Star amateur goes -14 to make Saturday’s US Junior Am final

This week’s 2026 US Junior Amateur at Saucon Valley Country Club has offered loads of headlines.

On Monday, a promising high school player was disqualified for multiple breaches of a recently adopted rule.

On Wednesday, Charlie Woods almost certified for the match-play portion of the occasion his well-known father received thrice, only to be thwarted in a playoff by a fan with a camera phone.

But as we head into Saturday’s final match, the historic occasion has at the very least one becoming finalist: Miles Russell.

The No. 1 junior amateur on this planet placed on an unimaginable efficiency in Friday’s quarter-and semifinals to advance to the finale.

First, Russell dominated Washington State’s Dylan Boenning within the quarters 6 and 5. Next up was Tyler Mawhinney, who performs school golf at Vanderbilt.

Mawhinney gave Russell all he had, matching him all through a lot of the spherical. By the tip of the match, Mawhinney was seven underneath par. But it wasn’t ok. Russell made birdie on 17 to win 2 and 1.

“Long day, but it was a lot of good golf. You don’t get many of those, that good of golf days a year, very few, and you’ve got to take them when you can get them, and just try to keep that rolling into tomorrow,” Russell mentioned after his semi-final match.

In all, Russell was 14 underneath by way of 30 holes performed on Friday.

Russell, 17, has dedicated to play school golf at Florida State, however he is already completed a lot within the sport. In addition to a number of high-profile wins, Russell qualified for the 2026 US Open with friend Charlie Woods as his caddie.

He went to Shinnecock Hills and confirmed simply how good he’s, making the lower and ending T39.

Russell will now face Noah Maclauchlan, an alternate who beat Cooper Moore 1 up within the semis, in Saturday’s final match to decide the 2026 US Junior Amateur champion.