Sam Horsfield
(Western Golf Association Photo)
LAKE FOREST, ILL (August 4, 2016) -- Sam Horsfield
concluded his wire-to-wire run to claim the Western
Amateur medalist honors. Horsfield opened with a
Knollwood Club course record 63 and after a second
round 75 the Phil Mickelson Outstanding Freshman
Award winner this past season shot rounds of 67-64 on
the 36-
hole stroke play final day to finish 15-under.
Heading into the final day Horsfield, a sophomore
at Florida, held a one-stroke lead but pulled away to win
by a dominating nine-strokes.
“I feel like I played really good,” Horsfield told the
Western Golf Association. “I could have been a little
better, but that is nitpicking at things. Coming into
[Thursday], if you would have told me you got to 17-
under par, I wouldn’t have believed you, so I will take
it.”
The remarkable play for Horsfield throughout the
week was mostly done on the back nine where he went
a
remarkable 13-under.
In the morning round on Thursday, Horsfield shot a
4-under 67, with all of his work done on the closing
nine.
Following a 1-over 36 on the front, the Florida Gator
star
birdied five holes on the second nine for a bogey-free 5-
under 31.
The stellar play for Horsfield continued in the
afternoon, when he fired a 7-under 64. Horsfield
birdied three front nine holes and then put an
exclamation point on his three days of stroke play with
six birdies on the final nine. The closing stretch began
with birdies on Nos. 10-13 and then additional birdies
on holes 15 and 16. If Horsfield hadn't bogeyed the final
two holes he would have broken the scoring record he
had set in the first round.
However, for as well as Horsfield has played his
work
is far from done. The field has been trimmed to 16
players and the match play portion of the Western
Amateur has begun. Here is a look at the 15 other
players that have advanced:
* denotes advanced in playoff
** denotes eliminated in playoff
Michael DeMorat (Liberty): 2nd; -6
Andy Zhang (Incoming Floria Freshman):
3rd; -4
John Coultas (Florida Southern): T4;
-3
Nick Hardy (Michigan): T4; -3
Braden Bailey (Baylor): T6; -2
Doug Ghim (Texas): T6; -2
Greyson Sigg (Georgia): T8; -1
Max McGreevy (Oklahoma): T8; -1
Eric Ricard (LSU): T8; -1
JJ Grey (Georgia State): T8; -1
*Joaquin Niemann (Chilean Junior Golfer):
T12; E
*Davis Riley (Alabama): T12;
E
*Vincent Whaley (Georgia Tech): T12;
E
*William Gordon (Vanderbilt): T12; E
*Dylan Meyer (Illinois): T12; E
**Won Jun Lee (Saddlebrook H.S.-FL): T12;
E
Of the 16 players advancing, four have made it to
the sweet 16
before. Horsfield, Coultas, Hardy
and Ghim.
By the time play is complete on Friday, the final
four will be named, setting up the semifinal and
championship matches for Saturday.
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.
View Complete Tournament Information