Jul. 26—Jack Wieler found something on the back nine during Wednesday’s opening round of the 49th Palmetto Amateur.
A mental re-set led to a solid finish to the round, and that bled over into both Thursday and Friday as he posted back-to-back under-par rounds at Palmetto Golf Club.
That left him alone in the lead Friday evening at 4 under, and he’s going to need that mindset to continue into Saturday’s final round — five players are within three shots of him, with another three six back, meaning this tournament is wide open heading into the final 18 holes.
“It feels good, especially after a shaky start to the week,” said Wieler, a rising sophomore at Elon University. “I feel like I finished strong the first day and then kind of carried on to the next day. Really didn’t have my best stuff today, but battled down the stretch and had a really good back nine. I feel like if I can clean up a few mistakes tomorrow and make a few more putts, it will be a good week and hopefully get the win.”
A birdie on the par-4 18th hole gave Wieler a 68 for the day and left him one clear of Elon teammate Matthew Doyle (70) and Vanderbilt’s Chase Nevins (66), and those three will make up Saturday’s final group.
Danger lurks in the penultimate group. Two shots off the lead are the College of Charleston’s Miles Eubanks (68), a South Aiken grad and Palmetto mainstay, and Sam Jackson (72), a Palmetto member and the two-time reigning South Carolina Golf Association Player of the Year. Joining them is Charlotte’s Daniel Boone (67), who jumped into a tie for the lead at 1 under with an eagle on the par-5 10th hole. He’s three behind Wieler.
Eubanks was tied for the lead following a birdie on the par-4 17th, but he bogeyed 18 after hitting his tee shot into the 15th fairway. He was under par in each of the last two rounds, and he knows this course as well as anyone in the field.
“I’m feeling pretty good,” he said. “I left some shots out there but, I mean, the course is playing tough. So you never know what comes the last day.”
Some of his local knowledge hasn’t quite come to fruition so far this week, but some of it still has been beneficial. He knows which holes are the birdie holes and which ones require a more delicate approach, especially when the pins are tucked in tricky spots.
“I mean, I would say I would know where to miss it in the right spot, but I haven’t been missing it in the right spot so I can’t say that,” he said. “But I have a good caddie (swing coach Greg Payne), so he’s calming me down. I just stay patient, just don’t press anything.”
Wieler has nailed down some of that strategy in terms of where to go hunting for birdies. He aims to make it through the first 13 holes at even-par or 1 under, which would set him up to potentially have a good finish with a par-5 and two drivable par-4s down the stretch.
He again referred back to his first round, when a stretch of three consecutive bogeys on holes 7-9 left him at 3 over to start his tournament, and then it got worse when he missed an opportunity for a birdie on the par-5 10th. He didn’t make his first birdie of the week until the par-5 14th, then added one on the par-3 16th to get in at 1 over with only four players under par for the day.
“Just stayed in it the whole week and stayed pretty patient,” he said. “I think that’s the main thing out here, just staying patient and waiting for putts to fall.”
One of those four players who broke par Wednesday was Doyle, who held the first-round lead with a bogey-free 65. He stumbled a bit on the back nine Thursday to shoot 72, then fell all the way to even-par for the week after a double bogey on the par-4 sixth on Friday. He made up for it on the back nine, making an eagle 3 on 10 for the second time this week before adding birdies on 13 and 18.
It won’t be the first time Wieler has dueled with a teammate in the final round of a big tournament. He was grouped with Garrett Risner for the final two rounds of the 110th Carolinas Amateur earlier this month and finished one shot behind him. It stung, but he said it’s always good to see a teammate win — better him than anyone else in the field.
He’s hoping to avoid that sting again on Saturday.
“I hope Matt plays really well tomorrow. I just hope I play one shot better,” he said with a laugh. “… I think as long as I kind of stay on track — I’ve been finishing pretty strong in these tournaments the last few holes, making clutch putts down the stretch. I think if I stay in that mindset and get off to a good start, especially those first 13 holes, play those even-par and get a few coming in, I think I’ll have a good chance to win.”
It’s setting up to be a sprint to the finish at Palmetto, which has been known to punish the players who push the pedal to the floor at the wrong time. The winner Saturday will be the player who holds it together long enough to strike when the golf course allows for it.
“Just stay patient,” Eubanks said. “I can’t tell them what to shoot, and they can’t tell me what to shoot. So it’s just, like, I’ve got to go and do my own thing tomorrow and stay patient, see what happens.”
The field was cut to the low 40 players and ties once play was completed. Nihon University’s (Japan) Masato Sumiuchi, the top-ranked player in the field, easily made the cut after a 69 left him at 5 over. Past Southern Cross and Palmetto Intercollegiate champion Austin Langdale (70) made the cut at 3 over, past Southern Cross champions Gene Zeigler (72) and Rowan Sullivan (71) also made it at 5 over, and 2022 Palmetto Amateur champion…
