Charlie Woods overcame a rocky start to keep his match-play chances alive at the U.S. Junior Amateur.
The 17-year-old Woods, among the 264 competitors vying for the trophy now named after his dad, Tiger Woods, started his third straight appearance in this championship bogey-triple and sat 6 over through five holes on Saucon Valley’s Old Course.
But Woods fought back by playing the final 13 holes in 1 under with a pair of birdies to card an opening, 5-over 76, his best first round at the U.S. Junior by five shots.
Woods opened in 82 two years ago at Oakland Hills while he posted a first-round 81 last year at Trinity Forest. He followed those rounds with an 80 and 74, respectively, missing match play by a substantial margin on both occasions. This time, however, Woods heads to Saucon Valley’s Grace Course, which played about three-fourths of a shot tougher in Round 1, for Tuesday’s second round, sitting just three shots out of what would currently be a playoff for the final berths into Wednesday’s Round of 64.
Sohan Patel fired a 66 on the Old to take the first-round lead at 5 under, a shot clear of Brayden Jones, whose 66 came on the par-70 Grace.
Woods’ future Florida State teammate, seventh-ranked amateur Miles Russell, posted 69 on the Grace. Other notable rounds included Tyler Mawhinney (70-Grace), Jackson Ormond (73-Old), Jessy Huebner (72-Grace), Giuseppe Puebla (72-Grace), Oscar Couilleau (74-Old), Ronin Banerjee (73-Grace), Luke Ringkamp (74-Old), Tomas Restrepo (77-Old), Philip Dunham (77-Old) and defending champion Hamilton Coleman (76-Grace).
