GREENSBORO, N.C. – Three Guilford College golf alumni enjoyed successful days Monday in prominent tournament play. Andrew Biggadike ’02 and Jeff Osberg ’06 both shot two-under-par in the first round of stroke play at the U.S. Amateur Championship in Colorado to share 19th place in the 312-man field. Closer to home, Savio Nazareth ’02 qualified for his third Wyndham Championship by winning a four-man playoff at Forest Oaks Country Club.
Biggadike shot 68 Monday on the par-70, 7,378-yard Common Ground Golf Course in Aurora, Colo. The first-time U.S. Amateur qualifier played a steady round that included four birdies and two bogeys. He showed little signs of nerves as he birdied the first hole en route to one of 31 sub-par rounds on the Common Ground layout.
Osberg, in his third U.S. Amateur, opened play on the par-71, 7,409-yard Cherry Hills Country Club layout. Starting on the 10th tee, Osberg was even through nine holes but birdied the second and third holes to go two under. His fourth birdie of the day, on the par-three eighth hole, dropped him to three under, but he finished with a bogey five on the ninth hole. Osberg’s 69 was one of only 14 sub-par scores among the 156 contestants who played Cherry Hills Monday.
The players switch courses Tuesday for the second and final round of stroke play. Biggadike, a three-time PING NCAA Division III All-American at Guilford, goes off from the 10th hole at Cherry Hills Tuesday at 2:00 p.m. (MDT). Osberg, a 2006 PING Second Team All-American for the Quakers, has a 2:05 p.m. (MDT) start from the first hole of the Common Ground course. The low 64 scorers advance to match play, which features six rounds, including a 36-hole final scheduled for Sunday beginning at 8:30 a.m. (MDT).
Nazareth, who played with Biggadike on Guilford’s 2002 NCAA Division III national championship team, used an extra hole to qualify for this week’s Wyndham Championship at the Sedgefield Country Club. An assistant pro at Greensboro’s Starmount Forest Country Club, Nazareth shot six-under 66 to finish in a four-way tie behind winner Vaita Guillame (-7).
The second-place quartet moved to a playoff to determine the three remaining qualifying spots. David Sanchez birdied the first playoff hole, while Nazareth and Tyler Rody made two-putt pars. Paul Brown bogeyed the hole and was the odd man out.
A two-time All-American and Guilford’s career stroke average leader, Nazareth reached the Wyndham for the second year in a row. “I want to make the cut this time,” Nazareth told the Greensboro News & Record Monday. “That’s the first goal. I just want to finish as high as I can, and that starts with making the cut.”
Nazareth opens play Thursday at Sedgefield.