Jino Sohn won his first major amateur event at the Southwestern Am
(SWGA photo)

Sohn (67-66-67-66-266) finished the tournament at 14 under par, four shots better than Sean Carlon (69-72-66-63-270) of Albuquerque, N. M., Chase Hanna (65-67-69-69-270) of Kansas City, Kan., and Blake Hathcoat (69-66-70-65-270) of Fresno, Calif.

Once again on Saturday, Sohn got off to a blistering start, birdieing three of his first four holes (Holes 1, 2 and 4), repeating his performance of Friday that helped forge a one-shot lead entering the tournament’s final round.

“I knew coming into today’s round that even par would not get the job done,” Sohn said, “so I tried to control my emotions and got off to another good start. I bogeyed the fifth hole, but came back with another birdie from five feet at the sixth hole, before doubling the par-three seventhwhen my tee shot came up short and went into the water.” After parring the eighth and ninth holes, the soft-spoken native of Honolulu made three birdies (Holes 10, 11 and 18) on the back side to secure the victory, fending off first-round leader Quade Cummins who shot a front-side five-under-par 30 to tie Sohn at the turn. Cummins faded on the back side, shooting a six-over-par 41 to finish at five-under-par 275, in a tie for ninth.

Sohn – who won the 2015 Arizona State High School Championship at Hamilton High School -- becomes the second consecutive winner of the tournament from Hawaii, joining last year’s champion, P. J. Samiere of Kailua. He also is the first Arizona State University Sun Devil player to win the prestigious championship since 1989 when Scott Frisch won his third consecutive (1987-89) Southwestern Amateur title.

Sohn said the win comes “at a great time for me as I look ahead to my summer schedule. I really did not finish my college season that way I wanted to, but I am hoping that this victory will get me into a number of big events later in the year. I really need to give a lot of credit to our coach Matt Thurmond who showed a lot of confidence in me at the end of the spring season. It helped my confidence and I am sure played a big role in this victory.”

Carlon – who started the day well back at three-under-par 207 – shot the round of the day with a seven-under-par 63 that included a double bogey five at the seventh hole.

The field of 67 players played under clear skies, hot temperatures approaching 105, and almost no wind.

Thirty-two of the 67 players who made the cut shot par or better for the 72-hole event. With the win, Sohn joins some illustrious past Southwestern Amateur champions, including Mark O’Meara (1980), Corey Pavin (1981), Tom Pernice, Jr. (1982), and current PGA Tour stars Ryan Palmer (1999), Nick Watney (2002), Kevin Dougherty (2012) and J.T. Poston (2013).