Oda Records Ace, Qualifies for PGA Tour's Sony Open
12 Jan 2017
by Jeremy Gomberg of AmateurGolf.com
see also: John Oda Rankings
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John Oda (photo courtesy of UNLV)
HONOLULU, Hawaii. (January 12, 2017) -- Amateurs
John Oda and Brent Grant will be teeing it up today
at
the Sony Open hosted by Waialae Country Club.
Oda, a junior at UNLV and native of Honolulu, beat
incredible odds to make into the field this week. His
week began last Sunday at Hoakalei Country where
he
shot a 1-under 71 at the Sony Open Pre-qualifer to
finish in a tie for 12th and advance to the Monday
Qualifier.
Playing the same course the next day, Oda fired a
bogey-free 66 to win the Monday Qualifier over a
field
of Web.com players and former PGA Tour players.
His
round started off with birdies on holes 2 and 5
before an
incredible hole-in-one on the par-3 7th boosted him
to
4-under on the day. He added another birdie on nine
and tacked on one more at the 15th.
This will be Oda's second appearance at the Sony
Open,
the first coming in 2012 via a sponsor exemption.
"John has won four times on the college level and
his
recent selection for the Walker Cup Squad
demonstrates
that he is at the top of the amateur game," said
UNLV
head coach Dwaine Knight. "He will be ready to soak
up
another chance to experience professional
competition
at the Sony Open."
Also in the field this week is BYU-Hawaii golfer
Brent
Grant.
Grant qualified by winning the Governors Cup, a
yearlong competition named after former Gov. John
Burns, who wanted to help develop junior golf on
the
island. The 12 amateurs who qualify then compete
in an
18-hole tournament at Waialae in late November
which
Grant won in a playoff.
This is the same way Oda qualified in 2012 and it's
what
allowed a then 16-year old Tadd Fujikawa into the
field
in 2007. Tadd, who qualified for the event this year,
turned his exemption into a historical performance;
he
made an eagle on his final-hole in the second round
to
become the youngest player in 50 years to make a
cut
on the PGA Tour. Fujikawa ended up a tie for 20th
that
week and it wouldn't surprise us to see one of these
amateurs make a similar run.
Oda is set to tee off at 1:10 pm local time with
Hiroshi
Iwata and Nicholas Lindheim while Grant is off early
at
8:50 am with Parker McLachin and Ryan Brehm. We
will
keep you updated on their play throughout the
week.
--UNLV men's golf contributed to this story