If there was a common thread Friday afternoon between ninth-seeded Noah Goodwin and third-seeded Min Woo Lee as they played their respective semifinal match-play rounds at The Honors Course in the 69th U.S. Junior Amateur golf tournament, it was that good competition seemed to bring the best out in them.
Goodwin, from Corinth, Texas, needed 20 holes but defeated 12th-seeded John Pak, from Scotch Plains, N.J. Australian Lee edged second-seeded Eugene Hong, from Sanford, Fla., 1 up.
Today's championship match is set for 36 holes. Tee time for the first 18 is 7:20 a.m. The afternoon round is scheduled to begin at 12:15.
Goodwin's final hole of the day was the 516-yard par-5 No. 2. His drive ended up on the left side of the fairway, near the same spot where he drove the ball during his morning quarterfinal. He said the 2-iron he hit then proved to be a little too much club.
"So I knew 4-iron was the club," he said of his thoughts before what proved to be his last shot of the day. "I pushed it a little bit, but I never missed the pin. It was perfect."
While Goodwin was looking at a makable eagle putt, Pak was scuffling along, beginning with putting his tee shot in a large fairway pothole. He took an unplayable lie and hit a shot into a tree, and the ball fell into a bunker, and eventually when he was on the green in five, he conceded.
Neither player led by more than 1 up the entire round. Goodwin, who escaped with an equaling par 3 on No. 8, was 1 up at the turn. But most of the back nine they were all-square.
They exchanged birdies on Nos. 15 and 16 - Goodwin's being first. Then Pak managed to sidestep some trouble on 17 and the first playoff hole before he ran out of luck.
"This was my hardest match yet," Goodwin said.
Lee won the second and third holes of his semifinal, including making an eagle on No. 2. He never trailed, although Hong did get it back to all-square for one hole after winning No. 11.
Lee then won the next three holes, offsetting Hong winning 15 and 17. After Hong's birdie chip from 25 feet failed to go in on 18, Lee making his 4-foot par putt sealed it.
"It's tiring," Lee said of the seven rounds of golf he's played in the last five days. "The last few days I haven't been eating much. Today I started eating a bit out there on the course. You're trying to grind out here in the heat, and you've also got to play good golf."
Goodwin and Lee know each other from having competed in other junior national tournaments. Goodwin said he saw Lee shoot one of the best rounds he's seen at Sage Valley Golf Club in Graniteville, S.C.
If competition really does bring out the best on both, it could turn out to be a nail-biting final.
"He's a solid player," Lee said. "I have nothing much to say. I'm just going to go out and play my own game."
Goodwin won his quarterfinal 5 and 4 over Australian Fred Lee, the No. 17-seeded player. Lee won 4 and 2 over 38th-seeded Brandon Gillis, from Nashua, N.H.
Pak defeated Korea's Won Jun Lee, the No. 4-seeded player, 1 up. Hong advanced 1 up past seventh-seeded Wei Wei Gao, from the Philippines.
Contact Kelley Smiddie at ksmiddie@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6653. Follow him at Twitter.com@KelleySmiddie.