Augenstein enters final round of Players Am with 2-shot lead

BLUFFTON, S.C. (July 14, 2018) – One of the biggest elements of drama at the Players Amateur is that there’s an exemption into the PGA Tour’s RBC Heritage – the only PGA Tour event in South Carolina -- on the line. It’s a coveted thing for an amateur golfer, and for John Augenstein, that’s particularly true. Augenstein isn’t a South Carolina native (he’s from Kentucky), but he has memories of his family vacationing on Hilton Head Island, the site of the event. The rising junior at Vanderbilt has a two-shot cushion after three rounds at Berkeley Hall Club. A third-round 3-under 68 dropped him to 12-under for the event. A year ago, Augenstein authored a similar story here. He posted three sub-70 rounds only to fall two shots short of a playoff for the first place. He’s not getting ahead of himself yet, though. “Honestly, there is a lot of golf left to be played,” Augenstein said. “I know I am in a good position but I still have to go out there and play well tomorrow. There is going to be a lot of guys out there gunning for me.” Augenstein had already had two top-10 finishes in major amateur events this summer: a T-6 at the Northeast Amateur and a T-4 at the Sunnehanna Amateur. So far this week, Augenstein has made 16 birdies at Berkeley Hall, a course that seems to set up well for his game. “I love this golf course,” he said. “The greens are perfect. I feel like I have putted well this week. I haven’t necessarily played great yet, but I have always kept the ball in front of me and have been able to score when I needed to.” Andy Zhang is close on Augenstein’s heels with a round to go. The Florida standout fired a second-round 63 to climb into a share of the lead entering the weekend. He’ll enter the final round two shots back. Ohio State’s Will Grimmer, who was T-13 here last year, and New Zealand native Philip Knowles remains within striking distance, too. Rounds of 69-68-69 left him at 7 under for the week and five shots behind Augenstein. Keep in mind that Knowles fired a final-round 64 a year ago to enter a playoff against Clemson’s Bryson Nimmer that he ultimately won.