PINEHURST, N.C. – Notre Dame men’s golfer Palmer Jackson is on to the quarterfinals of the 119th U.S. Amateur at the Pinehurst Resort and Country Club. The incoming freshman recorded quite the day on Thursday, defeating Auburn grad Jacob Solomon (1-up), before knocking off Stanford grad Isaiah Salinda (2-up).
Thus, Jackson bested the No. 81 (Solomon) and No. 16 (Salinda) ranked golfers, according to the collegiate Golfweek rankings at the end of the 2018-19 season. In addition, Salinda was a 2019 Ping & Golfweek All-American, member of the 2019 Stanford NCAA national championship squad and a 2018 U.S. Amateur semifinalist.
“I’d like to make the semifinals tomorrow, but to make the quarterfinals is really cool,” Jackson said. “I didn’t know what to expect going into this week. Once you get into match play, if you run into one hot guy, one guy with a hot stretch, you’re going to be in trouble, so I’ve tried to be the guy with the hot stretch so far, and I’ve done pretty well.”
In the Round of 32, Jackson was two-down against Solomon through eight holes. However, Jackson rallied and took the lead over the next four holes by tallying a stretch of birdie, par, par, par. Jackson would concede the 13th hole to Solomon, but immediately bounced back on the 14th, then maintained his one-hole lead for the remainder.
In the Round of 16, Jackson and Salinda traded blows the entire way. Jackson won holes five, six, eight and 10, but conceded seven and nine, thus was two-up with eight to play.
Salinda then tied the match through 12, but Jackson retaliated by winning the next two to go back to two-up. Yet the see-saw continued with Salinda tying the match through 16, however Jackson surged at the opportune time by capturing the last two holes with back-to-back pars.
Up next, Jackson will challenge John Augenstein in Friday’s quarterfinal round. The two will tee off at 3 p.m. ET.
— ND —