Australia's Min Woo Lee watches his tee shot on the 10th hole. Lee defeated Eugene Hong of Sanford, Florida 1 up in their semifinal match. The fifth day of the 69th U.S. Junior Amateur Championship was held at the Honors Course in Ooltewah, Tennessee, Friday July 22, 2016.With his spot in today's U.S. Junior Amateur championship round secure, Noah Goodwin was considering fajitas for dinner Friday night. His opponent, Min Woo Lee, was leaning toward Buffalo wings. Yet whatever they put in their stomachs, neither young man expected to have much trouble finding sleep before this morning's 7:20 tee time at The Honors Course.
"I don't think I've had eight hours of sleep one night this week," said Lee, a 17-year-old Australian. "So I'm going to try to do that tonight."
Added Goodwin, a 16-year-old from Corinth, Texas: "Oh, yeah. I'll crash tonight."
Neither Goodwin nor Lee exactly crashed the final, which is scheduled for 36 holes. Lee began the match-play portion of the tournament Wednesday as the No. 3 seed. Goodwin was seeded ninth and assuredly would have been higher except for a triple and double bogey back to back during his opening round of stroke play after reaching 6 under par.
So if it's not precisely chalk reaching the championship round, it's not exactly Prairie View versus Central Southwest Chico State for all the marbles, either.
Mark WiedmerNot that any of that matters now. Goodwin and Lee are where 154 of their fellow competitors all hoped to be today. They're where you need to be to have automatic invitations to this year's U.S. Amateur at Oakland Hills Country Club, in Bloomfield Hills, Mich., Aug. 15-21. They're also where you need to be to be guaranteed a spot in 2017 U.S. Open sectional qualifying.
Mostly, they're within one match win of a national championship, Lee quickly noting, "This is the biggest junior tournament in the world."
It certainly felt that way over each semifinal winner's final holes. Lee's win over No. 2 seed Eugene Hong went the full 18. Goodwin's triumph over John Pak went both further and farther, his place in the final not certain until Pak conceded the second extra hole after hitting a wayward tee shot, then being forced to take an unplayable lie following his second shot.
"Noah's second shot was six feet from the hole," Pak said. "There was no way he was three-putting from there, and even then I'm not sure I could have hit my putt from where I was to make a 5."
Goodwin also was helped by having faced that same shot in his semifinal win over Australia's Fred Lee, who is no relation to Min Woo Lee.
"I tried a little cut, three-quarters 2 iron this morning," Goodwin recalled of his 220-yard approach shot. "I hit it too far. I went with a 4 iron this afternoon. That was the right club."
To have watched these two perform this week over the difficult Honors layout, both young men completely in command of their destinies each of the last five days, is to believe this is the right final.
Yet just exactly what we'll see today is uncertain. These are still kids, incredibly gifted though they may be. Not that either of them on Friday evening seemed likely to be undone by the enormity of this moment.
There was Lee being asked about the possibility of choosing college rather than a pro career, as some have hinted of late, and the player responding with a grin, "I really don't like to study, so I don't know."
He also talked of getting an energy boost before the semifinal.
"Subway," he said, before adding, "Thanks, Mom."
A few feet away stood the earnest, studious Goodwin as he told a United States Golf Association rep: "You just have to take it one shot at a time, one hole at a time. Everything I've been grinding toward every single day, it's been to get to the finals here this week."
If Lee wins, he could become the answer to a trivia question since he and his sister Minjee, who won the 2012 U.S. Girls' Junior and owns two LPGA Tour victories, would be the first brother and sister to win Junior Ams.
"We'd make history," Lee said.
But a victory by either player at the Honors will add a positive chapter to the history of the Junior Am, now in its 69th year.
And they have played together at least once before, paired in Sage Valley's Junior Invitational in Augusta, Ga., back in April.
"(Min Woo) shot a 67," Goodwin recalled. "Best round of golf I've ever seen."
When you can smoke a little cut, three-quarters 2 iron more than 220 yards, whether it was the right shot or not, there's a good chance you can match the producer of the best round of golf you've ever seen both shot for shot and hole for hole, 36 strong.
And if Goodwin can, there's also a pretty good chance that today could be one of the best match-play rounds ever seen in The Honors Course's proud history of amateur golf championships. Especially if both players got a good night's sleep before reaching the first tee.
Contact Mark Wiedmer at mwiedmer@timesfreepress.com