If nothing else, Logan Reilly made his mark by being the youngest entry, by far, among many much older and accomplished professional players at a 36-hole qualifying event for this month’s U.S. Open golf tournament.
The 17-year-old Bishop O’Connell High School junior golfer was one of 64 players in the June 3 qualifying event on the north course at Woodmont Country Club in Rockville.
Only three of those players earned Open berths. Reilly was not one of those. The qualifying scores were two players at 9-under and one at 8-under. Reilly shot a 7-over total of 75-74–149.
Reilly earned a berth into that final qualifying event at previous local qualifying competitions.
On the high-school circuit, Reilly is a highly-accomplished player, having won the past two Division I private school state individual championships. He’s the same on the American Junior Golf Association circuit. He tied for third with an 11-under total at the recent Team TaylorMade Invitational, which included a leading first-round 64, on the Old Waverly Golf Club course in West Point, Miss. Reilly won the 15-18 age boys division at the Scotty Robertson Memorial in Roanoke with a 68-69-69–206 total.
At the Woodmont qualifier, Reilly played against much older golfers. He was paired with two 36-year-olds, who have played in PGA tour events. The field also included former PGA champion Jimmy Walker and Marc Leishman, who has won various pro tournaments.
“It was super fun and cool to play in an event like that and watch those guys hit their shots and seeing the [official PGA] tour bags they used,” Reilly said. “Marc Leishman was in the group behind me. It was a great learning experience and everyone was nice to me.”
Reilly said he hit the ball well, but talked about how he struggled on the greens with putting and often was in the wrong positions on the fairways to hit the kind of approach shots he wanted. He made four birdies.
“The course was hard, the pins were in tough spots, I made some soft bogeys with three putts and I was just out of position a lot,” Reilly said. “If I can get there again next year I will be better prepared.”
