Mark Lawrence Jr. wins first match at US Amateur

Hokie golfer advances to Round of 32 on Thursday

August 16, 2017

Virginia Tech golfer Mark Lawrence Jr. defeated Derek Bard, 4 & 3, in the Round of 64 of match play at the 2017 U.S. Amateur Golf Championship on Wednesday afternoon. The weeklong event is being played at the Riviera Country Club in Pacific Palisades, California.

Lawrence, a rising junior from Richmond, Virginia, jumped out to a two-hole lead through the first three holes, but was all-square at the turn. On the back nine, Lawrence reclaimed the lead on the 10^th hole and, when he birdied the par-4 15^th, claimed the 4 & 3 victory over Bard, a recent UVa graduate from New Hartford, New York. Bard had advanced into match play through a 13-for-8 playoff on Wednesday morning.

Lawrence advances to the Round of 32 of match play on Thursday morning at 8:55 a.m. He will face the 39^th seed Tyler Strafaci of Davie, Florida and Georgia Tech. The winner of that match will face the winner of the Garrett Barber/Shae Wools-Cobb match in the afternoon Round of 16.

The field of 312 golfers was cut to 64 players following two rounds of stroke play, playing both Riviera and Bel-Air Country Clubs. All rounds of match play are being played at Riviera and will be broadcast by either Fox, FS1 or usga.org, culminating in a 36-hole final match, to be played on Sunday, Aug. 20.

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