Let’s face it: After dominating the second round of the 17th Junior Players Championship on Saturday, Miles Russell fell flat on the front nine during Sunday’s final round at the Players Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass.
And he’ll tell you.
“Just didn’t play very well,” said the 14-year-old Jacksonville Beach resident.
MORE: Junior Players leaderboard
But a long walk to the 10th tee gave him a chance to calm down and realize he was still leading the American Junior Golf Association tournament — even if a four-shot margin to start the day had shrunk to one over Phillip Dunham of Ponte Vedra Beach.
Russell then fired a bogey-free back nine, highlighted by a nervy swing on the scariest tee shot under pressure in golf, regardless of age, and with a closing 71 became the first resident of the First Coast to win the Junior Players by four shots over Dunham at 9-under-par 207.
First one-two finish
Dunham, who plays practices at the TPC Sawgrass, battled hard and matched the low score of the third round, which greeted the contestants with the traditional Sunday pins for The Players and an odd late summer wind, coming briskly out of the North and Northeast.
“It was tough … you’ve just got to know how to handle it,” said Dunham, who put the pressure on Russell by making only one bogey. “Just kind of know where to put the ball.”
And if it’s any consolation, Dunham joined Russell in posting the best finish by two area players in the Junior Players. The previous best was a tie for third in 2007 by Bud Cauley, and there had never been two First Coast players among the top 10.
Will Hartman (71) of Marvin, N.C., finished third at 3-under, Tyler Watts (70) of Huntsville, Ala., was fourth at 2-under. Tyler Mawhinney (73) of Fleming Island tied for sixth at even par and Jackson Byrd (78) of St. Simons Island, Ga., tied for ninth at 2-over.
Russell also became the youngest winner of the Junior Players by nearly two years over Khavish Varadan (2016) and is the first to win the Junior Players and the Junior PGA in the same year.
Large gallery encourages Russell
Russell has been coming to The Players Championship since he was two years old and used to score autographs at the 17th hole during practice rounds. As a result, holding a trophy for winning a tournament at the Home of The Players was huge for the skinny, scrappy left-hander.
“It’s a big one since I’m from here,” he said. “It means a lot.”
And he was followed by perhaps the largest gallery in Junior Players history, with about six dozen family, friends, fellow AJGA players who had finished early and came back out to watch the finish, and a large contingent of Atlantic Beach Country Club members, where Russell plays and practices.
“That was pretty cool,” he said of the crowd and the reception he got when he made a 3-foot par putt at the 18th hole to secure the victory.
The Miles Fan Club were primed for a victory but were getting nervous after he almost came back to the field.
Returning to form on the back
Russell led by six shots with six holes to play when he fired a 66 in Saturday’s second round and had a four-shot lead to start the day on Sunday.
He then made a slew of unforced errors during a 2-over front nine: a 150-yard third shot short of the green at No. 2 (bogey), a three-putt from 12 feet at No. 4 (bogey), a misjudged third shot at No. 6 that landed 20 feet behind the hole (bogey), an indifferent tee shot and miss of a 5-foot putt at No. 8 (bogey) and a pulled layup shot in a fairway bunker at No. 9 (par).
Russell needed 17 putts on the front nine.
Harder to explain were his two birdies on the front, at two of the most difficult holes on the course, Nos. 5 and 7, both on 4-foot putts, with the approach at the fifth coming out of a fairway bunker.
“I played golf on those holes, and not sloppy,” he said of the fifth and seventh.
Perhaps it was a realization of just how well he had played most of the week that made him clean up.
Russell hit every green on the back
Russell got some breathing room when Dunham caught a tough lie in a bunker at No. 10 and bogeyed to fall two shots behind. Russell let two opportunities go by when he missed a 15-foot birdie putt at No. 10 and a 5-foot birdie putt at No. 11 — after a jaw-dropping shot from a fairway bunker, over water and in front of the green. He opted to chip instead of putt and wound up sending it past the hole.
But he had gone back to pounding the greens. Russell would hit all nine greens in regulation on the back nine and eventually, the birdies fell.
Dunham birdied No. 12 to get within one shot for the second time but Russell followed that with a 4-foot birdie putt at the 12th and his lead never dipped below two shots again.
Russell made safe pars at Nos. 14 and 15 (getting a break when his tee shot at the 15th hit the base of a tree on the left and kicked 90 degrees to the right side of the fairway), then birdied the par-5 16th on a 3-foot putt.
A fearless shot at No. 17
Russell then stood on the 17th tee with a three-shot lead. Without fear, he bored a “punch gap wedge” through the wind at No. 17, with the ball coming to rest in a spot familiar to Players Championships history buffs — 4 feet away and to the right of hole, where Sergio Garcia‘s tee shot landed in a playoff against Paul Goydos to win the 2008 Players.
Russell said he wasn’t necessarily trying to hit it that close.
“Just on the green anywhere,” he said of the plan on the tee. “Second goal was to get it on the right tier up top. It hit the shot I was trying to hit and executed it well.”
Dunham had some tough breaks in his attempt to catch Russell. He had an open look at No. 16 to reach the green in two but he pulled the ball slightly. It caught tree branches on the left side of the fairway and dropped straight down.
Dunham then hit his third shot fat and left himself with a 25-foot birdie putt, which he missed.
He then hit just as bold a shot at No. 17 as Russell did but missed a 5-foot birdie attempt.
“Great shot, didn’t make the putt,” he said.
