U.S. Am champ Jose Luis Ballester matches tournament record at Fighting Illini Invite

September 22, 2024 | by Justin Golba of AmateurGolf.com

Jose Luis Ballester (USGA Photo)

Ballester, who became the first Spaniard to win the U.S. Amateur over the summer, now secures his first collegiate win

Jose Luis Ballester continued his great play over the last few months, securing his first collegiate win at Olympia Fields Fighting Illini Invitational at Olympia Fields Country Club in Olympia Fields, Ill.

Ballester held off Benjamin Reuter of Georgia Tech by two shots at 10-under to win. Due to the threat of inclement weather later in the weekend, Rounds two and three were played Saturday with tee times moved up 30 minutes. Ballester and Reuter had to come out on Sunday morning to play two holes to finish the tournament after plying 34 holes on Saturday.

Three-time All-American and 2024 U.S. Amateur champion Ballester carded rounds of 64-66-70 to get to 10-under and go wire-to-wire at the top of the leaderboard.

Ballester matched the tournament record with the 10-under 200, set by Alabama’s Davis Riley in 2017. It marked his eighth top-five collegiate finish. Ballester is currently ranked No. 14 in the Golfweek/AmateurGolf.com World Rankings.

According to Arizona State Athletics, Ballester became the 11th Sun Devil to win an individual title in a team tournament in nine seasons under Matt Thurmond (2016-present). He joins Preston Summerhays, Wenyi Ding, James Leow, David Puig, Cameron Sisk, Mason Andersen, Alex del Rey, Chun An Yu, Jared du Toit and Ki Taek Lee.

Christiaan Maas of Texas and Daniel Svard of Northwestern finished T3 at 7-under, and Ethan Fang of Oklahoma State finished in solo fifth place at 5-under to round out the top five.

In the team competition, Georgia Tech edged out Arizona State by one shot, shooting rounds of 279-277-272 and shooting 12-under. Arizona State finished in solo second place at 11-under. Arizona State opened up the season by winning the Sahalee Player's Championship.

Oklahoma State and North Carolina finished T3 at 1-under, and Texas finished in solo fifth place at 3-over.

Results: Fighting Illini Invitational

Place	Player	Location	Pts	Scores
1	Jose Luis Ballester	, Spain	800	64-66-70=200
2	Benjamin Reuter	, Netherlands	500	64-70-68=202
T3	Christiaan Maas	, South Africa	400	69-68-66=203
T3	Daniel Svard	, Sweden	400	68-66-69=203
5	Ethan Fang	Plano, TX	400	68-66-71=205

View full results for Fighting Illini Invitational

About the Fighting Illini Invitational

U.S. Am champ Jose Luis Ballester matches tournament record at Fighting Illini Invite

54-hole elite collegiate event hosted at Olympia Fields Country Club by the University of Illinois. Olympia Fields has hosted the 2015 U.S. Amateur. two U.S. Opens, two PGA Championships, five Western Opens and a U.S. Senior Open.