ZIMBABWE’S Sean Crocker underlined his status as one of the leading amateur golfers in the world after advancing to the match-play portion of the prestigious US Amateur golf championship at Olympia Fields Country Club in Chicago, Illinois, on Tuesday.
BY DANIEL NHAKANISO
The 18-year-old rising star, who is on a golf scholarship at the University of Southern California (USC), fired a one-over-par 71 on Tuesday for a two-day 140 total to finish the 36 holes of strokeplay tied on 16th position.
Crocker, whose father Gary played Test cricket for Zimbabwe, in the process comfortably advanced to the 64-player match play which was scheduled to begin late last night through to the 36-hole championship match on Sunday.
In the opening round, Crocker kicked off the event with a nervy double bogey, but quickly regained his composure to finish with three birdies, two of them on the back nine for a one-under-par round of 69.
In round two, he was two-over-par after the 15 holes when he notched his third birdie of the round on the par-four 18th hole. Crocker will be one of the dark horses for the prestigious US Amateur Championship title after an impressive college season in which he helped USC to its best-ever best finish in the 2015 NCAA Championships, where they finished second.
The 115th US Amateur Championship, which began with 312 competitors for 36 holes of strokeplay is the oldest golf championship in the US, as it is one day older than the US Open.
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Throughout the history of the tournament which began in 1895, the US Amateur has been one of the most coveted of all amateur titles. Among the previous winners of US Amateur titles are five-time champion Bobby Jones, two-time champion Jack Nicklaus, 1990 champion Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods, who is the only player to ever win the US Amateur title three years in a row.
