Wellesley’s Thorbjornsen wins Junior Am
Wellesley’s Michael Thorbjornsen rallied to win the U.S. Junior Amateur yesterday in Springfield, N.J., beating fellow 16-year-old Akshay Bhatia 1-up in the 36-hole final on Baltusrol Golf Club’s Upper Course.
“I feel like this is probably the biggest junior event you can win, and I somehow managed to win it,” said Thorbjornsen, the first Massachusetts player to win the tournament. “It just feels amazing because I haven’t won a tournament in over a year now, so this is the perfect tournament for me to win.”
Thorbjornsen birdied the par-4 30th hole — after his drive hit a tree and landed in the fairway — to square the match. He took the lead for the first time on the par4 32nd, driving the 302-yard hole and 2-putting for birdie.
“I was really feeling confident at that time with a nice little fade,” Thorbjornsen said. “Just because if I hit a regular drive up 14, I’m pretty sure it would’ve gone long — and long on that hole is absolutely dead.”
On the par-4 closing hole, he hit a 42-foot birdie putt to 2 feet to set up the winning par.
Bhatia, from Wake Forest, N.C., missed a tying 4-foot birdie putt on the par-5 35th hole. On the 36th, he missed a 45-foot birdie try from the front fringe, giving Thorbjornsen the chance to end it with a par.
Thorbjornsen earned a spot in the 2019 U.S. Open at Pebble Beach and 2019 U.S. Amateur. With their semifinal victories, Bhatia and Thorbjornsen got spots in the U.S. Am next month at Pebble Beach.
“I’m pretty sure a lot of stuff hasn’t really sunk in yet, like the U.S. Am definitely, as well as the U.S. Open,” Thorbjornsen said. “But right when Akshay took off his hat and I realized it was over and I actually had won, I didn’t know what to do with my hands, with my hat. I didn’t know where to go. I was just smiling from ear to ear, so I was just really happy.”
Bhatia had a 3-up lead after six holes and was 2-up after 20. With the usual match-play concessions, Bhatia and Thorbjornsen each shot 2-over 144.
“I mean, every match was just a grind, even though I think it was my first four matches I didn’t have to play 17 or 18. Just throughout the whole day I just knew if I just keep playing my game it will be OK,” Thorbjornsen said.
“Then eventually I was down in some matches, but after getting through that and winning the semifinals match, that’s when I realized, OK, I can actually win.”
Lincicome misses cut
Brittany Lincicome missed the cut at the Barbasol Championship in Nicholasville, Ky., after shooting a 1-under 71, failing in her bid to become the first female golfer since 1945 to make the cut in a PGA Tour event.
The eight-time LPGA Tour winner with two major titles was the first woman since Michelle Wie in 2008 to play in a PGA Tour event. Lincicome had sought to join Babe Zaharias (1945) as the only women to make the cut.
But Lincicome faced a huge hurdle after an opening 78 left her near the bottom of the field. She had six birdies in yesterday’s raindelayed second round at Champions Trace at Keene Trace Golf Club, highlighted by an eagle 3 at 17. Her round included six bogeys, and she finished at 5-over 149.
Robert Streb, six-time PGA Tour winner Hunter Mahan, Tom Lovelady and Troy Merritt shared the third-round lead at 18-under after a busy day in which much of the field had to complete the second round before starting the third.