Saturday’s schedule 36-hole remaining of the 76th U.S. Junior Beginner at Oakland Hills is the right time to throw rankings out the window.
On one facet, there’s Tyler Watts, the 16-year-old from Huntsville, Alabama, who isn’t solely ranked seventh within the AJGA junior rankings however No. 121 within the World Beginner Golf Rating. He’s a member of the inaugural U.S. Nationwide Junior Workforce and has a number of high nationwide finishes, together with wins on the Jones Cup Junior and Southern Junior, plus runners-up on the Terra Cotta Beginner and AJGA Mayakoba Invitational.
On the opposite is Trevor Gutschewski, who has the pedigree because the son of three-time Korn Ferry Tour winner and present PGA Tour professional Scott Gutschewski and a scholarship to the College of Florida in hand; he’ll formally signal later this 12 months and be part of the Gators subsequent fall. However in the case of rankings, the 17-year-old from Omaha, Nebraska, is nicely behind Watts, at No. 508 in AJGA and No. 3,570 in WAGR.
Not that Gutschewski places any inventory in these sorts of numbers.
He’s a tricky child who bombs the ball and flushes his irons with the perfect of ‘em, a match-play champion already because the winner of this 12 months’s Nebraska State Junior Match Play.
“I don’t actually really feel like an underdog in any respect,” Gutschewski stated earlier this week after he took down stroke-play medalist Blades Brown, who had a T-26 on the PGA Tour a number of months in the past. “I imply, I feel my sport is simply pretty much as good as anyone else out right here. If I play nicely, I can grasp with anyone.”
Three wins later, together with a 2-and-1 victory over China’s Xihaun Chang (No. 39 in WAGR, tops within the 262-player subject), and Gutschewski has confirmed it. The one time he’s trailed this championship was in Friday morning’s quarterfinals, the place he fell 2 down by means of two holes to Dallas’ Brooks Simmons. Gutschewski gained every of the subsequent two holes and finally gained, 1 up.
In opposition to Chang, Gutschewski led 2 up by means of 12 holes however discovered the match tied up after 15. However Chang’s drive discovered the water on the quick par-4 sixteenth gap and a double bogey handed Gutschewski the lead for good.
He now will get Watts, the No. 2 seed, who knocked out top-ranked junior Miles Russell within the quarters earlier than posting a 3-and-2 semifinal victory over Stanford signee Jay Leng, a two-time AJGA first-team All-American. A win Saturday and Watts would develop into the second U.S. Junior champion in 4 years to hail from Huntsville, Alabama, becoming a member of 2021 champ Nick Dunlap, who’s now a U.S. Beginner winner and two-time PGA Tour victor.
Watts, who broke Gordon Sargent’s report as youngest Alabama State Beginner champion final 12 months, has but to verbally commit, so he unsurprisingly has almost each high school coach within the nation after the gifted 2026 lefty, a number of of whom are nonetheless following him at Oakland Hills.
Florida head coach J.C. Deacon’s friends are additionally seeing what they’re about to be up towards, too.
Gutschewski, like Watts, is often reserved together with his phrases. “Feels good. No different strategy to put it,” he stated after punching his ticket to the championship match. He’d relatively let his sport do the speaking.
But, with phrase that he and Watts could be throwing out the primary pitches on the Detroit Tigers sport on Friday night time, Gutschewski couldn’t assist however playfully toss an early fastball up close to Watts’ chin.
“I started working on getting my arm prepared,” Gutschewski stated. “I really feel like I received to throw out a quicker pitch than Tyler at this time. Strike some worry into him earlier than the primary tee tomorrow.”
Watts, although, didn’t flinch. He’s barely performed baseball, extra whiffle ball than something.
“I’ll simply lob it to the plate,” he stated.
