Noah Goodwin wins U.S. Junior Amateur at Flint Hills National

The road to redemption was nowhere in sight for Noah Goodwin as he scaled the hill toward Flint Hills National’s 11th tee on a sizzling Saturday afternoon.

Goodwin, the nation’s top-ranked junior golfer, had just watched his match play opponent, 18-year-old Californian Matthew Wolff, roll in a birdie putt on the picturesque 10th to take a 4-up lead with eight holes to play in the championship of the 70th U.S. Junior Amateur.

It was the first time in the 36-hole final that either teenager had entered perilous territory. And for Goodwin, a 17-year-old from the Dallas suburb of Corinth, Texas, the threat of experiencing a second consecutive defeat in a U.S. Junior final was real.

“I just knew I had to stay patient,” Goodwin said. “I was just waiting for the one little break in there to go my way and kind of give me the momentum to keep going forward.”

The spark came from a friendly carom that directed Goodwin’s third shot at the par-5 11th toward the middle of the green. After Wolff struggled in deep rough on a greenside hill, Goodwin rolled in a 35-foot birdie that launched his comeback.

Goodwin won five holes on the back nine, including the decisive par-5 18th after Wolff hit his tee shot into the water, to win 1 up in the U.S. Golf Association’s championship for boys 18 and under.

Goodwin became the third golfer in U.S. Junior history to win the title after losing in the final the previous year. Davidson College golf coach Tim Straub accomplished the feat in 1983, while the late Mason Rudolph did it in 1950.

“You just have to tell yourself you’re never out of it,” said Goodwin, whose victory came one day shy of a year after his loss to Australia’s Min Woo Lee in the championship at Ooltewah, Tenn. “Anything can happen. Matt kind of faltered in there, but I knew I just had to take advantage of that.”

Goodwin faced his first deficit after he bogeyed the par-4 seventh in the morning round. Wolff led for the next 22 holes, but was complicit in his demise.

An errant tee shot led to Wolff’s bogey at No. 12 – the match’s 30th hole – and cut Goodwin’s deficit to two holes. Goodwin won the 14th after Wolff’s birdie attempt from the back fringe rolled across the green and yielded another bogey.

When Wolff slid a 6-foot par putt by the hole at No. 15, the match was tied.

“Coming down the stretch, I mis-clubbed a couple times,” Wolff said. “I wasn’t really making any putts all day, which I thought kind of killed me, too.”

The match had an unorthodox finish, as Goodwin played his second shot from the fairway onto the green at the 517-yard 18th while Wolff, an incoming Oklahoma State freshman, stood back on the tee waiting to hit his third. Even though Wolff’s initial drive settled in the lake adjacent to the fairway, the ball was closer to the hole, meaning it was Goodwin’s turn to play.

Goodwin waited on the green while Wolff hit his fourth from the fairway. After Wolff missed a 25-foot par attempt, he walked over to Goodwin and congratulated him, conceding a birdie that won the match.

“There’s just so much to learn from this tournament,” said Wolff, whose route to the final included a quarterfinal victory over his future teammate and stroke-play medalist Austin Eckroat. “I feel that’s the biggest thing.

“No matter if you win or lose, you’ve got to learn from your mistakes. Coming down the stretch, I stumbled a little, but I feel like I’ll learn from that and next time it’ll work out in my favor.”

Goodwin, No. 27 in the world amateur golf ranking, knew the feeling all too well from last year’s championship match at The Honors Course. At Flint Hills, he had rolled through his first five matches, trailing for just one hole out of 80.

On Saturday, he was tested by things like his ball rolling into a small hole his second time through No. 7. His chip shot came out hot and led to a double bogey.

But when Goodwin rolled in his first long putt of the day four holes later, a confident stride soon followed.

“I just kept hitting good golf shots,” said Goodwin, a 2018 commit to SMU. “I kept giving myself opportunities to win the hole and that’s what’s it all about.”

In the process, he avoided the fate of current Alabama golfer Davis Riley, who lost in the 2013 final to Scottie Scheffler and in 2014 to Will Zalatoris. Instead, Goodwin shares company with Straub, who congratulated the champion from afar.

“I’m excited for him,” Straub told the USGA. “That’s really neat. When I did it, it was pretty rare then, too.

“Now you have such a short span to play in the U.S. Junior . It’s a pretty amazing accomplishment, especially in today’s game with all the great junior talent out there.”

This story was originally published July 22, 2017 at 6:51 PM with the headline "Noah Goodwin wins U.S. Junior Amateur at Flint Hills National."