2023 Sunnehanna Amateur June 14-17

The Sunnehanna Amateur was the first event on my schedule in the US. It was a long trip but I finally arrived into Johnstown, Pennsylvania on the morning of Sunday 11th around 11am after a 2 hour shuttle from the Pittsburgh airport. Overall, it was around 36 hours of traveling from when I left my house in New Plymouth to when I arrived at my host families house in Johnstown. Upon arrival in Pittsburgh airport I realized that my clubs where still in Houston airport which wasn’t ideal. This meant I missed out on the first practice round day on the Sunday but luckily they showed up on the Monday and I was able to play a couple of rounds before the tournament started.

One of the boys I’m traveling with had played the tournament last year and told us it was a tough course but the green complexes were nothing I could have prepared myself for. Tee to green the course was relatively easy and there was plenty of rain during the week to keep the course soft but the greens/pin positions were something I had never seen before. Through the first 2 rounds I had lost 8 shots on the greens relative to PGA tour average and sat in a tie for 68th position with rounds of 68 and 75, meaning I had to have a solid day 3 to make the cut of Top 60 and ties.

I couldn’t get anything going on the 3rd round and only managed a 1-under par 69 which put me outside the cutline by 1 stroke. I had a a couple of 25ft putts that just burnt the edges coming in and it just wasn’t meant to be. I wasn’t prepared for how tough the course was on and around the greens and it exposed me.

Rounds of 68, 75 and 69 gave me a +2 total and a Tied 62nd place finish.