Hinsdale Central junior confident in golf game

The magnitude of the moment was finally hitting Brendan O'Reilly.

The junior-to-be at Hinsdale Central was taking practice swings before the first round on July 20 when he was announced to the crowd at the U.S. Junior Amateur.

"I kind of just took a moment to realize what I was doing, where I was," O'Reilly said.

Even though it was finally sinking in, O'Reilly did a good job of hiding any nerves.

O'Reilly carded a 1-under 71 at Colleton River Plantation Club in Bluffton, South Carolina. That score put him in a tie for 9th place in the 156-player field.

On Tuesday, O'Reilly carded a 3-under 69 and took the clubhouse lead at the end of the day. Play was suspended due to darkness on Tuesday, with half of the field yet to finish.

"That was another really cool part, seeing my name on a leaderboard, because I really haven't seen that before," O'Reilly said. "That was really awesome."

After the rest of the field completed the second round on Wednesday, O'Reilly stood in fourth place and earned the fourth seed in the 64-player match play tournament.

In Wednesday's round of 64 matchup, O'Reilly defeated Connor O'Brien of Connecticut 6 and 5.

"I believe I drove the ball extremely well for my standards," O'Reilly said. "I was in a great position on mostly every single hole. That made it a lot easier. I made just a couple really good putts."

O'Reilly's run ended in the round of 32 where Colombia's Ivan Camilo Ramirez won 1 up.

"I could've won that match that I lost," O'Reilly said. "If it had just gone my way, I felt like I could have gone pretty deep."

But the experience gives him confidence heading into his junior season the Hinsdale Central golf team.

As a freshman, O'Reilly finished tied for 11th at the State Tournament. Last year, O'Reilly finished in 3rd place, 7 shots behind teammate Kenneth Li.

Playing in last week's Junior Amateur has O'Reilly believing he can take the next step toward a state championship.

"It's totally going to help. This is one of the harder courses, so I mean, high school golf is just going to seem a little easier," O'Reilly said. "I'm feeling really confident with my game right now, so it'll only help. The experience was, I mean, just unreal.

"Just the way the tournament is run, how it's set up, how everything is so official, how there just people watching, it was just really cool and something that I will never forget."