STRATHAM — With the best young golfers in the world on the course, nothing surprises Andrej Blevins at the U.S. Junior Amateur Championship.
Blevins pulled off one of the biggest upsets of the first day of match play in the tournament at the Golf Club of New England when the 59th-seeded golfer from California beat No. 6 Andrew Bonner, also of California, 2 up.
“There's a high level of competition out there,” Bevins said. “It's the top 64 and they're all very, very good golfers.”
Fourteen of the 32 matches on Wednesday were upsets. Other big upsets included No. 57 Vincent Whaley of McKinney, Texas, who beat eighth-seeded Tom Swanson of Missoula, Mont., and No. 52 Dylan Wu of Medford, Ore., who beat No. 13 Matthew Mahle of Lexington, Kent.
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It was the third tournament in two weeks for Greenleaf. He was second at the World Series or Junior Golf in Rhode Island on July 5 and 6, then missed the cut at the Callaway Junior World Golf Championships held at Torrey Pines in California from July 10 through 13.
He said he will probably sleep in today, but admitted he might go out and play some golf if one of his friends asks him to.
“I haven't seen any of my friends in a long, long time,” Greenleaf said.
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Nicolas Echavarria isn't the only Colombian golfer on the course in Stratham. He has his older brother, Andres, caddying for him and so far things have been going pretty well for the brothers.
Andres played at the University of Florida where he was an all SEC first-team selection as a senior. He is currently trying to make it as a pro golfer.
“We make a really good team,” Nicolas Echavarria said. “I feel confident because I have the best caddie here.”
