Western Am: Sam Horsfield goes from 63 to 75, but still leads
The luxury Sam Horsfield's 63 in round one? He posted 75 and still leads
LAKE FOREST, Ill. (Aug. 3, 2016) -- They say following up a really low round with another one is really hard. Heck, one year at the U.S. Open Mike Donald famously went from being the darling of the media after a first round 65 to missing the cut after a second round 86.
That's golf.
But there were none of those worry's today for Florida Gator Sam Horsfield, he just didn't have the magic of hitting 17 greens and making 8 birdies like he did enroute to his opening round 63.
Today he posted 7 bogeys against 3 birdies for a round of 4-over 75. That puts Horsfield on top of the leaderboard after 36-holes at 4-under 138, with a marathon day of 36 on Thursday before the sweet 16 are determined for match play.
A single shot back is a solid group of players that includes Michael DeMorat (Merritt Island, Florida); University of Texas star golfer Doug Ghim (a USA Palmer Cup team member); Mid-Amateur standout Todd Mitchell of Illinois; Florida high school player Won Jun Lee, and LSU standout Eric Ricard.
DeMorat took advantage of a morning tee time to shoot a 3-under 68, one of the Wednesday's lowest rounds.
The highlight of DeMorat’s day was his chip-in for eagle on the 357-yard, par-4 13th. With the wind at his back, he drove it 20 yards short of the green and used his 58-degree wedge to hole out for a 2 to get to 3 under.
“That got me going,” said DeMorat, a junior at Liberty. “I felt safe to make the cut, so I kind of relaxed.”The low 44 players and ties advance to the final 36 holes Thursday. Match play starts Friday and concludes Saturday.
After posting a 4-over 75 in the first round, Patrick Martin, of Birmingham, Alabama, needed a low score to survive the first cut. He did just that Wednesday morning with his 4-under 67 that put him at even par 142, well under the cut of 145.
“Yesterday, [it was about] getting acclimated to being in competition again,” said Martin, a sophomore at Vanderbilt who last played competitively July 11 at the Players Amateur. “[I made] a couple of mistakes, and if you do that out here, you’re going to make scores you don’t want to make. You are going to make bogey pretty quick. I was a little off yesterday, and I made bogeys I shouldn’t have.”
One notable player (and there were many) that missed the cut was the red-hot Will Zalatoris of Texas and Wake Forest University. Zalatoris, who in July won the Pacific Coast Amateur and Trans-Miss Am, posted 148 to finish 3 higher than the number.
ABOUT THE Western Amateur
Invitational event, and the most important
tournament in American amateur golf outside of the
U.S. Amateur. With a grueling schedule, it's quite
possibly the
hardest amateur tournament to win.
156 invited players come from across the
globe to play one of the toughest formats in
amateur golf. The tournament starts with 18
holes of stroke play on Tuesday and
Wednesday after which the field is cut to the
low 44 scores and ties. Thursday it's a long
day of 36 holes of stroke play to determine
the “Sweet Sixteen” who compete at Match
Play on Friday and Saturday (two matches
each day if you're going to the finals) to
decide the champion.
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