On the bright side, the four players in the Western Amateur match-play semifinals likely needed the break.
That includes stroke-play medalist Miles Russell of Jacksonville Beach, who played 249 holes of competitive golf in 12 days, the equivalent of 13.8 18-hole rounds, in the Western and the U.S. Junior Amateur last week.
Torrential rain flooded the Beverly Country Club in Chicago, forcing officials to delay the semifinals and championship match to Sunday, Aug. 2. Russell, 17 and a year away from entering Florida State, will face Jay Leng, a Stanford junior, at 8 a.m. (EDT), with Auburn sophomore Logan Reilly and Vanderbilt freshman Michael Riebe teeing off 12 minutes later.
The championship match is scheduled for 1 p.m. The forecast for Sunday
morning in Chicago is partly cloudy and 69 degrees, with a 45 percent chance of rain in the afternoon.
Russell, No. 5 on the current World Amateur Rankings, won the 72-hole stroke-play qualifier at 21-under 263, the third-lowest score since the current format was adopted in 1955. He then defeated Boston Brackens 3 and 2 and Tyler Watts 2 and 1 in the first two matches.
Russell is the first player to medal at the U.S. Junior Amateur and the Western Amateur in the same year, and the second-youngest medalist in Western Amateur history. He is trying to become the first First Coast player to win the 124-year-old tournament since John Klauk of Ponte Vedra Beach in 2002.
Other area winners were Bubba Dickerson of Fernandina Beach (2001), Billy Tuten of Palatka (1983) and Steve Melnyk of Brunswick, Ga. (1969).
Past Western Amateur champions were Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Jack Nicklaus, Tom Weiskopf, Curtis Strange, Lanny Wadkins, Ben Crenshaw, Hal Sutton and Justin Leonard.
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Miles Russell must wait a day before chasing Western Amateur championship
