Ben Warian, a recent University of Minnesota graduate, recorded the biggest victory of his amateur career on Saturday by capturing the Sunnehanna Amateur in Johnstown, Pennsylvania.
Warian, a left-hander from Stillwater, Minnesota, shot 13-under-par 267 at Johnstown Country Club to win by one stroke over Jase Summy, an Oklahoma sophomore from Keller, Texas.
Warian opened with a 5-under 65 to take the first-round lead, but for most of the next three rounds, the leaderboard was bunched. Warian birdied two of his final four holes to shoot a bogey-free 64 and come from behind to win.
Summy surged in front early on the back nine of the final round with a birdie-eagle-birdie-birdie run on Nos. 10-13 before fading with two bogeys in his final five holes.
Patience was the key to his victory, Warian told GGP.
“You can’t force things at Sunnehanna,” he said of the opening event in the seven-tournament Elite Amateur Golf Series. “It took a lot of patience. I had to stick to my game plan and just take advantage of opportunities as they occurred.”
Summy faced a 4-foot birdie putt on the final hole that would have forced a playoff, but it slipped past the hole, enabling Warian to prevail on the A.W. Tillinghast-designed golf course.
Warian, who is No. 110 on the World Amateur Golf Ranking, was a standout player at Minnesota. In his junior year, he set the Gophers’ season scoring record at 70.69. He ended his college career last month with a runner-up finish at the Stanford regional before he placed 25th at the NCAAs.
He is pointing toward the U.S. Amateur, to be played August 12-18 at Hazeltine National Golf Club in Chaska, Minnesota, less than an hour’s drive from his home.
After that, he intends to turn professional.
RESULTS
Kristoffer Kuvaas won the Southwestern Amateur men’s tournament in a two-hole playoff over Johnny Walker after both players signed for 12-under-par 276 totals at Desert Mountain’s Outlaw course on Saturday in Scottsdale, Arizona.
Kuvaas, a native Norwegian who lives in Houston, Texas, and is a sophomore at Pepperdine, began the final round five shots off the pace. He racked up 10 birdies in posting a tournament-low 9-under 63 to tie Walker, who played his last 12 holes in 6-under.
“I had a nice round today, so it feels good to get some validation,” Kuvaas said.
Leigh Chien played bogey-free golf over the final 36 holes and cruised to victory Saturday in the Southwestern Women’s Amateur in Scottsdale, Arizona.
Chien, a Stanford recruit from Irvine, California, closed with a 6-under 66 for a 14-under 274 total at Desert Mountain’s Outlaw course.
“It feels amazing to win,” said Chien, who will enroll at Stanford in the fall. “I haven’t won in a while, so being back in the winner’s circle feels great.”
Taiwan’s Yu-Chu Chen and Cindy Hsu shared second place with Kendall Turney, a recent James Madison graduate from Chesapeake, Virginia, at 8-under 280.
The tournament is the second of five events in the Women’s Elite Amateur Golf Series.
Jim Nugent