Tag: Luke Clanton

Need something to cheer for at 2024 Rocket Mortgage Classic? How about the strong contingent of amateurs

The kids are good.

If it were any other week at Detroit Golf Club, 15-year-old Miles Russell wouldn’t be allowed into the locker room. Good for him it’s not an ordinary week.

Members have to be 16 to go into the locker room, but surely they’ll make an exception for Russell, who’s in the field this week at the 2024 Rocket Mortgage Classic on a sponsor exemption. In April, he became the youngest player in Korn Ferry Tour history to make a cut. Now, he’s making his first PGA Tour start in the Motor City.

“This has always been the goal, to play at the highest level,” Russell said. “Don’t know, kind of just happened a little faster than I was thinking it might, but it’s just what happens when you have some good play.”

In addition to Russell, Nos. 2, 3 and 4 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking – Jackson Koivun, Ben James and Luke Clanton – are teeing it up this week in Detroit.

Koivun recently helped Auburn win its first national championship and won every major individual award, including the Fred Haskins Award, and he’s on the verge of earning a PGA Tour card by summer’s end. If you didn’t know, he was only a freshman last year.

Then there’s James, the 2023 Phil Mickelson Award winner for Freshman of the Year. The rising junior at Virginia nearly won the NCAA individual championship last month at Omni La Costa and was on the 2023 Walker Cup team.

Don’t discount Clanton, either. The incoming junior at Florida State finished the year as the top-ranked golfer in the NCAA golf rankings. He also made the cut at the U.S. Open two weeks ago and helped the Seminoles to a runner-up finish at the NCAAs.

In a field that is lacking of the PGA Tour’s biggest stars, perhaps the amateurs can carry the torch this week. Three of the best players in college golf, plus the 15-year-old stud who is gaining popularity by the tournament, could be a shot in the arm for the Tour this week.

For Russell, it’s just another chance to prove he belongs.

“I have my own goals, but my goal is just to come out here and have fun,” Russell said. “That’s my main goal, have fun, maybe learn something, take something to my next event.”

Min Woo Lee has taken notice of Russell. A talented golfer in his amateur days, Lee said he was nervous when he teed it up in events at that age, but he also just tried to go out and just play golf.

“Again, he’s only 15, so I don’t think there’s going to be a lot of, you know, too much expectation,” Lee said. “Obviously he’s a great golfer. I mean, he’s got plenty of time to turn pro and still, yeah, years ahead of him. Hopefully he has fun and doesn’t beat me, but does well.”

When asked about Russell on Tuesday, Willie Mack III, who punched his ticket into the tournament thanks to his win Sunday in the John Shippen,  was joking about the locker room situation for Russell.

“Yeah, he’s been playing well,” Mack said. “Hopefully he plays well this week and keep going.”

Florida State’s Luke Clanton becomes first Seminole to win three straight events

Not a bad time to be in Tallahassee.

No one in college golf has been better this spring than Luke Clanton.

The sophomore captured his third straight tournament victory Tuesday, winning the Lewis Chitengwa Memorial at Birdwood Golf Course in Charlottesville, Virginia. Clanton shot 15-under 198, beating Tennessee’s Bryce Lewis by five shots to win.

Clanton is the first Seminole in school history to win three straight events. Over his last nine rounds played, Clanton has seven rounds in the 60s.

In addition to his three victories this spring, Clanton tied for eighth at the Amer Ari in Hawaii and finished T-7 at the Watersound Invitational. After a slower start to the year, Clanton now has put himself squarely in the conversation for the Haskins Award, given to the best player in men’s college golf.

It has been a banner week for the Seminoles.

On Saturday, sophomore Lottie Woad birdied three of her final four holes to claim the fifth Augusta National Women’s Amateur title. She threw out the first pitch Tuesday night at the Florida State home baseball game.

Earlier in the day, Clanton claimed win No. 3 on the year.

Not a bad time to be in Tallahassee.

Luke Clanton’s magical U.S. Junior run ends as Cohen Trolio, Nicholas Dunlap advance to final

Luke Clanton was the breakout star of the week at the U.S. Junior, but Cohen Trolio and Nicholas Dunlap will play for the title.

At USGA amateur championships, there’s always the realization that good things must come to an end. On Friday afternoon at the Country Club of North Carolina in Pinehurst, North Carolina, Luke Clanton met his end short of a trophy but with a big bag of wins regardless.

Clanton, the 17-year-old from Miami Lakes, Florida, tore through the match-play bracket mid-week and downed three top players to score a semifinal pairing opposite Cohen Trolio, himself a semifinalist from the U.S. Amateur at Pinehurst in 2019. Trolio proved to be the buzzsaw that Clanton couldn’t get past.

“It just didn’t go my way today,” said Clanton, who at No. 33 had the highest seed of any semifinalist. “I can’t really say anything else. I just didn’t perform nearly good enough. Congrats to Cohen; Cohen played really well. I hope he pulls through and wins the championship match. He deserves it, as good as he played today.”

Scores: U.S. Junior Amateur

Clanton, who has committed to Florida State, birdied the first hole but found the tables turning when Trolio, who will play for LSU, birdied Nos. 3 and 5. Trolio extended his lead by winning Nos. 7-9 then 11 and 12. The match was over by No. 14.

Still, for Clanton, head-to-head victories over top-seeded Kelly Chinn, CCNC member Jackson Van Paris and two-time Alabama State Amateur champion Gordon Sargent made him arguably the breakout star of the week on a bracket loaded with talent.

“It was an awesome learning experience, but it’s a tough one to really handle,” Clanton said. “I really wanted to win this one.”

2021 U.S. Junior
Luke Clanton reacts to a missed putt on hole seven during the quarterfinals at the 2021 U.S. Junior at The Country Club of North in Village of Pinehurst, N.C. on Friday, July 23, 2021. (Chris Keane/USGA)

As for Trolio, the 18-year-old seems to find his flow in Pinehurst. His breakout performance came two years ago at the U.S. Amateur. He played the Southern Amateur at Old Waverly Country Club in West Point, Mississippi, where his dad V.J. is the head of instruction, last weekend before immediately hopping a plane to play this event, which started Monday.

“Yeah, I’ve been playing super solid golf for the last couple months. This week just kind of hit the flow. I finished fourth round at the Southern, kind of literally hopped on a plane, flew here, played a practice round on Dogwood the next day. It was just kind of the same flow.”

Junior golf is a small world, and it’s not often a player catches a man on the other side of the bracket with whom he’s unfamiliar. Trolio admitted to knowing both Luke Potter and Nicholas Dunlap – the other two semifinalists – and will ultimately meet Dunlap in Saturday’s 36-hole final after the Huntsville, Alabama, native dispatched Potter, of Encintas, California, by a 3-and-2 margin.

Potter had the upper hand for much of the front nine, with Dunlap 2 down entering the back nine. But Dunlap fought back and ultimately closed out Potter when he birdied Nos. 14 and 15 then won No. 16 with a par.

“It’s unreal,” Dunlap said of his spot in Saturday’s final. “I’ve played the last six or seven weeks on the road, and I want to win everything I play in, obviously, but I’ve been trying to get my game ready for this week and for the next week for the U.S. Am. To be able to do it, it feels great.”

The winner of Saturday’s final will earn, among other things, an exemption into the 2022 U.S. Open.

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U.S. Junior Amateur: Luke Clanton takes down the No. 1 seed, then a local Pinehurst favorite

Get to know the player who took down the two U.S. Junior Amateur favorites in the same day.

Welcome to the Luke Clanton show.

If you’re unfamiliar with the 17-year-old from Miami Lakes, Florida, let me hit you with some knowledge. He’s committed to Florida State, has won the Class 2A state title in two of the last three years and is off to a blistering start at this year’s U.S. Junior Amateur at The Country Club of North Carolina in the Village of Pinehurst.

“It was kind of funny because me and Ben were talking on the first tee and we kind of knew the whole day was going to be one-sided with the crowd,” explained Clanton.

Clanton took down top-seed Kelly Chinn in the morning Round of 32 on Thursday, 1 up, and then defeated Pinehurst local favorite Jackson Van Paris, 2 and 1, in the Round of 16.

U.S. Junior: Match results

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“But it was an unbelievable experience with everyone out here. I can’t even think – I was looking down an iron shot and I saw like a bunch of people surrounding the green, so that’s kind of cool,” he continued. “I just said, ‘one shot at a time,’ and I played really well today. I think I only had one bogey and five birdies. It was just kind of one of those days where I took it one shot at a time, and Jackson is a great opponent, great player, known him for a while. It was fun today, and I just played a little bit better today. That’s it.”

Already this year, Clanton has three top-5 finishes, including a T-2 at the Dustin Johnson Junior Worlds. Last year he won the Arnold Palmer Invitational Junior and posted three top-10 finishes.

“He’s a great player, and he’s definitely a guy that you go into the match knowing you have to play good to beat,” said Van Paris after the match. “He’s not going to lay over. He’s a great competitor. I have no doubt that he’ll continue playing well and keep it going for the rest of the week.”

Awaiting Clanton in the quarterfinals is Vanderbilt-bound Gordon Sargent, a two-time defending Alabama State Amateur champion and three-time Rolex Junior All-American.

For Clanton, he believes in himself just as much as Van Paris.

“My goal is to win,” he said.

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