Benjamin Shipp hangs on to win GCAA Am Series stop in NC

NC State Wolfpack senior Benjamin Shipp commanded a sizeable lead heading into the final round of the Golf Coaches Association of America’s Amateur Series stop at NC State’s home course, Lonnie Poole GC. With rounds of 69-66, Shipp was seven under par and held a five stroke lead over the nearest competitor heading into Sunday’s final round. Scorable conditions were prevalent on Sunday in Raleigh as the leaderboard showed. A handful of sub-70 rounds were tallied on Sunday, but no such round was carded by Shipp. Shipp played the front nine with nine pars before making his first misstep of the day on No. 10. Dropping a shot, his lead was nearly unaffected as he slid from seven to six under par for the tournament. Dropping another shot on the par-4 12th, Shipp’s lead once again shrunk but to a manageable margin. Hot on Shipp’s heels was Wolfpack teammate, Max Steinlechner. The sophomore ended up posting a final round 67 for a 211 tournament total. As Shipp trudged along on the back nine, Steinlechner applied the pressure with five birdies over his final nine holes en route to the 4-under final round 67. For Shipp, he should consider himself lucky that the underclassman ran out of holes. Shipp slipped to four over on the day and three under for the tournament with back to back bogeys on hole Nos. 15 and 16. Treading water, Shipp managed to get to shore before completely sinking. His final round 75 was just enough to hold off Steinlechner as well as UNC Greensboro’s Nick Lyerly who also finished at 2-under. Shipp’s 3-under 210 tournament total cleared the competition by a single stroke and his final round was played without a single birdie. Undoubtedly not playing his best golf, Shipp must take some confidence out of the round as he still came away with the win. As for NC State, the Wolfpack will be hopeful to play this spring as the ACC took the fall golf season off due to COVID-19. The Wolfpack are scheduled to begin their spring campaign in February at the Sea Best Invitational at TPC Sawgrass, hosted by the University of Jacksonville.