Hitchner Continues to Roll, Nearly Sets Course Record with 64 to Begin MGA Amateur

July 19, 2021 | 4 min.

 
By Nick Hunter
nick@mngolf.org
 
 
MAPLE GROVE, Minn. – Continuing what has been a remarkable stretch of golf during the month of July, Pepperdine University’s Derek Hitchner carded a bogey-free 8-under 64 Monday at Rush Creek Golf Club to take the first-round lead of the 118th Minnesota Golf Association Amateur Championship.
 
Hitchner began the month by winning the 117th Trans-Mississippi Amateur Championship at Windsong Farm and followed it by qualifying for his third U.S. Amateur a few days later. Falling in a playoff at the Minnesota State Open at Chaska Town Course Thursday, Hitchner now looks improve on his 10th-place finish at last year’s tournament.
 
Over his last 14 competitive rounds, Hitchner has finished over par only once, playing his last 255 holes in a combined 35-under par.
 
“I have a lot of confidence in what I’m doing, but I know with how unpredictable golf is, that can change,” the 21-year-old Hitchner said Monday. “I’m trying to stay grounded and trying to continue to control what I can—hopefully it works out.
 
“[Today] was solid and pretty stress-free—I put the ball in the fairway, gave myself a lot of wedge shots and felt like they were fairly dialed in. I gave myself a lot of chances and got a few to go.”
 
Beginning his first round on the 10th tee Monday, Hitchner carded two birdies over his first three holes to quickly move into red figures before a string of birdies to close out his front nine.
 
“I chipped in on 16 from just off the green, so that was a nice catalyst and then had short birdie looks on 17 and 18,” he said. “I went from 2-under to 5-under pretty quickly and tried to sustain that on the back nine.”
 
A tap-in birdie at the second moved Hitchner to 6-under for the round before he rolled in his longest putt of the round, a 20-footer for birdie at the par-4 sixth.
 
The former Blake School standout wedged his approach inside of six feet at the eighth for his eighth and final birdie of the opening round to take a two-stroke lead over North Dakota State University’s Nate Adams, the University of Minnesota’s Ben Warian and Valparaiso University’s Caleb VanArragon.
 
Adams, who will begin his junior season for the Bison this fall, also began the championship on the back nine Monday, scattering three birdies over his first nine holes to turn in 3-under.
 
He would get to 4-under with a birdie at the second, but gave back a stroke with a bogey at the third. Adams would quickly rebound by finishing his first round with three birdies over his final five holes to card a 66.  
 
“My expectations were pretty high coming in this week, I played fairly well at the State Open—the last round I shot a 67, so I feel really good about my game,” said Adams, who tied a career-low for a tournament round with his 66 Monday. “I played here around 50 times last summer, so I’m very familiar with the course.
 
“I was really focused all day long and didn’t let any one bad shot get in my way. I hit a few poor drives, but I didn’t let it bother me and they didn’t get into any trouble. I was happy with the mental game today.”
 
Warian, a soon-to-be sophomore for the Gophers, played his opening nine in 1-under Monday before finding his footing with five birdies over a six-hole stretch to begin his back nine. The former Hill-Murray golfer dropped back to 5-under following a bogey at his 17th hole, but finished by rolling in his birdie chance on the final hole to earn a share of second at 6-under 66.
 
VanArragon, who will begin his junior season at Valparaiso later this year, began his day on the 10th tee with birdies on each of his first two holes to quickly climb the leaderboard to 2-under before taking a step back with a bogey at the 13th.
 
Carding back-to-back birdies to close out his front nine in 3-under, VanArragon carried momentum to his back nine, where he birdied the first for his third consecutive birdie to push him to 4-under.
 
After rolling in his birdie opportunity at the par-4 fourth, VanArragon dropped another birdie chance from four feet at the sixth and would finish his opening round with a 6-under 66 to join Adams and Warian in a tie for second.
 
Trey Fessler and 2018 champion Van Holmgren each carded rounds of 4-under 68 Monday and will begin the second round tied for fifth, four shots off the lead.
 
The 118th MGA Amateur Championship continues Tuesday when the second round gets underway at 7:30 a.m. at Rush Creek Golf Club.



 

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