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Blades Brown, by all accounts, was the favorite in his Round-of-32 match on Thursday morning at Oakland Hills. The rising high-school junior from Nashville, Tennessee, already has a T-26 finish in his PGA Tour debut under his belt, and several top college coaches following his every shot. Two days earlier he had joined Tiger Woods and Bobby Clampett as the only players to ever medal at both the U.S. Junior Amateur and U.S. Amateur.
And yet, Trevor Gutschewski wasn’t fazed by any of that.
Gutschewski, an incoming senior from Omaha, Nebraska, isn’t ranked as highly as Brown – No. 75 in Junior Golf Scoreboard to Brown’s No. 3. But he is verbally committed to Florida, and though Gutschewski hasn’t logged a Tour start, he frequently plays against Tour-quality competition; his dad, Scott, is currently in his seventh full season on Tour.
“I don’t really feel like an underdog at all,” Gutschewski said. “I mean, I think my game is just as good as anybody else out here. If I play well, I can hang with anybody.”
He proved it Thursday, as he took down the top-seeded Brown, 2 and 1, to advance to Thursday afternoon’s Round of 16 at the U.S. Junior Amateur. It wasn’t a particularly clinical match – Brown made six bogeys and just one birdie – but Gutschewski, the reigning Nebraska Junior Match Play champion, grinded out a victory that counts the same, earning himself a date with China’s Yixiang Wang, who is ranked No. 418 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking (over 3,000 places ahead of Gutschewski; Brown is ranked No. 107), in the next round.
“We got out there and everything settled down, the nerves settled down,” Gutschewski said. “I don’t think either of us played great, but I made a couple of good putts coming in and closed him out.”
With Brown’s loss, Jordan Spieth remains the last medalist to win the U.S Junior, doing so in 2009 at Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey.
Gutschewski doesn’t play a ton of AJGA events, which explains why his ranking is lower than perhaps his skill indicates. But he does gets plenty of matches in against his dad and older brother, Luke, who plays at Iowa State and was co-medalist at the 2022 U.S. Amateur, when they are home, whether it’s at Lost Rail, Shadow Ridge or Champions Run.
Scott doesn’t take it easy on his middle son.
“He’s like the hardest guy to beat still,” Trevor said.
As for family bragging rights, Scott missed the cut in his lone U.S. Open start. And though Luke owns a medal, Trevor contends that with two match wins this week, he might now have the best USGA record in the family.
“I guess it’s Luke right now, but he’s never won a match,” Trevor said.
A few more wins at Oakland Hills, and there will be no argument.