Mike Miller was even par for the day and sitting one shot on the wrong side of the U.S. Amateur cut line when he made the turn at CommonGround Golf Course outside Denver. And then putts began to drop. Miller birdied Nos. 10, 11 and 13 to 
establish momentum, then made things interesting with bogeys at 15 and 17. Another timely birdie at No. 18 was the exclamation point on a 2-under 68 that moved the 20-year-old Brewster resident into match play with a stroke to spare.
He shot a 3-over 74 at Cherry Hills Country Club on Monday, and finished stroke play tied for 39ths with a 1-over total of 142.
There’s a large contingent of players a stroke behind who are going to have to survive a playoff to move on to match play, a scenario Miller knows all too well. He went down that road last summer and was on a plane back home earlier than expected.
Max Buckley, a 22-year-old from Rye, shot a 14-over 85 at Cherry Hills to slip from contention. He finished tied for 239th and will be heading back to SMU to finish up the last 16 credits of a degree in economics and finance.
