Lyerly leads Eastern Am by 4 with one round to go

PORTSMOUTH, VA (July 14, 2018) – After three rounds at the Eastern Amateur, Nick Lyerly is in as comfortable a position as you could hope for at a major summer amateur event. The rising sophomore at UNC Greensboro has a four-shot cushion on Appalachian State’s Tripp Summerlin entering the fourth and final round at Elizabeth Manor. Lyerly’s card is impressively flawless. In 54 holes, he has yet to make a bogey on the par-70 layout. He birdied Nos 5, 8 and 14 on Saturday for a third-round 67. It followed rounds of 63 and 65 to open the tournament. He stands at 15 under for the week. Lyerly is two years removed from winning the 2016 North Carolina Amateur. He won the Southern Conference Championship as an individual this spring Summerlin, who was runner-up in the Sun Belt Conference Tournament, picked up a shot on Lyerly with a third-round 66. He has had two bogeys this week in his 11-under effort. Alston Newsom of VCU carded a steady 3-under 67 Saturday to get to 9 under and solo third. The round of the day belonged to Radford's Peter Gasperini, whose 7-under 63 bumped him into a tie for fourth with Wake Forest freshman Kengo Aoshima. Both are 8-under par. Aoshima played the last four holes in 4 under to cap a third-round 6-under 64. Auburn's Andrew Kozan is sixth another shot back at 7 under.