Slip-ups, hot streaks and so-called upsets all factored into the first day of match play Wednesday in the 69th U.S. Junior Amateur golf tournament at The Honors Course.
The top 64 among the 156 golfers who competed in stroke play Monday and Tuesday advanced to match play. The final seven spots were decided Wednesday morning in two playoff holes.
Today's play consists of the round of 32 scheduled to start at 7:30 a.m., followed by the round of 16 at 1:30 p.m. The eight survivors move on to Friday morning's quarterfinals. Semifinals are slated for Friday afternoon, with the winners advancing to Saturday's 36-hole title match.
The top four seeds won their matches Wednesday, although No. 3 Min Woo Lee, from Australia, was tested early by No. 62 Chris Nido. Nido was 1 up at the turn, but Lee won three of the next four holes and went on to win 2 and 1.
The largest upset by seeding was No. 60 Brent Ito, from Ardsley, N.Y., defeating No. 5 Matthew Sharpstene, from Asheville, N.C., 3 and 2. However, it may have had more to do with Ito playing up to his standards Wednesday.
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Ito, who has signed with the University of Michigan, said putting had the biggest effect in his improvement from the 6-over-par 78 he shot Tuesday that helped put him in the lower position.
"I hit it in the right spots," Ito said of his Wednesday match. "The first four holes were pretty slow in the putting department, but I definitely picked it up."
Ito's first crucial stretch was the way he finished the front nine. Sharpstene had just won Nos. 4 and 5 to go 2 up, but four holes later Ito was up by two.
Sharpstene got the match back to all square at No. 11, but Ito chipped in for a go-ahead birdie the next hole. After they tied on No. 13, Ito rolled in long birdie putts the next two holes and they halved No. 16, making Ito the winner.
"It's only an upward trend from here, hopefully," Ito said.
Perhaps Andrew Orischak, a University of Virginia signee from Hilton Head Island, S.C., is the player who came in with the highest expectations, having finished runner-up in the tournament last year at Colleton River Plantation Club in Bluffton, S.C. But his hopes of getting back to the final were dashed by No. 28 Joe Highsmith - a Lakewood, Wash., resident who has committed to Southern Methodist University - in 19 holes.
Highsmith might have won without a playoff had he made either of his short birdie putts on Nos. 13 and 14 while No. 37 Orischak owned a 2-up lead. Instead, all the long putts he made on the next two holes did was get the match to all square.
"I hit it pretty close on both holes," Highsmith said of 13 and 14. "It was nice to be able to come back and make those two birdie putts on the next two holes."
Both golfers exhibited the pressure of playing a playoff hole, first by hitting their drives on the 410-yard par-4 No. 1 into a large bunker left of the fairway. Highsmith then hit into a greenside sand trap before Orischak's approach ended up perched on a small hill behind the green.
Highsmith's third shot rolled all the way across and off the green, putting him in danger of losing the hole. His shot for par, at least, put him close enough to make bogey.
Meanwhile, Orischak hit two chip shots that each traveled only a few feet. He also left his bogey putt considerably short.
"He's obviously a really good player," said Highsmith, who had played a practice round with Orischak. "Neither of us played our 'A' game.
"Hopefully I'll have more confidence going into the next few matches."
The hottest of Wednesday's hot streaks belonged to Chile's Joaquin Niemann, the No. 8 seed who defeated University of Illinois commitment Tommy Kuhl, from Morton, Ill., 7 and 5.
Kuhl, seeded 57th, was 1 up when, starting with No. 6, Niemann won eight consecutive holes to clinch the match.
"It was my putting, for sure. I made 10 putts on those eight holes," said Niemann, with the winning one being conceded. "Plus I hit my tee shots pretty straight and long.
"The course is perfect, and it's really, really tricky. The first two days my putting was not so good. Today it was just on fire."
Contact Kelley Smiddie at ksmiddie@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6653. Follow him on Twitter @KelleySmiddie.