down and try to get my energy back. This is the nigh important thing, non to think virtually the championship." — an wearied Veni Dean on focusing on a 36-hole final.

"It'southward fun and exhausting. That'southward a lot of golf. Just information technology's a lot of fun to play with ii college players and beat them both. [en route to the semis]. Information technology will definitely give you more confidence in the upcoming tournaments." — Eric Lee on his semi-final run in his outset USGA starting time.

View US Junior Apprentice Results

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