Mid-course correction: Jason Duff rallies from double-bogey to regain lead in Jacksonville Amateur

There was a time when a double-bogey in the middle of his round would have been a bad omen for Jason Duff.

“It would have derailed me,” said the University of North Florida sophomore and Menendez graduate.

Not lately. And not on Friday in the second round of the Jacksonville Area Golf Association Jacksonville Amateur.

Jacksonville Amateur leaderboard

Jacksonville Amateur Saturday tee times, groups

Duff hit his tee shot in the hazard at the par-4 10th hole and eventually made double to fall into a tie for the lead with Johnny Watts. But Duff summoned his resolve and birdied three holes in a row later on the back nine and with a 71, remained in the lead at 7-under-par 137, two shots ahead of Watts (67) and Osborn Theam (70), a Bolles and LaGrange College graduate who is 12-under in his last four competitive rounds.

UNF assistant golf coach Jeff Dennis (69) is alone in fourth at 3-under and Creekside graduate Andrew Riley (69), the medalist earlier this week at a U.S. Amateur qualifier and Luke Cusick of Jacksonville (70) are tied at 3-under.

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Duff, who had a three-shot lead to start the day, was 1-over at the turn before his errant tee shot at the 10th, the product of what he said was a swing that had gotten a little too quick at the top.

“I was struggling with my swing,” said the ASUN freshman of the year who started eight tournaments for the Ospreys last season. “But I re-set it after that and started to hit some quality golf shots.”

Those shots set up an 8-foot birdie putt at No. 12, a two-putt birdie from 30 feet at the par-5 13th and a 15-footer for birdie at the 14th.

Duff lipped out for birdie at No. 15 and held his round under-par with a 15-foot par save at No. 17.

Watts charged into contention with a bogey-free round that came on a series of short birdie putts. None of his birdies were longer than 4 feet and the former member of the PGA Tour Latinoamerica and Ball State graduate missed only one fairway, the 18th by just a pace.

“I never really got into much trouble,” said Watts, who moved to Jacksonville in 2018 and works for RevMed, a medical lab services company. “It was a relatively low-stress round, a fun round.”

Watts qualified for the Latin American Tour at the 2019 Korn Ferry Tour but had gotten only three starts, with two cuts made, before the pandemic shut down professional in 2020.

“I had some really good conditional status and I think I would have been able to start every tournament if COVID hadn’t happened,” he said. “So I decided to go to work and get my amateur status back.”

Watts has been playing with some of the other top amateurs in the area such as Duke Butler IV, Pablo Mena and Lenny Schoenfeld, who convinced him to enter the Jacksonville Amateur.

“They told me how much they love playing in JAGA events and how well the tournaments are run,” he said. “I still love the competition. I still want to play well and win. That will never go away. The good news is that as an amateur, the bad shots don’t hurt as much.”

Duff or Watts can’t sleep on the third player in Saturday’s final group. Theam shot 67-70 in the U.S. Amateur qualifier at St. Johns Golf and Country Club and is tied for the tournament lead with 11 birdies through two rounds.

Theam had an adventurous back nine, with five birdies, two bogeys and two pars. But he finished strong, rapping in 15-foot birdie putts on the final two holes.

“That held the round together,” he said. “There are some tough pins out here this week. Some you feel comfortable being aggressive on and some you have to pick your poison.”

Dennis, one of Duff’s coaches at UNF, got up-and-down from greenside bunkers to make birdie at the par-5 7th and 13th, then had his second nifty up-and-down at the par-3 15th hole, pitching from near the cart path on the left to within a foot.

“A bogey there would have deflated me,” he said. “I’ve saved myself twice on that hole.”

Riley birdied four of six holes on the back to join Dennis at 4-under.

Forty players made the 9-over cut. Eight players will be within five shots of Duff when Saturday’s final round begins.

“He’s been solid the last two days, really striking the ball well and hitting a lot of good iron shots,” Theam said of Duff.

Jacksonville Amateur Championship

At Deerwood Country Club 

Par-72, 7,093 yards 

Jason Duff 66-71--137

Johnny Watts 72-67--139

Osborn Theam 69-70--139

Jeff Dennis 71-69--140

Andrew Riley 72-69--141

Luke Cusick 71-70--141

Mark Ellison, Jr. 72-70--142

Agustin Tarigo 71-71--142

Andrew Stewart 70-72--142

Charles Collings 72-72--144

Michael Smith 73-71--144

Johnny Tucker 71-73--144

Sam Ohno 70-74--144

Thomas Salanito 75-71--145

Kevin McDonald 71-74--145

David Palm 70-75--145

Stewart Slayden 76-72--146

Tyler Brown 72-74--146

Danny Erickson 73-73--146

Andrew Morris 73-73--146

Peter Catanzaro 75-71--146

Raines Holmes 74-73--147

Chris Henderson 72-75--147

Jacob Posze 78-70--148

Jeff Golden 72-76--148

Pablo Mena 75-73--148

Harrison Harper 72-76--148

Max Barile 69-79--148

Jake Newman 76-73--149

Mitchell Nolan 74-75--149

Clay Tucker 78-72--150

Thomas Murtagh 75-75--150

Sutanit Tangyingyong 75-75--150

Chase Baldwin 73-77--150

Davis Roche 76-75--151

Duke Butler IV 74-77--151

Zach Lee 78-74--152

Jarod Fasig 80-73--153

Mitch Howard 75-78--153

Missed the cut 

Adam Waller 76-78--154

James Tisdale 78-76--154

John Lobb 80-74--154

Josh Newman 81-73--154

Jackson Sampselle 75-79--154

William Shrewsbury 78-76--154

Andre Nacional 81-73--154

Landon Durham 81-74--154

Connor Holcroft 77-78--155

Christopher Lewis 75-80--155

Graham Nichols 79--76--155

Bryce Walker 79-76--155

Andrew Porter 81-74--155

Tyler Sullivan 82-73--155

Nate Mosby 70-85--155

Hunter Holson 80-76--156

John O'Brien 82-74--156

Patrick Cruz 78-79--157

Matt Cooper 84-74--158

Teddy Sotsky 80-79--159

Brent Edwards 79-80--159

Neal Pease 78-81--159

Tommy Bishop 82-77--159

Carter Goerke 77-84--161

Mike Holland 82-79--161

Chad James 83-78--161

Jamie Seim 85-76--161

Ben Harvey 78-84--162

Harrison Yazgi 79-83--162

Conner Reed 79-84--163

Dylan Kochis 86-78--164

Ravi Chandra 82-83--165

Matthew Miller 79-87--166

Logan Flores 86-80--166

Maxwell Telford 83-85--168

Ken Arnett 85-85--170

Emmitt Kienzle 87-83--170

Eddie Erickson 84-92--176

Justin Ortiguera 90-87--177

Zachary Honnold 92-98--190

Contact Garry Smits at gsmits@gannett.com

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Jason Duff rattles off birdie streak to stay in Jacksonville Amateur lead