Sahith Theegala of Chino Hills was in complete control of the Australian Master of the Amateurs for three rounds before gale-force winds hit the Victoria Golf Club https://www.victoriagolf.com.au/cms in Brisbane, Australia.
Theegala, a senior at Pepperdine took a five-stroke lead into the final round and after weathering the storm on the front nine in the final round, he claimed the title by four shots over Jang Hyun Lee of South Korea.
Alyaa Abdulghany of Newport Beach captured the Women’s title by beating Ho Yu An of Taiwan in a playoff.
“It was incredible,” tournament manager Geoffrey Mann said. “The gale force winds made the first nine holes a real challenge, so even getting par on some of the holes was impressive. Especially as the winds made the greens rock hard and fast, with pin positions in hard locations.”
Theegala, a two-time All-American at Pepperdine who won the 2019 Southern California Amateur Championship and the 2017 Sahalee Players Championship, shot 66-68-69-75—278, 10-under-par, while Lee finished at 68-68-75-71—282.
After Theegala birdied the first hole of the final round to increase his lead to six shots, he carded two double bogeys and three bogeys while going 6-over through seven holes, before closing the front nine with eagle-birdie to shoot 39 going out.
Theegala played steady golf with eight straight pars on the back nine before closing with bogey to take home the title .
Jack Thompson of Australia was third at 70-74-64-75—283, while Ren Yonezawa of Japan totaled 70-70-75-69—284 to tie for fourth with Yuta Sugiura, also of Japan, who finished at 69-71-73-71—284.
Louis Dobbelaar of Australia was sixth at 74-70-69-73—286, while Benjamin Jones of England shot 68-71-73-75—287 to tie for seventh with Harrison Crowe of Australia, who wound up at 73-69-69-76—287.
Ricky Castillo of Yorba Linda and the University of Florida carded a score of 72-71-70-75—288 to finish in a huge tie for ninth with Quade Cummings of Weatherford, Okla., and the University of Oklahoma (66-73-73-76—288, Elvis Smylie of Australia (70-73-72-73—288), Benjamin Schmidt of England (66-74-75-73—288), Toby Walker of Australia (70-72-72-74—288), Josh Armstrong of Australia (74-70-67-77—288), Connor McKinney of Scotland (68-74-69-77—288), and Jack Buchanan of Australia (67-70-71-80—288.
Abdulghany, a junior at USC who won the 2016 California Women’s State Open, birdied the final hole of regulation to get into the playoff with a score of 72-70-71-73—286, while An finished at 70-69-77-70—286.
Cassie Porter of Australia was third at 69-75-67-76—286, followed by Grace Kim of Australia at 71-77-67-73—288, Min Yoon of South Korea at 67-71-76-75—289 and Stephanie Kyriacou of Australia at 72-66-77-76—291.
Kirsty Hodgkins of Australia totaled 71-75-72-74—292 to tie for seventh with Carmen Lim of New Zealand, who finished at 72-74-71-75—292, and Kelsey Bennett of Australia, who came in at 79-67-70-76—292, while Kirsten Rudgeley of Australia was 10th at 71-73-74-75—293.
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