Patel, Jones Fire 66s, Share First-Round Lead at Saucon Valley C.C.

Sohan Patel has been competing in USGA championships since the 2023 U.S. Amateur when, at the age of 14, he was the youngest player in the field at Cherry Hills Country Club.

From pure experience alone, he knows an early mistake, especially when it comes on your opening hole of stroke play, is just a blip on the radar screen.

The 17-year-old from Weston, Fla., now competing in his fourth USGA event and second consecutive U.S. Junior Amateur, overcame a bogey on the par-5 first hole of Saucon Valley Country Club’s Old Course to post a 5-under-par 66 on a beautiful sunny Monday in the Lehigh Valley to share the first-round lead in the 78th edition of this national championship for golfers under the age of 19.

Brayden Jones, 17, of Seal Beach, Calif., matched the left-handed Patel with a 4-under 66 on the Grace Course, the stroke-play co-host for the championship.

One stroke back were 18-year-olds Spencer Shropshire, of Canada, and University of San Diego rising sophomore Reed Arnaldo, of Encinitas, Calif., both of whom played the par-70 Grace Course.

Each of those two players eagled the par-5 10th hole with chip-ins. Shropshire “chunk-hooked” a 3-wood off the tee into the fairway, hit another 3-wood to within 25  feet of the  hole and holed his third for an eagle 3. It was his first hole of the day. Arnaldo, a first-team All-West Coast Conference performer in 2025-26, knocked his 4-iron approach from 230 yards just short of the green and holed his 60-foot chip.

Xihuan Chang, a 2025 U.S. Junior Amateur semifinalist from the People’s Republic of China, was among the group at 68. He played the Grace Course. Paxton Lane, 18, of Benton, Ark., Troy Storm, 17, of Singapore, and Cooper Moore, 18, of New Zealand, each posted 68s on the Old Course.

Miles Russell, 17, of Jacksonville Beach, Fla., the highest-ranked competitor in the field (No. 7 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking®/WAGR®) and the first player to ever compete in the U.S. Junior Amateur after being named to the USA Walker Cup Team, posted a 1-under 69 on the Grace Course, finishing with two consecutive bogeys. The 2027 Florida State commit played in front of the largest gallery of the day.

A rising high school senior at American Heritage School, in Plantation, Fla., who has committed to attend Vanderbilt University in 2027 with four other past/current U.S. National Junior Team members, Patel regained momentum from his first-hole blemish by getting up and down for par from 40 yards away on the par-4 second, and then he birdied the 380-yard, dogleg-left par-4 third, a start of six birdies over a 10-hole stretch. The 2025 U.S. Junior Amateur quarterfinalist (he lost eventual champion Hamilton Coleman) would par in from No. 14, including a clutch up-and-down 4 on the 510-yard, par-4 16th hole to post the day’s lowest round on the Old Course, which will serve as the venue for all the matches beginning on Wednesday.

“I've been feeling good,” said Patel, whose best result of the summer was solo fourth in the Florida Amateur. “I've been playing some good golf. I feel like some of my scores that I've shot haven't reflected like how I'm progressing and how my game's getting better, but I feel like some of the changes I made with my putting stroke [have helped]. I rolled in some good putts  today. Speed was good, which is the key for me.”

Jones, a member of the U.S. National Development Program’s Team Southern California who has committed to attend Arizona State University in 2027, got off to the opposite start of Patel. He birdied the 584-yard, par-5 first hole on the Grace Course, bogeyed the fourth, and then registered three birdies in a four-hole stretch from No. 8. He closed with a 3 on the 435-yard, 17th.

Arnaldo had never teed it up in a USGA competition before becoming exempt for this event via his spot in WAGR. Despite being one of six in the field to have completed a year of college, he figured why not compete. Last month, he advanced to the quarterfinals of The Amateur Championship at Royal Liverpool (Hoylake), in England before losing to Estonia’s Richard Teder.

He put himself in position to make match play in another major competition, although two three-putt bogeys to end his round left a slightly sour taste in his month. A birdie on No. 16 of the Grace Course pushed him to 5 under for the day and in position to own the 18-hole lead.

“Just a long day, just lost some focus,” said Arnaldo. “I putted it great the entire day. I'm not too worried.”

 What’s Next

The 264 competitors will switch courses for Round 2 on Tuesday after which the field will be cut to the low 64 scorers for match play. Should a playoff be necessary to determine the last spots in the draw, it will take place on the Grace Course on Wednesday morning. Admission is free and the public is encouraged to attend. Tuesday’s forecast is for rain and possible thunderstorms.

Notable

• The scoring averages on the two courses were almost identical: 75.59 (Old) and 75.30 (Grace).
  
  
• Dane Mohap, of Nazareth, Pa., and a member at nearby Lehigh Country Club, had the honor of hitting the opening tee shot on the Old Course. He was followed by a plethora of family, friends and Lehigh C.C. members. Mohap carded a 78.
  
  
• Hamilton Coleman got off to a tough start in his title defense, shooting a 76 on the Grace Course.
  
  
• Coleman wasn’t the only past U.S. Junior Amateur champion on the property. Longtime Davidson College coach Tim Straub, who claimed the 1983 title at Saucon Valley Country Club, spent the past few days recruiting. The Western New York native remembered his final hole of that championship, a 1-up victory over John Mahon. One fast fact about Straub, who played at Wake Forest on the Arnold Palmer Scholarship: he was on the same high school basketball team (Nichols School) with future Duke University star Christian Laettner.
  
  
• Charlie Woods, the son of 15-time major champion – and three-time U.S. Junior Amateur champ – Tiger Woods, drew one of the biggest galleries of the day. But a triple bogey on his second hole led to a 5-over 76 on the Old Course. He wasn’t the only big name to have a disappointing opening round. U.S. National Junior Team members Phillip Dunham (77-O), Ronin Banerjee (73-G), Giuseppe Puebla (72-G) and Jessie Huebner (72-G)
  
  
• While there are not any USGA champions/past Walker Cuppers serving as caddies, there are three notables on bags. Derek Tolan, who qualified for the 2002 U.S. Open at Bethpage State Park’s Black Course as a 16-year-old, is carrying for Ash Edwards, the son of University of Colorado men’s golf coach Roy Edwards. Tolan is CU’s associate coach. Gavin Hall, a lefty who was an All-American at Texas and qualified for the 2013 U.S. Open at Merion, is on the bag of Michael Jorski. Jim Colton, the father of U.S. National Junior Team member Luke Colton, is on the bag of USNJT’s Tyler Mawhinney (70 on Grace Course). Luke Colton, like Mawhinney, an incoming Vanderbilt University freshman, was a semifinalist last year but has since aged out of the championship. Luke, who turned 19 in June, just competed in the Southern Amateur and will compete in the upcoming Western Amateur.
  
  
• Twenty-seven players chose not to employ caddies and are either carrying their own bag or pushing a cart.
  
  
• The U.S. Junior Amateur always is a mini convention for college coaches searching for the next great talent. As of Monday, more than 60 had registered, including Marquette assistant coach Jordan Niebrugge, the 2013 U.S. Amateur Public Links champion who represented the USA on two Walker Cup Teams (2013 and 2015). In 2015, the former Oklahoma State All-American finished tied for sixth in The Open Championship at St. Andrews to earn low-amateur honors. Also on the property was 2000 U.S. Amateur champion Jeff Quinney, 2011 U.S. Amateur Public Links runner-up Derek Ernst (Tennessee), recent U.S. Senior Open competitor Andrew Sapp (Purdue), 2003 Great Britain & Ireland Walker Cupper David Inglis, and two-time PGA Tour winner Dudley Hart (Florida).
  
  
• Cooper Moore, of New Zealand, was the last player to register. He came to Saucon Valley from the Porter Cup at Niagara Falls C.C., in Lewiston, N.Y., which ended on Saturday. Due to flight delays/cancellations, he didn’t arrive until 4 p.m. on Sunday, enough time to play eight holes on the Old Course.
  
  
• John Reis, working his 33rd U.S. Junior Amateur, is serving as the first-tee starter on Saucon Valley Country Club’s Old Course. Pat Newmark started the players on No. 10 of the Old Course. Starters on the Grace Course are Marion Dantzler (first tee) and Larry McWane (10th tee).
  
  
• James Nagle was disqualified after the first round for using green-reading materials while on the green, a breach of Model Local Rule G-12.

Quotable

“They help us understand our games, what our tendencies are … and just understanding where your strengths are and where your weaknesses are. That's very important to coming out here [in the U.S. Junior Amateur]. They also partnered with Trackman, which is really nice. So, we got lent a Trackman and that really helps you get your numbers dialed in, know what your path and face are on that day. So, you can kind of predict what ball flight you're hitting with each club. It's been really helpful. I can't thank them enough.” – Sohan Patel on the benefits of being a member of the U.S. National Junior Team as part of the U.S. National Development Program

“It’s a great system to get everybody from SoCal together in the golf world. It’s been great … to play a nice course, practice and get better together.” – Brayden Jones on being part of Team California as part of the U.S. National Development Program

“It's definitely weird still being able to play this, but I guess it feels weird because I'm a young kid in college. I mean there's plenty of people out here older than me…It was pretty much a no-brainer to come play.” – Reed Arnaldo

“I think tomorrow's weather's not going to be very good, so try to stay dry for the most part. We’ll see. The greens today kind of got bumpy there towards the end, and kind of crispy, so, obviously, with rain tomorrow, they'll be a little softer on the Old [Course], but it's a different type of grass, too, so we'll see.” – Miles Russell on preparing for Round 2 after a first-round 69

“Yeah, that's pretty cool. It was a big day for golf in New Zealand … I haven't met him or played with him, but yeah, he seems like a good guy and I think he deserved it. And he's done well the last few years on the PGA Tour.” – New Zealander Cooper Moore (3-under 68 on Old Course) on compatriot Ryan Fox claiming The Open Championship on Sunday at Royal Birkdale

“I was really good off the tee today, hit a bunch of fairways. I was able to keep the ball in play. The two bogeys I made I was just out of position off the tee. It happens out here, but I was really strong out there and that was the difference.”

“I was a little nervy on the first tee, didn’t hit a great one, but ... [I] wasn't too far off the fairway. And then hit a good shot after that so it worked out. It just kind of dropped the weight off my shoulders a little bit just leading up to this week. I just took it hole-by-hole from there.” – Dane Mohap on hitting the opening tee shot off No. 1 on the Old Course

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