Luke Schniederjans wins 99th Georgia Amateur

Winning a tournament that Bobby Jones won is always cool. And winning on a course closely affiliated with the golfing legend is even cooler.

Luke Schniederjans did just that following a playoff over Brett Barron at the 99th Georgia Amateur held at Atlanta Athletic Club, where Jones once served as President and was an active member until his death in 1971.

It was even more special for Schniederjans as a player at Georgia Tech, where Jones earned his degree in 1922. “Any tournament you play you want to win,” Schniederjans told Georgia Tech, “But this will be a really cool memory to win the Georgia State Amateur here at the Atlanta Athletic Club.”

For Barron, he may have envisioned a much different ending to the day. But after posting a three-over front side, the Suwanee, Georgia native had to battle Schniederjans to keep close. After a 10-foot birdie putt tied things up on the 18th hole, the pair headed back out to the 18th tee.

Not settling for a par as he had on the par-5 18th all week, Schniederjans played aggressively.

“Where the tee was on 18 today, it was like total match play (for the playoff), so I just decided to be aggressive,” said Schniederjans. “I hit 3-wood off the tee. On the second shot, I had some mud on the left side (of the ball), so I just tried to play a little cut with a 4-iron. (Barron) had gotten up and down on the last hole, so I figured I needed to two-putt. It was a tough two-putt, I had to hit a delicate putt down there (on the eagle attempt).”

Nestling the long eagle attempt to inside two feet, Schniederjans tapped in for birdie and awaited Barron’s 12-foot birdie putt.

Giving it a run, Barron missed the putt giving Schniederjans the third win for a Yellow Jacket in eight days (Tyler Strafaci won the North & South and Palmetto Amateurs).

Battling all day with Barron, Schniederjans reflected on his even-par final round.

“I wasn’t hitting bad shots, but out here, every putt you have outside of 10 feet is (playing) defense. So you have to stuff it, and it’s tough to stuff it when the pins are where they were. I wasn’t thinking it was very good, but it ended being a good score. I made some clutch par putts that I had to make.”