COLUMBUS, OH (July 12, 2018) – Justin Tereshko has a new wife, hopes to have a new job soon, and is now only 18 holes away from being the first Mid-Amateur to win the Trans-Mississippi Championship in 10 years, after his third sub-70 round opened a two-shot lead going to the final round.
Tereshko from Lexington, Kentucky fired a third round 68 Thursday, the only player in the field with three rounds in the 60s, for a 13-under-par 203 total in sunny, warm conditions at historic Brookside Golf & Country Club.
“I was a little sloppy in at the end of the front nine, but then hit it to a foot on the 10th hole which helped get me going.”
54-hole #TransMiss18 leader Justin Tereshko offers the highlights of his 4-under 68 in the 3rd round at Brookside G&CC Ave what he needs to do Friday to bring home the victory. Leader board: https://t.co/ICoL83We5x pic.twitter.com/GPcXIVnPYh
— Trans-Miss Golf (@TransMissGolf) July 12, 2018
After his birdie on the 10th hole, he followed up with birdies on the 12th and 15th holes which proved to be enough for the two-shot lead headed to championship Friday.
Pierceson Coody, the grandson of 1971 Masters Champion Charles and an incoming freshman at the University of Texas, along with Hayden Springer, a senior at TCU in Fort Worth, are two shots behind at 205 after rounds of 67 and 68 respectively. Second round co-leader Jake Marriott, from Naples, Florida, is a further shot back at 206 after a third-round 71.
Coody, who had six birdies outset by two bogeys Thursday, has another secret weapon in his golfing arsenal as he hopes to add to his summer of amateur golf success.
In both his victories at the AJGA Thunderbird Classic in Arizona this summer and the Texas Golf Association’s Byron Nelson Junior Championship, he wore the same final round outfit. With one round to go, he pressing on the "third time is a charm" game plan.
“I guess I’ll just wear the same outfit for every closing round.” Coody said.
Marriott is tied with Duke University senior Alex Smalley, the highest ranked amateur coming into this week’s tournament.
“I didn’t have my best stuff today, but I’m happy with the way I battled and stayed in the tournament," said Marriott, who despite being in fourth place, three back of the leader, isn’t ready to concede the Trans-Miss title yet. “I’m looking forward to being in the hunt tomorrow (Friday) afternoon.”
Springer had one of the low rounds of the day on the old school, classic golf design, recording five birdies, including a birdie three on the closing par 4 18th hole, with no bogeys in his round.
“I think if I went bogey free, that would be good for me,” he said. “I don’t like to think possible score, but If I go bogey free, I like my odds of making a couple of birdies.”
This is his first tournament after marrying his longtime girlfriend and leaving his college coaching job at Guilford College in North Carolina to return to her home of Kentucky, hoping to find another coaching job in the near future.
He’s planning a Bahamas honeymoon in a couple of weeks with his new wife. Will he show up in a new country as a prestigious Trans-Miss Champion or just another top amateur golfer?
The Trans-Miss is the oldest non-USGA amateur tournament in the country, with the 115th edition playing this week.
Iowa’s Mike McCoy was the last mid-amateur to win the Trans-Miss in 2008 in Des Moines, Iowa when the event was dominated for a span by mid-amateur golfers. Tereshko hopes to win another one for the mid-ams on Friday.