BATON ROUGE – Despite holding a 2-up lead with two holes to play, LSU junior Stewart Jolly dropped the final two holes before falling in extra holes to 2013 U.S. Junior Amateur Champion Scottie Scheffler in the first round of match play on Wednesday at the 113th United States Amateur Championship being held at The Country Club in Brookline, Mass.
Scheffler, the No. 55 seed in match play, grabbed an early 2-up lead in the match on the front nine with back-to-back pars at the par-four third and fourth holes. Jolly, the No. 10 seed following his tie for ninth place in stroke play qualifying, battled back with an eagle at the par-four eighth and a par at the par-four ninth hole as they made the turn at all square for the match.
Jolly then won his third and fourth holes in a row after making a bogey at the par-four 10th and a par at the par-four 11th holes to take his first 2-up lead in the match.
The seesaw battle continued as Scheffler then squared the match with a birdie at the par-five 12th hole and a par at the par-four 14th hole, only to see Jolly take another 2-up lead with a par at the par-four 15th hole and a birdie at the par-three 16th hole. That forced a dormie situation with Jolly only need to halve one of the final two holes to close out the match and advance to the Round of 32.
But Sheffler, who won the U.S. Junior Amateur crown in a match play tournament earlier in the summer, forced extra holes after carding a birdie at the par-four 17th and a par at the par-four 18th hole before earning an improbable come-from-behind victory in 20 holes after making par on the par-three second hole.
For Jolly, it marked his first career appearance in match play at the U.S. Amateur Championship after also qualifying for stroke play a year ago following his sophomore season with the Tigers. He narrowly missed taking a spot in match play in his championship debut when he tied for 100th place on the final stroke play leaderboard last summer.