Sunnehanna Amateur Preview: Strong History, Stronger Field
JOHNSTOWN, PA (June 11, 2018) - Even with the defending champion having to withdraw (
Braden Thornberry has a good reason - he'll be at the U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills), the 65th Sunnehanna Amateur may have the strongest field in the history of the championship.
Related: 2017: Red-Hot Braden Thornberry wins Sunnehanna Amateur
Related: 2016: Collin Morikawa surges to win Sunnehanna Amateur
The 2016 champion and World #3 ranked
Collin Morikawa returns, as do U.S. Palmer Cup Team members
Stephen Franken,
Zach Bauchou,
Brad Dalke,
Justin Suh and
Sahith Theegala; and International Palmer Cup Team members
Andy Zhang and
K.K. Limbhasut. 16 countries will be represented at Sunnehanna Country Club, June 13-16.
Last year Morikawa nearly made it a repeat, falling in a playoff to Thornberry. Bauchou was a member of the NCAA Champion Oklahoma State University Cowboys, and shot a 10-under 60 during last year's Sunnehanna.
Five-time USGA champion
Nathan Smith, who won the Sunnehanna in 2011 and
joined the Tournament Committee for this year's tournament, will also be in the field.
The Sunnehanna Amateur was inaugurated in July of 1954 -- it was the first country club sponsored 72-hole stroke play competition for amateurs in the United States. The tournament is played on a classic A.W. Tillinghast design. Only one other amateur tournament in the United States can list the likes of Chick Evans, Arnold Palmer, Julius Boros, Art Wall, Jack Nicklaus, Phil Mickelson, Tiger Woods, and Rickie Fowler as contestants: the United States Amateur. For Nicklaus, it was his first-ever major amateur event, as he finished 5th as a 15-year-old in 1956.
ABOUT THE Sunnehanna Amateur
The Sunnehanna Amateur was inaugurated in
July of
1954 -- it was the first country club
sponsored 72-hole stroke play competition for
amateurs
in the United States. The
tournament is played on a classic A.W.
Tillinghast
design. Only one other amateur
tournament in the United States can list the
likes of
Chick Evans, Arnold Palmer, Julius
Boros, Art Wall, Jack Nicklaus, Phil Mickelson,
Tiger
Woods, and Rickie Fowler as
contestants: the United States Amateur. Its
medal
play
format has been emulated by
countless amateur tournaments across the
country.
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