Scottie Scheffler impressed by high school freshman, old soul Miles Russell

Miles Russell enjoys country music, but he isn’t one for tunes on the course. Russell, age 15 on paper but an old soul, prefers the acoustics of club-meets-ball.

“There’s something about listening to the contact you make when you hit a good one; you've got to know what that sounds like,” Russell said Wednesday at the Korn Ferry Tour’s Veritex Bank Championship, having finished T20 at last week’s LECOM Suncoast Classic to qualify. “When you have AirPods, you can't hear that.”

Competing in his professional event of any kind, Russell made history as the youngest to make a cut on the Korn Ferry Tour (15 years, 5 months, 18 days) – then became the youngest to top-25 on either the TOUR or Korn Ferry Tour on record (since at least 1983). Turning pro is far from Russell’s mind – he’s a high school freshman after all – but his past week could fit on the Disney Channel, a kid thriving in an adult world.

Russell finished the LECOM at 14-under 270, on the line for the top-25 without any margin for error, validating his sponsor exemption and then some. It led the left-handed Floridian to this week’s Korn Ferry Tour stop in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex, where the show goes on.

“It’s definitely been a wild ride. It’s been fun too,” Russell said Wednesday. “Earning something, it feels better than getting the exemption almost, because you know what you practiced for and what you kind of live for, and that's what you did.”

Last week, Russell was a curiosity. This week he’s a known commodity. He arrived at the LECOM Suncoast Classic with abundant accolades in junior golf – namely, the youngest AJGA Boys Player of the Year (2023) since Tiger Woods – but without a case study of how his well-rounded game translated to the professional level. The verdict after rounds of 66-68-70-68: It held up just fine.

That meant another Korn Ferry Tour start this week at Texas Rangers Golf Club, where Scottie Scheffler holds the course record (59) set during a “Wolf” game with friends on May 3, 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic hiatus. Russell was comfortable in a practice round with veteran pro Sam Saunders (the two also played a practice round at the LECOM), expressing appreciation for the support he has received from pros – while also maintaining the confidence that has led him to success early in his Korn Ferry Tour foray.

That mix of self-belief and skill could put him on an eventual crash course with Scheffler, the world No. 1 who spent some time with Russell ahead of THE PLAYERS Championship last month. Scheffler was impressed with the top-ranked junior’s humility and understated nature.

“Seemed like a nice kid. Seemed like a humble kid,” Scheffler said after winning the RBC Heritage. “One of the guys in the practice round we were playing with (at THE PLAYERS) asked him, what are you doing here, and he was there because he had won the Junior PLAYERS, and he just kind of paused, and he's like, ‘Oh, I'm just watching today,’ or said something like that. It wasn't like, ‘Hey, I won this tournament and did that.’ It seemed to me like he had a really good attitude.”

After making bogey on the 72nd hole at the LECOM, Russell didn’t think his 14-under total would hold up for the top 25. (Having entered the final round in 48th place, he finished roughly three-and-a-half hours ahead of the leaders). By the time he arrived back home in Jacksonville Beach around 8 p.m. Sunday, though, it was official: he had earned a spot at the Veritex Bank. So he did some laundry – “washer that night and dryer in the morning,” he said Wednesday – and left for the airport at 10:45 a.m. Monday, embarking on this next adventure.

Last week’s TOUR winners were aware of Russell’s feat. The operative word: impressive.

“It's pretty impressive,” said Billy Horschel, winner at the Corales Puntacana Championship. “I mean, I wasn't that good at 15 by a long shot and I couldn't imagine playing in a Tour event and let alone making a cut and then finishing top 25. I think it's pretty impressive. Obviously, he's mature beyond his years and what he's accomplished at such a young age … I think it's pretty impressive.”

“To be able to show up at a professional tournament when you're only 15 and make the cut is pretty impressive,” concurred Scheffler, who missed the LECOM Suncoast Classic cut in his lone tournament appearance in 2019.

Russell was asked in Wednesday’s virtual press conference if he has given thought to turning pro anytime soon. Not at all, he said – he knows he can’t join a TOUR-sanctioned circuit until age 18 anyway. There’s power in living in the now, and that’s what Russell intends to do this week.

“It's the same goals as last week,” Russell said. “Just try to put the first and second round, two good rounds together and see where that puts us compared to the cut, and if we make the cut, just try to go and have two more good rounds and see where that puts us.”

Spoken like someone who has done this before.