Justin Suh of USC
(USC Athletics Photo)
RUMFORD, RI (June 22, 2018) - Coming off a banner season that included five individual wins for USC, Justin Suh is one round away from a banner Major of Amateur Golf title. Suh played a steady third round of golf at the Northeast Amateur and at 12-under he will carry a three shot lead into the final round at Wannamoisett Country Club.
Suh, a rising senior for the Trojans, led by as many as five during Friday's third round before coming back to the pack a bit throughout the day. The day began with birdies on each of the first two holes and then added another on the 6th to quickly reach 13-under. The early magic however would disappear for a stretch as Suh bogeyed Nos. 7 and 8 to come back to the field a bit.
Birdies followed on the 9th and 13th holes to return Suh to 13-under before a dropped shot on the 15th saw the San Jose, CA native settle at 12-under for 54-holes.
Pepperdine's Joshua McCarthy fired the round of the day, a 6-under 63, to jump to 9-under and second place. McCarthy turned in a fairly quite 1-under 33 before catching fire on the second nine with a bogey-free 5-under 30. The birdies fell on the 10th, 13th, 14th, 16th and 18th holes.
Cincinnati's Austin Squires remained near the lead and he will begin Saturday sharing third with Vanderbilt's Will Gordon at 8-under while Cal's Sebastian Crampton is 6-under in fifth.
Defending champion Collin Morikawa of Cal will head into the final round tied for 29th at 1-over while U.S. Open co-low amateur and New England native Matt Parziale backed up into a tie for 39th at 3-over.
SECOND ROUND RECAP
For much of the second round Justin Suh didn't have much going on. One day after firing a 6-under 63 to share the first round lead of the Northeast Amateur Suh was just plodding along with a nice round going but nothing more.
However, with three holes remaining at Wannamoisett Country Club Suh found lightening in a bottle as he birdied the last three holes in succession to jump from 7-under for the tournament to 10-under and two shots clear of the field.
Early in the day the USC rising senior struggled to find his grove from yesterday and after just two birdies and a bogey through the first 14 holes he was only 1-under for his round.
Vanderbilt senior to be Will Gordon surged up the leaderboard with the round of the day, a 5-under 64, that moved him to 8-under and second place. An All-SEC First Teamer, Gordon birdied four-times and bogeyed only once while the highlight of his round came on the par-5 17th where he recorded an eagle.
LSU's Jacob Bergeron moved into third place with a 3-under 66 and at 7-under he is three off the pace, first round co-leader Austin Squires of Cincinnati struggled to a 1-over 70 on Thursday as he dropped to fourth place and 5-under while last weeks U.S. Open co-low amateur Luis Gagne of LSU is fifth at 4-under.
Defending champion Collin Morikawa of Cal started the day where he began it at 2-under and he is in a tie for 12th.
Fresh off his shared low amateurs honors at the U.S. Open Matt Parziale was much better in the second round shooting a 4-under 65 to reach 1-under and a tie for 17th.
ROUND ONE RECAP
A loaded field has once again made its way to Wannamoisett Country Club for the 57th playing of the Northeast Amateur. Annually one of the best fields in amateur golf, the par-69 Donald Ross layout yielded some low scores during Wednesday's first round.
The day one overnight lead will be shared by Justin Suh and Austin Squires, both of whom carded 6-under 63's on their way to a two shot advantage.
Coming off a tied for 11th showing at the Sunnehanna Amateur Suh, the fourth-ranked player in the Golfweek/AmateurGolf.com Rankings, began his round on No. 10 and after opening with two pars he kick started his round with the first of his six birdies on the par-3 12th. A birdie on the short par-4 14th followed and so did a birdie on the courses lone par-5 the 17th as Suh, a rising senior at USC headed for his second nine in 3-under 32.
A five-time winner this past season for the Trojans, Suh continued his run with a birdie on the straight away par-4 1st hole and then capped his round with birdies on Nos. 8 and 9 to cap a bogey-free day.
Co-leader Austin Squires, who shared 11th at the Sunnehanna last week, rolled in eight birdies on Wednesday while bogeying twice. Squires, a senior to be at Cincinnati, started his day on the 10th and was even-par through seven holes after carding two birdies and two bogeys. However, from the 17th hole on Squires was lights out. Beginning with a birdie on the par-5 17th, the two-time All-AAC performer, played mistake free golf the rest of the way with six birdies in the final 11 holes.
Sitting in third place two shots back are Spencer Soosman (Texas) and Jacob Bergeron (LSU) following 4-under 65's. Soosman birdied five-times during his round and carded his lone bogey on the 17th.
Bergeron, fresh off his U.S. Open appearance, made his way around Wannamoisett Country Club with five birdies and one bogey. The LSU product did most of his work midway through the front nine with three straight birdies on Nos. 5-7.
A logjam of players are sharing fifth at 3-under including Will Gordon (Vanderbilt), David Laskin (Arizona) and Isaiah Salinda (Stanford) and Jacob Bergeron (LSU).
Defending champion Collin Morikawa (Cal) shared the lead early in the day at 4-under before settling for a 2-under 67 that leaves him four back in a tie for eighth.
Fresh off his shared low amateurs honors at the U.S. Open Matt Parziale shot a 3-over 72 that puts him in a tie for 54th.
ABOUT THE
Northeast Amateur
The Northeast Amateur has a historic list of winners,
including Ben Crenshaw, Dustin Johnson, Collin
Morikawa, Luke
Donald,
Scott Hoch, John Cook, Hal Sutton, and David Duval.
It
has been annually held at the Donald Ross-designed
Wannamoisett Country Club since 1962. The event
is
limited to 90 elite players; there is a cut after 54
holes
and the entire tournament is played in twosomes.
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