Sunnehanna Amateur Preview: Strong History, Stronger Field

June 11, 2018 | by AmateurGolf.com Staff

Even without a defending champ, the 65th Sunnehanna Amateur may have the strongest field in the history of the championship

JOHNSTOWN, PA (June 11, 2018) - Even with the defending champion having to withdraw (Braden Thornberry has a good reason - he'll be at the U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills), the 65th Sunnehanna Amateur may have the strongest field in the history of the championship.

Related: 2017: Red-Hot Braden Thornberry wins Sunnehanna Amateur
Related: 2016: Collin Morikawa surges to win Sunnehanna Amateur

The 2016 champion and World #3 ranked Collin Morikawa returns, as do U.S. Palmer Cup Team members Stephen Franken, Zach Bauchou, Brad Dalke, Justin Suh and Sahith Theegala; and International Palmer Cup Team members Andy Zhang and K.K. Limbhasut. 16 countries will be represented at Sunnehanna Country Club, June 13-16.

Last year Morikawa nearly made it a repeat, falling in a playoff to Thornberry. Bauchou was a member of the NCAA Champion Oklahoma State University Cowboys, and shot a 10-under 60 during last year's Sunnehanna.

Five-time USGA champion Nathan Smith, who won the Sunnehanna in 2011 and joined the Tournament Committee for this year's tournament, will also be in the field.

The Sunnehanna Amateur was inaugurated in July of 1954 -- it was the first country club sponsored 72-hole stroke play competition for amateurs in the United States. The tournament is played on a classic A.W. Tillinghast design. Only one other amateur tournament in the United States can list the likes of Chick Evans, Arnold Palmer, Julius Boros, Art Wall, Jack Nicklaus, Phil Mickelson, Tiger Woods, and Rickie Fowler as contestants: the United States Amateur. For Nicklaus, it was his first-ever major amateur event, as he finished 5th as a 15-year-old in 1956.

About the Sunnehanna Amateur

First played in July 1954, the Sunnehanna Amateur holds a distinguished place in golf history as the first country club-sponsored 72-hole medal (stroke) play event for amateurs in the United States. Its groundbreaking format helped set the standard f...

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