Michigan, United States: A field of 264 players entered the week at the 2024 US Junior Amateur Championship, and after two rounds of stroke play and five rounds of match play just two remained for Saturday’s 36-hole championship final at Oakland Hills in Bloomfield Hills.
On paper, the final match was rather lopsided. On one side was Tyler Watts, a member of the USGA’s inaugural US National Junior Team, the youngest player to ever win the Alabama State Amateur and 121st in the World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR). On the other side was Trevor Gutschewski, the lowest-ranked player to reach the quarterfinals at 3,570th in the world, in his Junior Am debut.
Thankfully USGA championships aren’t played on paper, because in reality the final match featured the two best players of the week, which set up for a thrilling day of play.
Entering the final match, Watts had played 81 holes over his five matches and trailed for just six. For his part, Gutschewski played 91 holes and was losing for just three. In fact, he never trailed in four of his five matches. Gutschewski added some hardware to his family’s golf legacy with his 4&3 win over Watts to claim the 76th playing of the world’s premier junior golf event.
“I don’t even know,” Gutschewski said of what it means to be a USGA champion. “Probably hasn't sunk in yet. I have to sit on it for a bit,” added the champion, who eliminated China’s Chang Xihuan in the semi-final.
When it finally hits, the Florida commit will realise his name now sits alongside the likes of past Junior Amateur champions like Tiger Woods (1991-93), Jordan Spieth (2009, 2011), Scottie Scheffler (2013), and many more. Despite the shock, one name stood out the first time he looked at the trophy.
“Probably this Tiger Woods guy,” he said with a smile.
Trevor is the son of PGA Tour veteran Scott Gutschewski, who was playing in the 3M Open this week but missed the cut on Friday and arrived in time for the final match. Trevor’s older brother, Luke, plays at Iowa State and shared medallist honours at the 2022 US Amateur at Ridgewood Country Club in New Jersey.
“I don’t know what it is. USGA must not have brought the best out of me, but apparently they do out of my kids,” Scott joked after the round. The three-time winner on the Korn Ferry Tour didn’t play in any USGA events growing up and has just the 2009 US Open (a missed cut) under his belt. “They’re cool and historic events. They’re great tests. They test everything. They sometimes I think blur the line on what we as players think is fair. That’s part of the test, right?”
The marathon day began at 7:30 am local time and saw Gutschewski storm out of the gate with a birdie on the first, but Watts quickly followed suit to even the match on the next hole. On the par-three third, Watts hit the flagstick with his tee shot and buried a 20-footer for birdie to tie Gutschewski, who then went on to take a commanding lead with three straight wins on numbers four through six, the latter of which was a hole-out eagle with a wedge from 100 yards out.
Down three through six holes, Watts upped the voltage and powered his way back into the match. The 16-year-old Alabama native won the par-four seventh with birdie and then flipped the match in his favour with three consecutive wins of his own on numbers 10 through 12.
Gutschewski, 17, of Nebraska, squared the match with a par on 14 but Watts caught a spark once again late on the back nine of the morning 18. The rising high school junior went flag hunting on 16 and stuffed a pitching wedge from 148 yards to two feet to reclaim the lead. Watts then went two-up after a Gutschewski bogey on 17 before a costly double-bogey six on 18 brought the match back to just a one-up advantage at the break.
After lunch, Gutschewski made another birdie on the par-four first hole and walked in his six-footer to square the match for the fourth time on the day. A trio of pars from each player kept the finale tied for the next three holes before Watts slipped up with a bogey on the par-four fifth, the 23rd hole of the day.
That gave Gutschewski a one-up advantage, his first lead since the 10th hole in the morning. Watts briefly drew the match back level before Gutschewski claimed the seventh and eighth – the 25th and 26th holes of the day – to take a two-up lead with 10 holes to play.
The momentum briefly swayed back in Watts’ favour after he laced a three-wood onto the green on the par-five 12th and Gutschewski found the greenside bunker with his approach. However, due to a two-putt birdie from Watts, Gutschewski was able to get up-and-down from the sand to maintain his lead. Each player then threw darts at the green on the par-three 13th, but only Gutschewski was able to make birdie to extend his lead to three-up.
With little room for error, Watts finally ran out of juice and missed the green from the fairway on the par-four 15th and was unable to get up-and-down, which opened the door for Gutschewski to two-putt for par to win the hole and close out the match.
“Driver definitely killed me today. Didn’t hit any fairways,” Watts said of his performance during the final. “I think my putter was really the only thing that kept me in it on the first 18, and that’s why I had that one-up lead. Then the putter just couldn’t keep up on the back 18.”
“That match was a grind,” Gutschewski added. “I had probably a 15-footer and a 30-footer where if I didn’t make them I’m going home and now we’re here. It’s crazy how match play goes. Every match is a new match. Just got to keep winning, keep doing your best.”