Sahalee Players Championship: Illinois, Summerhays take the titles
Illinois Men's Golf Team (Illinois Athletics Photo)
The Illinois Fighting Illini Men's Golf Team is off to a hot start this season after winning the 2023 Sahalee Player's Championship at Sahalee Country Club in Sammamish, Wash.
Illinois shot 1-under par, winning by eight shots over solo second-place finisher Arizona State, who shot 7-over. The Fighting Illini had their best round in round two, shooting a team score of 281, better than any other team round score by five rounds.
Washington finished in solo third place at 10-over, Arizona finished in solo fourth place at 12-over, and Duke finished in solo fifth place at 16-over.
In the individual competition,
Preston Summerhays of Arizona State defeated Illinois freshman
Max Herendeen in a playoff to win.
With the win, Summerhays gets an exemption into the Fortinet Championship this week in Napa Valley.
Summerhays finished 5-under after rounds of 72-67-72.
Herendeen also finished 5-under after rounds of 74-64-73 but lost in the playoff to Summerhays to finish in solo second place.
Herendeen grew up just minutes from Sahalee Country Club in Bellevue, Wash.
Filip Jakubcik of Arizona finished in solo third place at 1-under, and Chuan-Tai Lin of Washington finished in solo fourth place at even-par.
Summerhays went 2-1-1 in helping USA win another Walker Cup earlier this month, and the two-time All-American has now won two of his past five events, as he also captured the 2023 ASU/Thunderbird Intercollegiate in April.
It marked his second career win and his fifth top-five finish as he tied for fourth at the 2023 Valspar Invitational, the 2023 National Intercollegiate, and tied for fifth at the 2023 Cabo Collegiate.
ABOUT THE
Sahalee Players Championship
Inaugurated in 1992, the Sahalee Players
Championship (SPC) was a major summer amateur
event until 2019 when it was
discontinued. In 2023, it was converted into a college
event hosting the top men's
teams in the country. Team (best four scores out of five
players each round) and
individual competitions.
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