Charlie Woods’ journey at the U.S. Junior Amateur is officially heading into a third day, and it’s going to be a nail-biter. The 17-year-old found himself in a massive 14-for-2 playoff for the final match-play berths after grinding out an even-par 70 on Tuesday’s Grace Course, putting him at 5 over through 36 holes of stroke-play qualifying. Talk about cutting it close, that T-63 position is right on the bubble for the top 64 players who get to move on.
Woods Fights To Stay Alive After Rollercoaster Round
This isn’t just any tournament for Woods; it’s his third straight U.S. Junior start, and he’s missed match play by considerable margins in his previous two attempts, carding 82-80 in 2024 and 80-74 last year. That makes his Tuesday performance even more critical. He started his second round on No. 10 and came out firing, putting together a blistering 2-under 33 on his first nine. That stretch was highlighted by clutch birdies at Nos. 16 and 18, and a huge two-putt eagle on the 332-yard, par-4 13th. The kid was absolutely dialed in. However, the back nine got a little shaky, with bogeys on Nos. 4 and 7 as he was “coming in,” which dropped him right to the edge of the cut line. He finished the round knowing it was going to be tight, and now he’s got to fight his way through a playoff.
The Playoff Gauntlet and A Potential Showdown
The stakes are incredibly high for Wednesday morning. Woods and 13 other players are battling for just two spots, kicking off at 7 a.m. ET. They’ll be using holes 1, 5, and 18 on the Grace Course to determine who moves on. The Old Course awaits as the match-play host, which is where the real drama begins. There’s a wild possibility looming: if Woods manages to be one of the two players to make it through, he’d slot in as the 63rd seed. That would set up an immediate showdown with the No. 2 seed, Miles Russell, who absolutely crushed it with a 5-under 66 Tuesday on the Old Course and shared medalist honors at 6 under. And get this: Russell is Woods’ future Florida State teammate. Can you imagine the intensity of that first-round match?
Other big names already secured their spots, like Vanderbilt incoming freshman Tyler Mawhinney (T-5) and Czechia’s Louis Klein (T-11), who is the third highest-ranked player in the field. Florida commit Giuseppe Puebla (T-19), who qualified for this year’s U.S. Open, also advanced. On the other side of the coin, defending champion Hamilton Coleman shockingly missed the cut at 8 over, the first time a defending champ has done that since at least 2002. Woods has a huge task ahead of him. Tomorrow morning, he has to prove he belongs in the match-play portion and show everyone what he’s made of under immense pressure.
This article was created with AI assistance and published under Seattle On Tap’s editorial standards. See our Editorial Policy.
Originally reported by Yahoo Sports.
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