BATON ROUGE – After carding seven birdies on his round and firing a 5-under par 65 in Tuesday’s second round of stroke play, LSU’s rising junior Stewart Jolly earned a spot in the match play tournament at the 113th United States Amateur Championship while tying for ninth place on the final leaderboard at 1-under par 139 in 36 holes.
Jolly blistered the par-70 course at Charles River Country Club with a 5-under 65 on Tuesday after opening Monday with a 4-over 74 at The Country Club in Brookline, Mass.
He will now compete in the match play tournament at the U.S. Amateur Championship for the first time in his career as he tees off in the first round on Wednesday at 10:40 a.m. CT against the 2013 U.S. Junior Amateur Champion Scottie Scheffler of Dallas, Texas. The Top 64 after two rounds of stroke play in the field of 312 players earn a spot in single-elimination match play tournament for the Havemeyer Trophy.
Jolly just missed out on a spot in match play in his U.S. Amateur debut a year ago when he tied for 100th place in stroke play in the event held at Cherry Hills Country Club in Cherry Hills Village, Colo.
A native of Birmingham, Ala., Jolly was among four Tigers competing in stroke play qualifying at this year’s U.S. Amateur Championship as he was nearly joined in the match play tournament by fellow junior Ben Taylor. Taylor tied for 88th place overall with a 36-hole score of 6-over par 146, including rounds of 5-over 75 at The Country Club on Monday and 1-over 71 at Charles River Country Club on Tuesday.
Taylor, who hails from Leatherhead, England, is a welcomed addition to the program following two All-American seasons at the NCAA Division II level while competing for Nova Southeastern University in Florida.
Making their U.S. Amateur debuts this week along with Taylor were rising senior Landon Lyons and rising junior Myles Lewis. Lyons followed a 9-over 79 at Charles River Country Club on Monday with a 2-over 72 at The Country Club on Tuesday to finish in a tie for 182nd place at 11-over par 151, while Lewis tied for 223rd place overall at 13-over par 153 with rounds of 4-over 74 at Charles River Country Club on Monday and 9-over 79 at The Country Club on Tuesday.