They are high school teammates, best friends, fellow club members and residents of the same San Diego-area neighborhood. When asked, Luke Potter and Caden Pinckes estimated that they have played “in the thousands” of rounds together.
No previous match was bigger than the one they played on a breezy Thursday afternoon on the southwest Oregon coast. Potter, 18, of Encinitas, Calif., rolled past his Classical Academy teammate, 7 and 5, in the Round of 16 of the 74th U.S. Junior Amateur Championship at Bandon Dunes Golf Resort.