Miles Russell's confidence surging for his latest PGA Tour start
· Yahoo Sports
Miles Russell is making his seventh PGA Tour start this week at the ISCO Championship July 9-12 at the Hurstbourne Country Club in Louisville, Ky.
If the 17-year-old from Jacksonville Beach keeps stacking good finishes ― Russell made the cut in the U.S. Open and the Puerto Rico Open and tied for 15th in the Korn Ferry Tour Club Car Championship for his highest finish in 13 professional starts ― will he ever get to Florida State, where he's scheduled to enroll in the fall of 2027?
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However, there are yet to be any signs of impatience on his part to fast-track his career to professional golf.
At a news conference on July 8 after playing in the pro-am, Russell talked more about learning from the example of the players in his group for the first two rounds, Jackson Koivun (who played three years at Auburn) and Ben James (four years at Virginia).
"I think it will be fun playing with two guys not too much older than me ... and they're pretty new to this, too," Russell said. "It will be cool to see what they've kind of learned in their first few weeks [as professionals] and kind of pick their brain on that. I think it will just be a lot of fun."
Russell did admit that making four cuts in his last five professional starts, especially at the U.S. Open (where he tied for 39th), has boosted his confidence.
"Making the cut in Puerto Rico was kind of big to get that monkey off my back," he said, referring to his first weekend in a PGA Tour event. "Kind of frees me up ... maybe try to play better than just making the cut."
Russell still has a busy amateur schedule
Russell may not be done with amateur golf by a long shot and has three major events left this summer.
He will play in the U.S. Junior Boys, July 20-25, at the Saucon Valley Country Club in Bethlehem, Pa., and then in the U.S. Amateur, Aug. 10-16, at the Merion Country Club near Philadelphia.
Russell was a quarterfinalist in both tournaments last year.
The U.S. Walker Cup team will be selected after the U.S. Amateur and Russell is considered a lock for the team that will play Great Britain/Ireland Sept. 5-6 at the Lahinch Golf Club in Ireland.
Should that happen, Russell will have to miss a chance to win a third Junior Players title, since the tournament dates (Sept. 3-6) are in direct conflict with the Walker Cup
Russell is in an elite group
Russell's group will tee off Hurstbourne's No. 1 on July 9 at 1:39 p.m. and off No. 10 on July 10 at 8:39 a.m.
Before they turned pro in recent weeks, Koivun was No. 1 on the World Amateur Golf Ranking and James was No. 2. Russell is No. 5 on this week's ranking.
Russell played with Koivun on the weekend rounds of the U.S. Open, which was Koivun's last tournament as an amateur. He turned pro last week at the John Deere Classic and missed the cut.
If Russell wants to pick their brains, he may start with their respective paths to the PGA Tour.
James, like Russell, a past winner of the Junior Players Championship, earned a Tour card for the rest of the 2026 season by finishing first on the PGA Tour University rankings, which awards college seniors status based on their performance in college, amateur and pro events. James played at Virginia.
Koivun earned his Tour status through the PGA Tour Accelerated Program for underclassmen. He turned pro after his junior year at Auburn, when he led the Tigers to their second national championship in three years.
Russell could take the Blades Brown route
Russell, once he gets to Florida State, could take that track to reach the Tour.
Or, he could follow the path taken by Blades Brown, a fellow junior competitor who turned pro in 2024 out of high school after visiting FSU, Vanderbilt, Tennessee, Illinois and Stanford.
Brown got enough Korn Ferry Tour starts in 2025 to finish 68th on the money list, and this season, he’s made a combination of 16 of 19 cuts on the Korn Ferry and PGA Tour and has earned Special Temporary Membership on the PGA Tour after finishing tied for ninth in Myrtle Beach, tied for 14th at the CJ Cup Byron Nelson and tied for 12th at the John Deere Classic.
Brown will earn his card if he matches the FedEx Cup points of Erik van Rooyen, who was 70th.
Russell said his only focus is the tournament at hand. He missed the cut last year at Hurstbourne with a 3-over 143 but thinks the course sets up well for him.
"It's a wonderful golf course, really fun to play," he said. "It's got a lot of variety. You've got to hit it well ... really got to play solid golf and just do everything right."
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Miles Russell's confidence surging for his latest PGA Tour start