Isaiah Salinda claimed his first professional victory by a whopping eight strokes.
The 26-year-old Salinda, from South San Francisco and Stanford, shot five-under-par 65 for the second time in four rounds to outdistance three chasing players in the Panama Championship on the Korn Ferry Tour at Club de Golf Panama in Panama City.
“The golf course is amazing and I’m very excited to win here in Panama,” said Salinda, who tied for seventh in the Shriners Children’s Open on the PGA Tour last October. “I think the only time I looked at the leaderboard was on No. 9 or 10… it was still pretty stacked. After No. 12, I knew I had a pretty good cushion and didn’t look at any leaderboards after that.
“After I hit the tee shot on No. 18, I was like: ‘Alright, I think we’re good.’ Even though I had a bigger cushion than I thought, I was just trying to hit that tee shot in the fairway and then hit it on the green and two-putt. But (I) stacked it in there kind of by accident and made a birdie.”
Salinda, who won the 2018 Pacific Coast Amateur Championship, the 2017 Northern California Amateur Championship, the 2016 San Jose City Championship and helped Stanford capture the 2019 NCAA Championship, made a 50-fot birdie at No. 11, eagled the 12th hole and added four birdies in his final round to record a winning score of 70-65-68-65—268, 12-under-par.
Keenan Huskey shot 73-67-72-64—276 to tie for second with Trent Phillips, who totaled 72-69-69-66—276 and Wil Bateman of Canada and San Diego State, who wound up at 69-70-64-63—276.
Ricky Castillo of Yorba Linda finished at 72-69-69-67—277 to finish in a big tie for fifth with Jacob Soloman of Dublin (73-66-70-68—277), Sean O’Hair (72-67-69-69—277); Zach Bauchou (71-66-69-71—277); Brandon Harkins of Lafayette (71-66-67-73—277) and Trey Winstead (65-72-68-72—277).
For complete results, visit: https://www.pgatour.com/korn-ferry-tour/leaderboard
