CHARLESTON, S.C. – Duke men’s golf incoming freshman Bryan Kim has advanced to the championship match at the 75th U.S. Junior Amateur Championship, held at Daniel Island Club in Charleston, S.C. The Brookeville, Md., native is playing in his third U.S. Junior Amateur and earned the No. 52 seed in match play after shooting a 1-over, 144, in the stroke play portion of the event.
“I got off to a slow start this morning, but got a couple of nice birdies at the end to win,” said Kim. “And then playing with a good friend this afternoon was a lot of fun. We played some good golf. Just trying to stay in the moment and control what I can.”
Kim reached the quarterfinals after securing victories of 6&5, 1UP and 3&2 in the first three rounds of match play, which were held on Wednesday and Thursday.
Kim began the quarterfinal round early on Friday morning, taking on Edan Cui. Neither could open an advantage of more than one, as the two went back and forth through the first 10 holes. Kim tied the match with a par on No. 13 but Cui went 1UP following a birdie on the par-3 15th. Kim stormed back however, rolling in back-to-back birdies on No. 17 and 18 to flip his deficit to a 1UP victory on the final hole.
The second match of the day pitted Kim against Will Hartman in the semifinals. The future Blue Devil started fast with two wins in the first two holes. The lead narrowed to just one on holes No. 5 and No. 7, but Kim responded with birdies after both dropped holes. A third birdie in a stretch of four holes made it a 3UP lead for Kim as the match made the turn to the back nine. The two golfers halved the next four holes before a birdie by Hartman on No. 14, but Kim stayed steady en route to a 2&1 victory.
With the two victories on Friday, Kim advances to the championship match against Joshua Bai. The 36-hole match is scheduled to begin at 8:00 a.m., on Saturday, and continues after the lunch break at 1:30 p.m. Fans are able to follow along in the morning via USGA’s live scoring before tuning in to Golf Channel’s live broadcast that starts at 3 p.m.
Kim is 11th in the latest iteration of the American Junior Golf Association rankings and 443rd in the World Amateur Golf Ranking.
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