On Wednesday at the 2026 U.S. Amateur, Ryder Cowan earned perhaps the biggest upset of the week, beating star amateur Miles Russell 2 and 1 to advance to the round of 32 at historic Merion Golf Club.
Incredibly, Cowan pulled off the feat with a major handicap in the gear department: he had only two golf balls in his bag to start the day, only one of which was a new one.
It turns out the U.S. Amateur contender “literally forgot golf balls” in his hotel room before heading to the course. Cowan explained the bizarre incident in his post-match press conference on Wednesday at Merion.
Ryder Cowan forgets golf balls at U.S. Amateur, beats Miles Russell anyway
Cowan’s opponent Miles Russell is only 17 years old, but he’s already ranked No. 4 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking. But Cowan is no slouch. He’s an All-American at Oklahoma State and ranked No. 8.
He also earned co-low amateur honors at this year’s U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills, finishing T23 and sharing the award with Jackson Koivun (who has since turned pro and won a PGA Tour event).
One big mistake, however, put Cowan at a distinct disadvantage before either player had hit a shot in their round-of-64 match on Wednesday.
As Cowan explained to reporters, when he was on the way to the course that morning, he suddenly realized that he had forgotten his golf balls in his hotel room, adding a stressful twist to start his big day.
“Yeah, honestly, it definitely added some stress on the way here. Walked out of the hotel, got on the highway. You know, I mean, we were a little bit late already, so I was like, on track perfectly, and then I get the car on the highway, and I was like, ‘I literally forgot golf balls to come play Miles Russell today,'” Cowan revealed.
Without the sleeves of new Titleists he meant to bring with him, Cowan searched his bag and found only two golf balls: one new ball and another that was “fairly good.” He used the better ball for the first 10 holes, and then swapped in the older ball for the rest of the match.
“It was fine, though. I mean, I had one golf ball and I have one that was fairly good,” Cowan said. “So I used one golf ball for 10 holes and then I switched to a fairly good one after 10. But it was good. It was good.”
Fortunately for Cowan, he didn’t lose either of the balls over the 17 holes of his match with Russell. The match was tight throughout, with each player going 1 up at multiple points.
The match was all square from holes 13-15 before Cowan took the lead with a par at the par-4 16th.
At 17, Cowan pulled off some magic to clinch his victory. His tee shot left him with a greenside chip from a dreadful lie. He duffed his first attempt, barely advancing his ball.
“The first one was — I don’t want to say impossible, but it was probably a 10 out of 10 difficulty,” Cowan said about the challenge he faced on 17. “Literally my lie was terrible and I had a lot of grass behind the ball. I could barely get to it, and then I had to pretty much flop it up and land it on, and, unfortunately, I just went straight underneath it. The second one, it was still really hard because that green is straight downhill all the way, but I pretty much was trying to hit the same shot. Fortunately, I hit it different.”
Different, indeed. Cowan’s second chip rolled right into the hole for par, and with that he finished off Russell 2 and 1.
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