Junior Players Championship: Miles Russell birdies last hole to take a two-shot lead
Miles Russell has a two-shot lead entering the final round of the American Junior Golf Association Junior Players Championship.
With a home-course advantage.
With seemingly all aspects of his game churning like a well-oiled machine.
Hold on, says the AJGA’s No. 1-ranked player and winner of the 2023 Junior Players, in so many words and always politely.
“It’s not over, especially on this course,” said the Jacksonville Beach native and Florida State commit after crafting a 69 in the second round on Aug. 30 at the Players Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass, leaving him at 7-under-par 137. “Play well [in the final round] and see where that puts us.”
Barring another competitor having a lights-out day at the Stadium Course on Aug. 31, another round like the two Russell has just played will go a long way to making him the first two-time winner of the Junior Players.
Nicholas Logis briefly holds the lead
Nicholas Logis of Austin, Texas (71), who is ranked 66th by the AJGA and has committed to Southern Methodist, began the day tied with Russell for the lead at 4-under, got hot early with three birdies among his first seven holes to wrest the lead from Russell, then double-bogeyed the par-3 eighth hole and made only one more birdie after that.
Logis is 5-under 139 and no one else is close.
Six players are at 1-under 143: Ronin Banerjee of Irvin, Calif. (70, ranked 16th by the AJGA; Dawson Lew of Canada (68, ranked 21st), Luke Ringkamp of Palm Desert, Calif., (70, ranked 26th), Arrow Aarav Shah of Australia (71, ranked 36th), Grayson Baucom of Hickory, N.C. (74, ranked 48th) and Tom De Herrypon of France (72, unranked).
Miles Russell continues his bounce-back trend
Russell likes where his game is right now, a continuation of a summer in which he made the quarterfinals in both the U.S. Junior Amateur and the U.S. Amateur. But he also said he’s minimizing mistakes, always a priority on the Stadium Course, and has got a pretty nifty trend going this week: he’s followed all six of his bogeys with a birdie on the next hole.
“Bouncing back, I guess,” he answered when asked what he’s doing well this week. “I’ve played pretty good but for the most part, I haven’t done anything too poorly.”
Russell also is playing the Stadium Course by the book: he birdied the four par-5 holes each day, and is 4-under on the three short par-4 holes, Nos. 4, 6 and 12.
A no-stress round for Miles Russell
Despite bogeys at Nos. 10, 15 and 3, Russell never seemed in danger of letting the day slip away.
He followed his opening bogey at the 10th with a two-putt birdie at No. 11, barely missing a 12-footer for eagle, then responded to his second bogey of the week at No. 15 with a 4-footer for birdie at No. 16.
Russell swapped a birdie and a bogey at Nos. 2 and 3 but was coldly efficient the rest of the round, with a 12-foot birdie putt at No. 4, four pars in a row, then a closing birdie at No. 9 when he hit a wedge shot onto the green that spun back to within 3 feet of the hole.
He had two good up-and-downs at Nos. 6 and 7, making 4-foot par putts in both cases after missing the green and chipping on.
Defending champion Hamilton Coleman pitched in for an eagle at No. 9 to post a 69, and is tied for 11th at 1-over 145.
Tyler Mawhinney of Fleming Island (73) and Lucas Gimenez of Jacksonville (71) are tied for 22nd at 3-over. Mawhinney had a blazing start with birdies on three of his first four holes, but didn’t make another over his last 14 holes.
What did Charlie Woods shoot?
Charlie Woods, the son of two-time Players champion Tiger Woods, had a 75 with one birdie, two double-bogeys and 15 pars.
Woods nearly made an eagle off the fringe at No. 16.
He finished at 7-over 151 and is tied for 43rd.
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Junior Players: Miles Russell in command at TPC Sawgrass Stadium Course
