Texan Keaton Vo (134) Medalist at Bandon Dunes

74th U.S. Junior Amateur Home

What Happened

Keaton Vo didn’t have a target score when he teed off for his second round of stroke play on Tuesday at the 74th U.S. Junior Amateur Championship at Bandon Dunes Golf Resort. But when the 18-year-old from Austin, Texas, rolled in a 3-foot birdie putt on the par-5 ninth hole at Bandon Dunes, his score added up to a course-record-matching 7-under-par 65.

Vo’s 36-hole total of 9-under 134 – he posted a 69 in Monday’s first round at stroke-play co-host Bandon Trails – was good enough to earn medalist honors, two strokes better than Jayden Ford, 18, of New Zealand, and first-round co-leader Grant Lester, 17, of Washington, D.C.

The start of the second round was delayed 2½ hours due to fog that caused several holes to be visually unplayable.

Once play commenced, Vo, an incoming University of Texas freshman, took full advantage of the pleasant conditions – winds in the low teens and bright sunshine – to dominate the course’s par 3s and par 5s, playing them in a combined 7 under par, including an eagle on the par-5 18th, his ninth of the day on the 6,912-yard David McLay Kidd layout.

Two bogeys spoiled Vo’s chance to surpass the 65 registered by James Piot, the 2021 U.S. Amateur champion, during the 2020 U.S. Amateur.

“It was a great round,” said Vo, who helped Anderson High to the Texas Class 5A title this year, the first state championship of any sport for an Austin district school in 19 years. “It wasn’t perfect golf. My goal was just to try and get a good seed coming into match play. But I hit the ball much better than I did yesterday. I missed in the right spots and converted my putts, so it was a really fun round all around.”

Ford, who is half Samoan and briefly played rugby before turning to competitive golf, backed up his 68 at Bandon Dunes on Monday with a 3-under 68 on Bandon Trails, a Bill Coore/Ben Crenshaw design that measured 6,723 yards. His first visit to the United States in four years brought him to the North & South Amateur at Pinehurst No. 2, where he lost to eventual runner-up Tommy Morrison in the first round, as well as the Southern Amateur and Monroe Invitational.

Lester, competing in his first USGA championship, followed a first-round 66 at Bandon Trails with a 70 at Bandon Dunes, which included six birdies against four bogeys.

Four players finished at 6-under 137, including Jack Cantlay, of Los Alamitos, Calif., the younger brother of 2020-21 PGA Tour Player of the Year Patrick Cantlay. University of Washington incoming freshman Joshua Koo, of Cerritos, Calif., Dianchao Wu, of the People’s Republic of China, and Nicholas Gross, of Downington, Pa., also posted 137.

Defending champion Nick Dunlap, of Tuscaloosa, Ala., made match-play after posting a 71 at Bandon Dunes for a 36-hole total of 141. Last year’s semifinalists, Luke Potter, of Encinitas, Calif., and Luke Clanton, of Miami Lakes, Fla., also qualified with totals of 138 and 142, respectively. Clanton had a 68 at Bandon Dunes on Tuesday.

The cut for match play came at 1-over-par 144. Eleven players will play off for the last five spots in the match-play draw on Wednesday morning.

What’s Next

The 11-for-5 playoff for the last spots in the draw is scheduled to take place at Bandon Trails on Wednesday morning at 8 PDT. The first Round-of-64 match will commence at 9:30 a.m.

Notable

• Omar Khalid Hussain, 18, became the first golfer from Pakistan to make a cut in any USGA championship. Hussain, who competed in this year’s British Amateur, posted an even-par total of 143. Two years ago, he became the youngest winner of the Pakistan Amateur at 16.

• Ian Love, of Chicago, Ill., registered the 16th known hole-in-one in U.S. Junior Amateur history with his ace on the 144-yard, sixth hole at Bandon Dunes. He used a pitching wedge for his third career hole-in-one.

• Six of the 11 players involved in Wednesday’s playoff birdied their final hole to get to 144.

• It turns out Aidan Tran, of Fresno, Calif., is pretty good with numbers off the course as well. Tran, who qualified for match play (4-under 139), scored 1520 on the SAT and was the 2021-22 valedictorian at Clovis North High School. As a freshman, he already knew where he wanted to attend college, committing to Georgia Tech not only for the school’s golf pedigree, but also for its strong academic reputation.

• Three players in the field – Jackson Finney, Chris Harpum and Ryan Ford – have all committed to the University of Cincinnati to play under coach Doug Martin, the 1984 U.S. Junior Amateur champion. All three failed to qualify for match play.

• Four players have posted two eagles in a single round in the championship. Jack Cantlay was the first to achieve the feat Monday on the outward nine of Bandon Dunes en route to a championship-record-breaking 28. Eric Lee (Bandon Dunes), Chi Chun Chen (Bandon Trails) and Zachery Pollo (Bandon Trails) all matched the achievement on Tuesday.

• Victor Caliguri was disqualified from the championship for signing an incorrect scorecard (Rule 3.3b (3)). He had opened with a 73 at Bandon Trails.

Quotable

“I really enjoy it. It suits my game really well. I’m from Texas and we [hit] a lot of low balls and we know how to flight the ball [down] well. If I can just keep the putter rolling this week, I should be in a good spot.” – Keaton Vo on playing links golf

“I thought it would be good to get over here through the summer. Obviously, it is winter back home [in New Zealand] so there is not much going on. [I wanted to] come here and get some exposure and get more experience playing international golf.” – Jayden Ford

“He is a high school coach at a local school where I am from [in Southern California]. I didn’t know he was a [U.S. Junior Amateur] runner-up but he told me earlier this week that he was, and I was like, ‘Wow that is pretty cool’. It’s great to have somebody [who] has had experience in an event like this.” – Jack Cantlay on his caddie, John Mahon, the 1983 U.S. Junior Amateur runner-up

“A lot of big momentum swings in match play. It’s almost like college basketball where one big shot can turn the course of an entire match.” – Luke Potter on his love for the head-to-head format

David Shefter is a senior staff writer for the USGA. Email him at dshefter@usga.org.

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