The Jones Cup Invitational isn’t prone to upsets, but Notre Dame freshman Jacob Modleski’s rally to emerge with the victory on Sunday in Sea Island, Georgia, would classify as a major surprise in the first big amateur event of 2024.
Modleski, who was ranked 404th in the World Amateur Golf Ranking and got into the elite field as the first alternate, made three birdies in the last six holes at Ocean Forest Golf Club to shoot 3-under 69 and prevail by a stroke over Tennessee’s Caleb Surratt (No. 11) and Auburn’s Jackson Koivun (23). Modleski’s total of 1-under 215 was the only red figure on the 20th Jones Cup Invitational leaderboard.
“I sort of embraced the idea of just being happy to be here, at least up until I stepped on the first tee, and any time you’re competing you try to win,” Modleski, of Noblesville, Indiana, told “The Back of the Range” podcast.
Blades Brown, a 16-year-old junior from Nashville, Tennessee, held a share of the lead with Modleski heading to the par-3 17th tee, but a triple bogey, bogey finish dropped him to 3-over and tied for fifth with Nathan Petronzio.
First-round leader Nick Gabrelcik of North Florida finished alone in fourth at 2-over. Top-ranked amateur Gordon Sargent finished in the crowd tied for seventh at 4-over 220 after consecutive 71s to recover from an opening-round 78.
Modleski fell five shots out of the lead with bogeys at 2 and 6 on Sunday before getting hot at the right time. He made birdies at 8, 10, 11, 13, 14 and 17, with a lone bogey at 12.
“I managed to get up and down a lot and made some really good putts,” Modleski said.
After posting the only total score in the red, Modleski waited on the range with the last two Jones Cup champions – Notre Dame teammate Palmer Jackson and North Carolina’s David Ford – waiting for Koivun and Brown to finish. He got a text notifying him that he’d won.
“Obviously this tournament means so much in the realm of amateur golf,” Modleski said. “It was so cool to have everybody there – Palmer and his dad, my mom and David.”
For much of Sunday’s final round, it looked as if Surratt would complete an epic comeback to join an elite list of Jones Cup champs that includes nine PGA Tour winners, notably Patrick Reed (2010), Justin Thomas (2012) and Ludvig Åberg (2021).
Surratt nearly played himself out of the tournament in the first round when he struggled in the fierce north winds on Friday before salvaging a 3-over 75, despite a round that included four penalty drops. He posted no pars on his opening nine (the back side) on Friday when he went out with six bogeys and three birdies.
He was similarly volatile but in better fashion on Sunday, making five birdies and two bogeys on his first seven holes to chip away at the leaders. Then consecutive birdies on 12, 13 and 14 earned him a share of the lead with Brown and Koivun heading down the stretch. Surratt’s lone bogey on the back, at No. 16, proved costly as his tournament-best 5-under 67 came up one short.
Koivun couldn’t muster anything but pars on the last eight holes to catch any of the leaders.
Luke Clanton, who held a one-shot lead at 1-under to start the final round, looked poised for a showdown with Brown in the final threesome. But after a birdie on No. 2, the Florida State sophomore bogeyed 4, 5, 6 and 7 to slip out of the chase. He eventually finished T11 after a 78.
Brown, who last summer became the youngest stroke-play co-medalist in U.S. Amateur history at age 16, played the most consistent golf of the week at Sea Island in every weather condition thrown at them at Ocean Forest. Consecutive even-par 72s put him in the final group with Clanton and Alabama’s Thomas Ponder. But Ocean Forest’s two oceanfront finishing holes did him in as he made a mess of the 17th and bogeyed the par-4 18 for the third consecutive day.
Ford’s bid to become the first repeat winner at the Jones Cup came unglued with a bogey, double bogey start Sunday and he faded to T16.
RESULTS
Kary Hollenbaugh birdied four of her first seven holes in the final round and cruised to a five-stroke victory Saturday in the Women’s South Atlantic Amateur at Oceanside Country Club in Ormond Beach, Florida. Hollenbaugh, an Ohio State sophomore from New Albany, Ohio, closed with a 4-under 68 for a 9-under 279 total. Gianna Clemente, the 15-year-old phenom, overcame a second-round 76 to finish runner-up at 4-under 284.
In something of a home game for Cooper Smith, the South Florida redshirt junior from nearby Tampa rolled to an eight-stroke victory Saturday in the New Year’s Invitational at St. Petersburg Country Club. Smith, who transferred to USF in Tampa after two seasons at North Florida in Jacksonville, was the only player to post three scores in the 60s as he shot 15-under 201 and steadily pulled away from the field.
Scott Michaux and staff reports