It has been quite the two-month stretch for Mason Howell.
The 18-year-old rising high school senior from Georgia qualified for the U.S. Open last month, winning his qualifier. Now, he has won medalist honors at the biggest junior event in the world.
Howell finished at 7-under 134 Tuesday to earn the top seed for match play at the 2025 U.S. Junior Amateur. The top 64 players advanced to match play after two rounds of stroke play at Trinity Forest and Brook Hollow in Dallas, and for the first time since 2008, there was no playoff to whittle the field down to 64 players because that’s how many finished at 3 over or better.
“It’s just the first step complete,” Howell said. “Looking forward to the rest of the week and seeing if I can take it deep into match play and hopefully win this sucker. I played really well today, and I really like this golf course.”
All play moves to Trinity Forest for match play, which is hosting its first USGA event. Charlie Woods, the son of 15-time major champion and nine-time USGA victor Tiger Woods, finished at 14 over following stroke play to miss the cut. It was his second appearance in the U.S. Junior, a tournament his pops won thrice from 1991-93.
Meanwhile, Howell’s side of the bracket is loaded with many of the top juniors in the world, and his Round of 64 match is no slacker. He has Henry Guan, an Oklahoma State commit ranked 21st in Junior Golf Scoreboard.
Also on the top half of the bracket: defending champion Trevor Gutschewski (No. 28 in JGS), Luke Colton (No. 2), Miles Russell (No. 1), defending runner-up Tyler Watts (No. 4), Michael Riebe (No. 5), Tyler Mawhinney (No. 36), Sohan Patel (No. 27), Rayhan Latief and Tomas Restrepo.
Match play begins at 9 a.m. ET Wednesday.
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