Holbrook & Shipley Still Tied in Trans-Miss; Warian's Back-9 Birdie Binge Gets Him to T11

National

DALLAS -- Jake Holbrook and Neal Shipley were tied for the lead on Tuesday after the first round of the 2023 Trans-Mississippi Amateur Championship, along with Jack Buchanan and Owen Stamper. They all shot 4-under-par 66s at Brook Hollow GC. In the second round, Holbrook and Shipley separated themselves from Buchanan and Stamper by shooting matching 65s, and were co-leaders by themselves. That doesn't happen very often in bigtime amateur golf tournaments. What happened on Thursday was even stranger. Not only did Holbrook and Shipley shoot the same score for the third day in a row, a 69, but they each made four birdies and three bogeys. 

So they're still tied for the lead, at 210 (10 under) going into Thursday's final round. 

As if what they've done didn't seem against the odds, their two closest pursuers, Andrew Goodman and Wenyi Ding, also remained tied for third by shooting 67s. They are tied for third, one behind at 201. 

Holbrook, a Texas native, will be a senior for Oklahoma this fall -- and Goodman is a teammate of his. Their rounds were distinctly different on Thursday. Holbrook made an early bogey at the third hole, but then birdied the fifth and sixth holes. On the back nine, he bogeyed the 10th and birdied the 12th. Goodman, on the other hand, made seven birdies. He had only three pars on the front nine and was even for the round after he bogeyed the 12th, but he birdied the 14th, 17th and 18th holes to rejoin Ding in their tie for third place. Ding did his best work on the front nine, with three birdies and no bogeys, After losing a stroke with a bogey at the 12th, he got it back wtih a birdie at the par-5 14th.

Shipley, who will be a fifth-year senior at Ohio State in the fall, did not get off to a promising start. He bogeyed the first two holes, but was back to even for the round by the time he made the turn, thanks to birdies at the fourth and eighth holes. Like Holbrook, he bogeyed the 10th, but he birdied the 14th and 18th to end the day exactly where he started, relative to Holbrook.

Ben Warian, a soon-to-be Minnesota senior from Stillwater (he played high school golf at Hill-Murray), was tied for fifth after a first-round 67, but he fell back when he shot 71 on Wednesday. The Gophers' No. 1 player for virtually all of the 2022-23 season was still languishing outside the top 20 when he posted an even-par 35 for the front nine and bogeyed the 10th to start the back side. But he birdied three of the next four holes and added another birdie at the 18th for a 67, and he will start the final round tied for 11th at 205, two shots out of sixth and five out of first..

Cecil Belisle, a two-time MGA Players champion from Red Wing who won the Minnsota State Open in 2021, has made only two birdies in each of his three rounds, but he hasn't made all that many bogeys,  either -- seven. He shot 70 for the second time in three days on Thursday, and he's at 211, tied for 39th place.  He and his Kansas teammate Gunnar Broin both made the cut on the number (141), but Broin shot 75 on Thursday and is in 56th place at 216. 


Trans-Mississippi Amateur 

At Brook Hollow Golf Club

Par 70

Dallas

Third-round results 

T1. Jake Holbrook        66-65-69--200 (10 under)

T1. Neal Shipley           66-65-69--200

T3. Andrew Goodman  68-66-67--201

T3. Wenyi Ding             67-67-67--201

5. Lance Simpson         68-69-65--202

T6. Marzilio Vicente      67-70-66--203

T6. Kazuma Kabori.       68-69-66--203

T8. Evan Beck               69-68-67--204

T8. John M. Butler         68-68-68--204

T8. Matthew Troutman   68-68-68--204

T11. Ben Warian           67-71-67--205

T11. Riley Lewis              71-66-67--205

T11. Nicholas Dunlap      71-65-69--205

T39. Cecil Belisle           70-71-70--211

56. Gunnar Broin           69-72-75--216

Missed cut -- 141

Carson Herron                 70-75--145