Grant Roscich celebrates his winning putt on the final hole of the Sunnehanna Amateur.
Sunnehanna Country club
Grant Roscich captured the Sunnehanna Amateur on Saturday by one stroke at Sunnehanna Country Club, carding a walk-off birdie on the final hole of the wind-shortened championship to win. His 10-under-par 200 total for 54 holes bested an elite field of domestic and international amateurs in the first event of this year’s Elite Amateur Golf Series.
A rising junior at the University of North Carolina, Roscich opened with a 5-under 65 on Wednesday to seize a share of the first-round lead. However, he and the other competitors faced blustery adversity during the second round, as wind gusts upwards of 40 mph ripped across the course.
With Sunnehanna’s exposed location and undulating architecture, the weather pushed the course past its playable limit. Tournament organizers decided to cancel Thursday’s round, truncating the championship to 54 holes for the first time since 2016.
“There was a massive disparity between scores in the morning wave and scores in the afternoon,” said John Yerger, co-chairman of the event. “We just felt like for the fairness of the field, we should scrub the round.”
Despite Thursday’s brutal conditions, Roscich derived immense confidence from the 10 holes he completed before play was called. The Tar Heel had a spotless 2-under round going when the horn blew, a performance that buoyed his mental state despite not counting toward his total score.
“That was such a big thing for me because I’m like, ‘OK, you were bogey-free in 40 mph winds – when other guys are struggling a little bit, you’re holding your own,’” Roscich said. “We [UNC Tar Heels] always talk about that whenever it gets too tough for them, it’s just right for us.”
“It's awesome to win at a place like Sunnehanna. To come here in my first year and do something like I did today was incredible.”
Grant Roscich
Roscich fired a confident 66 on Friday to take a one-stroke lead into Saturday, with Illinois’ Jake Birdwell drafting close behind. Roscich battled tough conditions in the final round, which kept him at even par for the day, unable to separate from the mounting challengers. Stepping to the final tee, he was tied at 9-under par with Birdwell and Guatemalan Gabriel Palacios, who was comfortably in the clubhouse after posting a scintillating 7-under 63.
Roscich knew he needed birdie to win. A great tee shot and solid wedge left him with a 25-foot, double-breaking try for the trophy.
“I thought I left it short when it was rolling,” Roscich chuckled. “Then I saw the ball drop and I was just like, ‘Oh thank God.’”
Tucked away in the hills of western Pennsylvania and designed by A.W. Tillinghast, Sunnehanna Country Club has hosted its namesake amateur in various forms since 1936. The event’s rich history has made it a steel-country staple, with past participants including Tiger Woods, Jack Nicklaus, Ben Crenshaw, and Arnold Palmer. To Roscich, this textured past made Saturday’s triumph even more meaningful.
“It's awesome to win at a place like Sunnehanna,” he said. “To come here in my first year and do something like I did today was incredible.”
Roscich will ride the momentum from this weekend’s win straight into the Northeast Amateur, which kicks off Wednesday. The Northeast is the second event in the Elite Amateur Golf Series, a collection of seven premier amateur tournaments across the country that run consecutively in June and July. Having just claimed the collection’s initial title, it’s a stretch of competitive golf where Roscich is seeking to impress.
“I got it done today with not my best stuff, which is a great thing for confidence,” Roscich said. “It’s just stacking shot after shot, building that self-belief, building that confidence to go into the rest of summer.”
RESULTS
Daniel Polce
