Maclauchlan Ousts Top Seed; Co-Medalists Russell, Patel Reach Quarters at Saucon Valley

The beauty of the match-play format is one can throw out the numbers. Forget the seeding or the world ranking. Toss away the reputations as well.

For 18 holes, nothing else matters but head-to-head golf.

Just ask Noah Maclauchlan, an 18-year-old from Moseley, Va., a suburb of Richmond. He barely snuck into the match-play draw of the 78th U.S. Junior Amateur at Saucon Valley Country Club with a 3-over stroke-play total of 144 that earned the left-hander the No. 49 seed. His World Amateur Golf Ranking®/WAGR® entering the championship was No. 2,047. But his results in 2026 had been good, including an American Junior Golf Association victory (Lanto Championship), a semifinal showing in the AJGA’s lone match-play event (RLX Ralph Lauren Junior Classic at Bethpage State Park’s Black Course) and two other seconds (Virginia Stroke Play and Scott Robertson Memorial).

On a beautiful Chamber-of-Commerce Thursday in the Lehigh Valley, each of those credentials mattered. So, taking on co-medalist and top seed Brayden Jones in the Round of 16 didn’t faze him.

Thanks to some brilliant shot making, including a laser to 4 feet on the 202-yard, par-3 ninth to set up a birdie and a 40-foot par save on the 16th hole, Maclauchlan advanced to the quarterfinals with a 2-and-1 victory over Jones, a 2027 Arizona State University commit and Seal Beach, Calif., native. Earlier in the day, in his Round-of-64 match, Maclauchlan ousted 2026 Western Junior champion Andrew Sciortino, 3 and 1.

“It was a ride, man,” said Maclauchlan. “I'm super tired. Kind of emotional. Actually, the [par] putt on 16, I wasn't really expecting to make that. I guess that kind of restored all the confidence I had back in myself.”

Joining the Virginian in the final eight are co-medalists Miles Russell, 17, of Jacksonville Beach, Fla., and U.S. National Junior Team member Sohan Patel, 17, of Weston, Fla.; 18-year-old New Zealanders Ryan Xie, of Auckland, and Cooper Moore, of Christchurch; USNJT member Tyler Mawhinney, 18, of Fleming Island, Fla.; Kuan Zhou, 18, of Houston, Texas; and Dylan Boenning, 18, of Scottsdale, Ariz.

Russell, the No. 7 player in WAGR who was just named to the 2026 USA Walker Cup Team, closed out his Round-of-16 match against University of San Diego rising sophomore Reed Arnaldo with likely the shot of the championship, knocking his final tee shot to 2 feet on the 324-yard, uphill 18th hole to 2 feet for a conceded eagle 2 and a 2-up victory. This is his third consecutive year in the quarterfinals. The tees on the final hole were moved up intentionally in order to create a risk/reward situation.

Maclauchlan took full advantage of his “mulligan,” which he was given when he got added to the field as the first alternate from the Portsmouth, Va., qualifying site. He got elevated from first alternate when Rawlin Sutter, another Portsmouth qualifier, became fully exempt by capturing the Alabama Boys State Junior for the second consecutive year. Maclauchlan’s younger brother, Liam, was the medalist at the same qualifier, but did not advance into this week’s draw.

“It was super weird,” said Noah. “I got a call two days [after the qualifier] later saying a spot had opened up in the championship. So pretty special from that point on.”

Special is the word to describe Russell’s remarkable drive on the 18th, one that he nearly holed for a rare double-eagle 1. Arnaldo, a member of the All-West Coast Conference first team as a freshman in 2025-26, had given the most decorated junior in this field a battle throughout the match. Russell, a 2027 Florida State verbal commit who made the cut in last month’s U.S. Open and has twice won the AJGA Boys Player of the Year Award (2023, 2025), actually trailed for the first time all week when he bogeyed the eighth hole.

But the lefty showed his moxie by making a birdie on the ninth to tie up the contest.  Arnaldo, 18, of Encinitas, Calif., won 12 and 14 with birdies. Then Russell birdied 15 and won 16 to take a 2-up lead. Arnaldo’s third birdie of the match trimmed the margin by a hole, but that momentum was quickly stopped by Russell’s near-ace on 18.

“I saw it land on the green and the way it was kind of rolling I figured I was going to be at least putting hopefully,” said Russell, who only is missing the U.S. Junior Amateur title from his litany of major junior victories. “I didn't think it was going to be that close, but I'll take it.”

The recent Walker Cup selection will face another rising college sophomore on Friday morning in Washington State’s Boenning, who is bidding to become the first current collegian to win this title –The age limit was raised to under 19 for the 2018 championship. Boenning needed 19 holes to defeat incoming Auburn University freshman Owen Coniaris. In the first match of the day, the Arizona native eliminated University of California-Berkeley rising sophomore and 2024 semifinalist Xihuan Chang, 4 and 3.

Like Russell, Patel is returning to the quarterfinals where a familiar foe will be waiting for him in Mawhinney, an incoming Vanderbilt University freshman, the same school where the lefty Patel will matriculate in 2027. The two met in the Round of 16 last year at Trinity Forest, a 1-up victory for Patel.

Unlike Wednesday’s dramatic 1-up victory over Luke Ringkamp where he didn’t lead until making a 25-foot birdie putt on the 18th hole, Patel got up early in both of his Thursday encounters. The turning point in his 4-and-2 decision over San Diego State incoming freshman Brayden Forte, of Denver, Colo., came on the par-5 15th hole. Leading 2 up, Patel converted a 10-foot birdie after Forte missed from 12 feet. Then on the next hole, Patel stuffed his 8-iron approach to 6 feet to set up another winning birdie and seal the match.

In his morning match, Patel eliminated the “local” favorite in Chase Yenser, of Douglassville, Pa., 4 and 3.

“I definitely played well in both of [my matches],” said Patel, competing in his fourth USGA championship and second Junior Amateur. “I was up early. But both guys I played with, Brayden and Chase both fought back in the middle and kind of pushed me to later holes. Chase is a great player, and Brayden played awesome.

“Just to know that even when you get up you can still lose holes, which is completely fine. I never really gave any holes away except for maybe one.”

Mawhinney enjoyed the largest margin of victory on Thursday with an 8-and-7 win over Nico Ward in the Round of 32. The 2025 U.S. Amateur Four-Ball champion had a much tougher go in the Round of 16 against Czechian 16-year-old Louis Klein.

Neither competitor led by more than a hole until Mawhinney, who birdied the last four holes of the match, drained a 12-foot putt on the par-4 16th hole for a 2-up advantage, and then rolled in a 20-footer on 17 to close out the match, 2 and 1.

Now he gets another shot at avenging last year’s loss to his future Vandy teammate.

“I remember he beat me 1-up,” said Mawhinney. “That's about all I remember. Looking forward to tomorrow and hopefully I can get him back this year.”

Xie and Moore didn’t travel to Pennsylvania together from New Zealand, but they have faced each other on three previous occasions. According to Moore, his fellow Kiwi owns a 2-1 advantage withall of the matches taking place in their home country.

Xie, headed to Santa Clara University this fall, earned a spot in the final eight with a 4-and-2 win over Troy Storm, of Singapore. He also eliminated Minheok Yu, of the Republic of Korea, 2 and 1.

Outside of an opening birdie, Moore trailed or was tied virtually the entire Round-of-16 match against Canadian Dawson Lew. But a birdie on No. 18 sealed a 1-up victory for the 18-year-old who is planning to enter DP World Tour Qualifying School later this year. Moore reached the last 16 with a 4-and-3 win over Korean Geon Kang.

Zhou, headed to Northwestern University in the fall, outlasted Ramsey, N.J. resident Michael Asselta, an incoming freshman at Loyola (Md.) University, 3 and 1. The two had a see-saw match until the Texan won Nos. 16 and 17, the latter with a birdie, to reach the last eight.

“This week, specifically, it's probably been my iron play,” said Zhou. “I'm hitting it pretty good and driving it well. That's usually what's good about my game. [Also] putting all right this week, which is typical.”

What’s Next

Friday’s quarterfinal matches will commence at 8 a.m. EDT and go in 15-minute intervals. The semifinals are scheduled for 2 p.m. and 2:12 p.m. The 36-hole championship match on Saturday is scheduled to begin at 8 a.m. and continue after the lunch break. GolfChannel.com has live streaming of the semifinals from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m., with a re-broadcast on Golf Channel at 8 p.m. Golf Channel has the afternoon portion of the championship match from 3 p.m.-5 p.m. Admission is free and the public is encouraged to attend.

Notable

• Provided they are still age-eligible, all of the quarterfinalists are exempt into the 2027 U.S. Junior Amateur to be contested at Chambers Bay, in University Place, Wash., from July 19-24.
  
  
• One volunteer this week has a unique connection to Saucon Valley. John Mahon was the runner-up to Tim Straub in the U.S. Junior Amateur held on the Old Course 43 years ago. Now 60, Mahon, a Southern California native, wanted to return to the venerable Lehigh Valley venue so he signed up as a volunteer. Two years ago, he retired from coaching the boys’ golf team at Damien High School, in La Verne, Calif., where he also taught for 35 years. Mahon played one season at Illinois before transferring to Stanford University. He also qualified for the 1985 and 1986 U.S. Amateurs but did not make match play at Montclair Golf Club, in New Jersey and Shoal Creek, in Alabama, respectively. Mahon also spent his summers caddieing at Bandon Dunes, where he was on the bag of Jack Cantlay in the 2022 U.S. Junior Amateur when the Long Beach native carded a 28 during stroke play and lost to current Oklahoma State standout Eric Lee in the Round of 16. Mahon, who arrived on Monday, did not run into Straub, the longtime Davidson College head coach this week.
  
  
• Oklahoma State coach Alan Bratton, a member of the 1995 USA Walker Cup Team, jumped on the bag of Cowboys rising sophomore Henry Guan on Thursday. Bratton caddied for OSU players Peter Uihlein and Viktor Hovland when they captured U.S. Amateur titles in 2010 and 2018. Last year he was on the bag of current world No. 1 amateur/2026 NCAA champion Preston Stout when he earned medalist honors at The Olympic Club. Stout is returning to the USA Walker Cup Team this September after helping the side to victory last year at Cypress Point. Guan was eliminated by Louis Klein, 1 down.
  
  
• Liam Maclauchlan, who failed to qualify for match play, jumped on older brother Noah’s bag on Wednesday and the combination has worked well, as the 18-year-old finds himself in the quarterfinals. Liam has verbally committed to play for the University of Virginia in 2027, while Noah is headed to Liberty University this fall.
  
  
• For the second consecutive year, three left-handers are in the quarterfinals: Sohan Patel, Miles Russell and Noah Maclauchan. In 2025, Patel, Russell and Luke Colton advanced to the final eight.
  
  
• Colton’s father, Jim Colton, is serving as the caddie for Tyler Mawhinney. Reportedly, Jim has to drink a Coke Zero for every birdie Mawhinney makes. So if that’s the case, he had to down 12 on Thursday.

Quotable

“[Tyler Mawhinney and I] go back a couple years, but he's one of my good friends; going to the same college (Vanderbilt). If he wins it would be a blast out there…I'm prepared for anything. I'm playing some of the best golf I've ever played and feel like if I play my game I can hang with anyone.” – Sohan Patel

“I mean, the U.S. Junior, U.S. Am, they're such long weeks and the U.S. Open, it's almost a shorter week just because you're only playing four rounds, but it still wears you out being in front of that many people for that long. It was kind of a long week and kind of figured out how to play when I was tired, and I think that's what you kind of got to. That's what I've learned with how much golf I played is kind of learning how to play golf tired and maybe not feel my best but just kind of keep going.” – Miles Russell  

“I’ve been blessed to play in every event this past season [at Washington state]. [The U.S. Junior Amateur] is a college setup, the rough is thick, the pins are college pins, I’m comfortable in those conditions and it certainly helps having your college assistant coach (Derek Bayley) on the bag.” – Dylan Boenning

“It'll be good fun. Had good battles over the last few years, so, yeah, be nice to have sort of one more before he goes to college.” – Cooper Moore on facing fellow Kiwi Ryan Xie in the quarterfinals

“I think mentally I've been a lot better being able to control my emotions on the course, reacting to bad breaks and all that.” – Ryan Xie on his improvement from 2025 when he missed the match-play cut

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