Miles Russell’s short memory paves the way to share of Junior Players lead

Russell rebounds from a drive hit into an unplayable lie at No. 15 to birdie two of his last three holes

• Miles Russell, the top-ranked junior golfer, shot a 4-under 68 to tie for the first-round lead at the Junior Players Championship.
• Cameron Kuchar, son of 2012 Players champion Matt Kuchar, hit a hole-in-one on the par-3 third hole.
• Charlie Woods, son of Tiger Woods, shot a 4-over 76 in his first competitive round at TPC Sawgrass.

Miles Russell has been blessed with a myriad of golf skills. 

One of them is a short memory. 

“Just something I’ve kind of always been good at,” said the American Junior Golf Association’s No. 1-ranked player. 

The 16-year-old Jacksonville Beach resident rebounded from three bogeys with a birdie on the next hole each time and birdied two of his last three holes at the Players Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass on Aug 29 to tie Nicholas Logis of Austin, Texas, for the first-round lead at 4-under 68 in the 19^th Junior Players Championship. 

Logis was 5-under at one point before bogeys at Nos. 5 and 8, then birdied No. 9, his last hole. 

Grayson Baucom of Hickory, N.C., birdied three of his last four holes to tie Phillip Dunham of Ponte Vedra Beach for third at 3-under 69. Dunham had a steady round with only one bogey and highlighted by a 35-foot birdie putt at No. 5. 

Five players are tied at 1-under 71. Tyler Mawhinney of Fleming Island double-bogeyed the fifth hole, bogeyed the ninth after a lost ball and rebounded with a 1-under back nine for a 74 and a tie for 24th.

Russell overcomes unplayable lie at No. 15 

Russell, the 2023 Junior Players champion and the No. 1 player on the AJGA Rolex Rankings, was 1-under through four holes before a bogey at the fifth. 

No worries. He birdied the par-4 sixth and at the par-5 ninth hole hit a nifty pitch shot from the top of the bank on the right of the ninth green to within 4 feet to set up a birdie putt. 

After a bogey at No. 10, Russell got up-and-down for birdie at the par-5 11th and birdied the short par-4 12^th to get to 3-under. 

But Russell faced more adversity at the par-4 15^th when he tugged his drive right into a patch of love grass. He had to take an unplayable lie, pitched into the fairway to leave himself a perfect angle to the pin on the right side, then hit a wedge shot to 8 feet.  

Russell drained the bogey putt to minimize the damage. 

“I was kind of stealing one,” he said. “I hit three good shots to get back in position … hit a pretty good wedge.” 

Fast finish earns Russell a share of the lead 

Russell’s answer to that bogey was to hit his last two fairways and last three greens in regulation. He reached the par-5 16^th hole in two and two-putted from 60 feet, two-putted from 30 feet behind the hole at No. 17, and then dropped a 20-foot birdie putt at No. 18. 

“I played well, played solid,” he said. “Two more days, though.” 

Phillip Dunham turns in near-flawless day 

Dunham, who was the runner-up to Russell in the 2023 Junior Players, birdied No. 3 on a 10-foot putt before his monster roll at the fifth hole, then bounced back a bogey at No. 12 when he made short birdie putts at Nos. 14 and 15. 

“I kept the game steady today, kept the ball in play,” Dunham said. 

Dunham said he’s played the course so many times in all wind directions that he’s more freewheeling off the tee. 

“I kind of see lines a little bit more aggressive,” he said. “I’m a little more comfortable with those lines than maybe a lot of other golfers, just from being here, watching The Players growing up … it’s like home.” 

What did Charlie Woods shoot? 

With his mother Elin Nordegren watching, Charlie Woods shot 4-over 76, with seven bogeys and three birdies, and is tied for 38th. He was playing his first competitive round at the course where his father Tiger Woods won the 2001 and 2013 Players Championships.

Woods bogeyed his first two holes when a squall passed over the area and recovered with a 10-foot birdie putt at No. 4. 

He bogeyed Nos. 7 and 8, dropped an 8-foot birdie putt at No. 11, bogeyed No. 14, and then birdied the 15^th hole on a 10-foot putt. Woods closed with a bogey at the last. 

Cameron Kuchar aces No. 3 

Cameron Kuchar, the son of 2012 Players champion Matt Kuchar, made a hole-in-one at the par-3 third hole. He used a 9-iron from 178 yards out. 

It was the third hole-in-one in the history of the Junior Players. Taylor Travis of Fremont, Calif., aced No. 3 from 170 yards out in 2007, and Bryan Lee aced No. 17 in 2020 from 137 yards away. 

Junior Players Championship

Round 2 tee times, Aug. 30

No. 1 tee 

8:10 a.m.: Jackson Ormond, Webster, N.Y.; Nicholas Logis, Austin, Texas; Charlie Rusbridge, England. 

8:20 a.m.: Kailer Stone, Alameda, Calif; Coltrane Mittag, Ashland, Neb.; Jack Swift, England. 

8:30 a.m.: Nicholas Canitano, Milton, Ga.; Drew Woolworth, Lake Oswego, Ore.; Raul Gomez, Montalva, Spain. 

8:40 a.m.: Macaulay Myers, Whitestown, Ind.; Davis Wotnosky, Wake Forest, N.C.; Bryan Newman, South Africa. 

8:50 a.m.: Jager Pain, Canada; Andrew Rodriguez, Whittier, Calif.; Alexandre El Khomri, France. 

9 a.m.: Connor Herrera, San Diego; Sterling Hurd, Austin, Texas; Miles Wennestam, Switzerland. 

9:10 a.m.: Aadi Parmer, Selma, Texas; Duff McKay, Dallas; Aidan Lawson, Scotland. 

9:20 a.m.: Brooks Colton, Riviera Beach; Tucker Gutierrez, Madison, Miss.’ Gudjon Halldorsson, Iceland. 

9:30 a.m.: Duke Heise, Spring, Texas; Noah Maclauchlan, Mosely, Va.; Edwin Askefors, Swede. 

9:40 a.m.: Blake Brown, Cypress, Texas; Austin Le, Houston; Edwin Sjodin, Sweden. 

9:50 a.m.: Aaron Cummins, Trophy Club, Texas; Brady Rapp, Leawood, Kan.; Lucca Mateo Buenrostro, Ennis, Texas. 

10 a.m.: Peyton Smith, Lees Summit, Mo.; Ambrose Kinnare, St. Augustine; Frank Cabeza, Howey-in-the-Hills. 

10:10 a.m.: Kuan Zhou, England; Wylie Inman, N. Palm Beach; Spencer Harrison, Australia. 

No. 10 tee 

8:10 a.m.: Charlie Woods, Jupiter; Chase Hughes, Oklahoma City, Okla.; Ronin Banerjee, Irvin, Calif. 

8:20 a.m.: Cameron Kuchar, St. Simons Island, Ga.; Dawson Lew, Canada; Ayden Fynaut, Fresno, Calif. 

8:30 a.m.: Luke Ringkamp, Palm Desert, Calif.; Sohan Patel, Weston; Phillip Dunham, Ponte Vedra Beach. 

8:40 a.m.: Drake Harvey, Las Vegas; Sam Carraher, Crown Point, Ind.; Preston Hage, Raleigh, N.C. 

8:50 a.m.: Bailey Sutter, Cullman, Ala.; Arrow Aarav Shah, Australia; Asher Vargas, Spring, Texas. 

9 a.m.: Edan Cui, Atherton, Calif.; William Chang, Danville, Calif.; Tomas Restrepo Jaramillo, Colombia. 

9:10 a.m.: Jaden Peterson, Port St. Lucie; William Lisle, Bradenton; Mark Cadden, Ireland. 

9:20 a.m.: Lucas Gimenez, Jacksonville; Grayson Baucom, Hickory, N.C.; John Doyle, Ireland. 

9:30 a.m.: Brady Barnum, Dublin, Ohio; Chase Bauer, Gotha; Guus Lafeber, Netherlands. 

9:40 a.m.: Alexander Zhang, Plano, Texas; Graham Christopher, Westlake Village, Calif.; Calllixte Alzas, France. 

9:50 a.m.: Kaden Chang, Carlsbad, Calif.; Braeden Nelson, W. Des Moines, Iowa; Tom De Herrypon, France. 

10 a.m.: Miles Russell, Jacksonville Beach; Hamilton Coleman, Augusta, Ga.; Giuseppe Puebla, Royal Palm Beach. 

10:10 a.m.: Jessy Huebner, Port St. Lucie; Tyler Mawhinney, Fleming Island; Lunden Esterline, Andover, Kan.