Chinese 17-Year-Old Earns a Shot at History

Bandon, Oregon, United States: The objective of the US Junior Amateur Championship – like all USGA competitions – is to identify the best player. Well, the two best golfers in this week’s field, at least according to the World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR), are going to battle it out for the title on Saturday at Bandon Dunes Golf Resort.

American Caleb Surratt, who is 19th in the WAGR, and China’s world number 20 Ding Wenyi each won a pair of matches on a breezy Friday on the resort’s Bandon Dunes course to advance to the 36-hole final of the 74th US Junior Amateur.

Surratt, an 18-year-old incoming freshman at the University of Tennessee, eliminated defending champion Nicholas Dunlap, 4&3, in one semi-final match, while 17-year-old Ding, who is planning to attend Arizona State University in 2023, outlasted Eric Lee in 20 holes.

The winner of Saturday’s match not only will join legendary champions Johnny Miller, Tiger Woods, Jordan Spieth and 2022 Masters champion Scottie Scheffler on the trophy, but also will earn an exemption into next year's 123rd US Open at Los Angeles Country Club.

Ding, the second player from China to advance to the Junior Amateur final (Bo Jin, 2019), is hoping to become the fifth international golfer to win the championship after a trio of players from South Korea (Terry Noe, Sihwan Kim and Andy Hyeon Bo Shim) and Min Woo Lee, of Australia, whose sister, Minjee, won this year’s US Women’s Open.

He also would be the first male player from China to win any USGA title; Fumie (Alice) Jo and current Stanford University standout Lei Ye captured the 2014 US Women’s Amateur Public Links and 2019 US Girls’ Junior, respectively.

“I just want to calm down and try to get back my energy. That’s most important, and not think about the championship,” said Ding on resetting his focus for the 36-hole final.

Surratt, meanwhile, has been one of the hottest amateur golfers in the country since the calendar switched to 2022. He has not finished outside the top-10 in his last nine events, including victories at the Junior Invitational at Sage Valley and Terra Cotta Invitational.

He came to Bandon Dunes fresh off a tie for second in last week’s Pacific Coast Amateur in Portland, and he currently leads the Elite Amateur Series, a group of seven top-flight competitions that concludes with next month’s Western Amateur.

It was another typical summer day at Bandon Dunes once the marine layer was replaced by crystal blue skies. By the end of the morning quarter-finals and start of the afternoon semi-finals, the winds were blowing steadily in the mid-teens and gusting to the low 20s with temperatures in the upper 50s.

“I felt like I had control of my ball pretty much all day, and you really have to in this wind,” said Surratt, who has Tennessee men’s golf coach Brennan Webb on the bag. “I was just trying to keep my head down and hit it where I was looking and then let the results add up because I can’t control what happens.”

Like he had done in his four previous matches, Surratt jumped on Dunlap early by winning the second and fifth to go two-up at the turn. He won the par-four 11th with a bogey and par-three 12th to take a commanding lead.

Dunlap, who was hoping to become the second player in Junior Amateur history to win consecutive titles (Woods achieved it from 1991-93), birdied the 13th to get one hole back, but Surratt won 14 with a par and closed out the match on the 15th.

Surratt has yet to trail this week, a stretch of 74 holes, and he’s only been tied for five of them. On Saturday, he’ll look to become the fourth North Carolinian to win the championship, following Larry Beck (1957), John Crooks (1967) and Jason Widener (1988).

Ding also never trailed against Lee, but saw a two-up advantage evaporate over the final five holes, including a bogey-six on the closing hole when he had to take a drop for an unplayable lie after a wayward drive. Lee’s run, however, ended with a three-putt from 30 feet on the second play-off hole, the par-four 14th hole, after Ding converted a testy seven-footer for par.

For the first time in US Junior Amateur history, every quarter-final match went the distance (or beyond), producing plenty of excitement and drama.

Luke Potter, an Arizona State incoming freshman who was a semi-finalist in 2021, watched a 20-foot birdie putt catch the left edge of the hole on 18 that would have forced extra holes against Ding.

Luke Clanton, another semi-finalist from 2021, took Dunlap to the 19th hole before being eliminated. Neither player held more than a one-up lead before Dunlap made a 54-foot birdie on the first extra hole.

Two-time Australian Junior champion Jeffrey Guan rallied from four-down with four to play with birdies on 16 and 17 and a par on 18, only to lose on the 20th hole to a 35-foot birdie by Lee.

Preston Stout overcame a two-down deficit to Surratt, only to see his opponent birdie 16 and then hold on for a one-up win. It was the first time this week Surratt had been taken to the 18th hole.