Miles Russell of Jacksonville Beach, Florida, became the ninth-youngest player to tee it up in a PGA Tour event on Thursday when he shot 2-over 74 in the first round of the Rocket Mortgage Classic at the Detroit Golf Club.
If he had anxiety it didn’t show much when he got his 5-7, 120-pound frame into a 305-yard drive down the left side of the 10th fairway on his first hole.
“I was a little nervous,” Russell said during his post-round news conference, assigning his stress level to about a 7 on a scale of 10. “That [was] probably my best drive of the day.”
Russell, who is 15 years, 7 months and 27 days old, missed the green with his second shot from 119 yards out, into the left bunker. His sand shot went 18 feet past the hole and he missed the par attempt, tapping in for a bogey-5.
Rocket Mortgage: Photos | Leaderboard
He had an up-and-down round through the narrow, winding holes of the Donald Ross-designed course. Russell followed his opening bogey with 10 pars in a row, made his first career PGA Tour birdie on a putt of 1 feet, 8 inches at the par-4 third hole, then rebounded from a double-bogey 6 at the par-4 sixth hole to birdie the par-5 seventh on a putt of nearly 4 feet.
Russell missed a birdie attempt of 10 feet at No. 8 and finished with a bogey, three-putting the par-3 ninth from 31 feet, 7 inches. He missed a par attempt of 3 feet, 3 inches.
Amateur Miles Russell plays an approach shot on the 14th hole during the first round of the Rocket Mortgage Classic at Detroit Golf Club on June 27, 2024, in Detroit, Michigan. (Photo by Raj Mehta/Getty Images)
Russell praised his playing partners
However, Russell said the score didn’t reflect how overjoyed he was about playing in his first PGA Tour event.
“Today was a great day,” he said. “For it to be the first [Tour round] … definitely wasn’t quite what I was hoping for, but we live, we learn, we move on. So looking forward to tomorrow and hopefully tomorrow’s going to be better.”
Russell started his second round on Friday at 8:57 a.m., starting at the first tee. He was 3 under through his front nine and near the projected cutline. He added a birdie on No. 11 that moved him to 2 under for the tournament, exactly at the projected cutline as of 11:30 a.m. A bogey on the next hole put him back to 1 under. A second bogey on the 16th hole sealed his fate, dropping him to even par for the week. He would par the last two holes for a 70 but he walked off the course tied for 104th as…
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