Travis Vick earns medalist honor by three strokes in U.S. Junior Amateur

Houston’s Travis Vick on Tuesday didn’t come close to matching the course-record 8-under-par 64 he shot Monday at The Honors Course in the first round of stroke play in the 69th U.S. Junior Amateur golf tournament.

But he didn’t have to.

Vick shot 72 for a two-day 136, earning the medalist honor by three strokes over the field of 156. He also claimed the No. 1 seeding for match play, which is scheduled to start this morning at 8:15. Play is set to begin at 7:15 with a playoff among 13 golfers for seven spots to narrow the field to 64.

The second and third rounds of match play are scheduled for Thursday, and quarterfinal and semifinal rounds are set to take place Friday. Saturday’s championship match will be 36 holes.

Vick played the back side first Tuesday and started bogey, par, bogey. At that point, after being consoled by caddie Matthew Van Zant, a member of Texas A&M’s 2009 NCAA championship team, Vick parred his next seven holes.

His lone birdie of the day was a 3 on No. 7 (his 16th hole), which offset his bogey 5 on No. 5. But before that came the hole that turned out to be the most pivotal in his round.

After hitting his drive on the par-5 No. 2, Vick had 211 yards to the cup, according to Van Zant. The 16-year-old then blasted a 4-iron that landed on the right side of the green, from where he sank a 20-footer with a 4-to-5-foot break.

“It just changed my entire mindset,” Vick said of his eagle. “I hit a crisp iron shot, hit a good putt and it was just a humongous motivator.”

Beginning with the 2001 tournament, one U.S. Junior Am medalist has gone on to win match play. Vick said he simply thinks of being medalist as a great honor and called it a “good motivator” to go out and do well in match play.

Tiger Woods won as medalist in 1991 and 1992. Johnny Miller did so in 1964. And the one who pulled off the feat within the last 15 years was Jordan Spieth in 2009.

“There are a ton of guys you can put your name with,” Vick said.

Houston’s Cole Hammer, who has committed to the University of Texas, equaled a then-course-record 65 on Monday, but he fell back to a tie for 11th by shooting 6 over par in his second round. Korea’s Won Jun Lee dropped from third after one day to fifth when his 74 gave him a two-day total of 140.

Eugene Hong, a Florida commitment from Sanford, Fla., was in a nine-way tie for 10th after the first day, but with his improved play Tuesday he ended up tied for second.

Hong also played the back nine first, but his was a morning round. He said the conditions suited him better than the afternoon round he played Monday, and as a result he followed his first-day score of 71 with a 68 to get to 5 under.

Giving credit to his putting, Hong birdied half of his first eight holes. He added another on the 420-yard par-4 No. 7 coming in. His only bogey was a 5 on No. 5.

“I wasn’t hitting it well today,” Hong said. “I hit more bad shots than good.

“During the round I was saving par most of the day, every once in a while getting a birdie, and it turned out to be a good day.”

Hong tied with Australia’s Min Woo Lee, whose scores were 68 and 71. He started the day in fifth.

Contact Kelley Smiddie at ksmiddie@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6653. Follow him at Twitter.com@KelleySmiddie.