Sean Crocker, who will be a junior at USC, posted a 7-under-par 63 in the final round to win the Monroe Invitational by four strokes over Andrew McCain of Minneapolis at Monroe Golf Club in Pittsford, N.Y.
Crocker, who was born in Zimbabwe but lives in Westlake Village and graduated from Westlake High, birdied the first two holes of the final round before wedging his second shot into the hole from 130 yards for an eagle at No. 3–after hitting his drive 330.
“The first three holes are birdie holes if you can hit the ball straight,” said Crocker, who also birdied No. 4 and made the turn in 4-under 31 before collecting birdies on the first three holes of the back nine.
“But after I started 5-under through four holes, I thought I had a really good chance to play for the win. I kept on attacking pins and hitting fairways, and that is all I did for the rest of the round.
” … It was a huge win for me.”
Crocker carded a score of 69-77-68-63–277, while McCain wound up at 66-75-68-72–281.
Cristobal Del Solar of Chile shot 72-69-71-70–282 to tie for third with Jared Du Toit of Canada, who finished at 71-73-67-71–282, while Ben Wolcott of Dickson, Tenn., totaled 69-70-74-70–283 to tie for fifth with Brian Carlson of Madison, Conn., who finished at 72-69-71-71–283, and Thomas Eldridge of Raleigh, N.C., who came in at 67-74-70-72–283.
Shintaro Ban of San Jose and UNLV tied for 15th at 70-78-74-65–287.
