Ghim Medals at Western Amateur


Doug Ghim, an 18-year old from Arlington Heights, Ill., became the first Chicago-area golfer in 30 years to head into the final rounds of the Western Amateur as the medalist.

The leader going into the third round, Ghim has posted rounds of 2-over 73 and 6-under 65 to finish the 72-hole stroke play portion of the championship at 14-under-par 270 at The Beverly Country Club in Chicago.

The last Chicago-area medalist at the Western Amateur was Roy Biancalana, of Franklin Park, a Chicago suburb, in 1983.

Ghim, an incoming freshman at Texas and the runner-up at the recent U.S. Public Links, ended up two strokes ahead of Josh Munn of New Zealand and SMU's Bryson DeChambeau.

"Looking at the names on the trophy, it's pretty cool," Ghim said of winning medalist honors. "To be associated with Bob Jones, Phil Mickelson, Ben Crenshaw . . . is pretty cool. The tournament's not over; the first half is just done. It's time to get ready for (Friday)."

Ghim and 15 others qualified for the match-play segment of the 112th Western Amateur, whose winner must win four 18-hole matches to win the championship - approximately 144 holes total. Match play begins Friday, and the final will be played Saturday afternoon.

Among others, Ghim will be joined in the quarterfinals by fellow Longhorns Scottie Scheffler of Dallas and Beau Hossler of Mission Viejo, Calif. Hossler tied for seventh at 8-under par, while Scheffler shared 12th at 6-under.

Also qualifying were four players from Australia: Geoff Drakeford, Taylor MacDonald, Cory Crawford and Lucas Herbert.

The above report is courtesy of the Western Golf Association. For more information and scoring details, visit http://www.wgaesf.org.