Sam Horsfield maintains his lead at The 96th Florida State Amateur Championship at Jupiter Hills Club in Tequesta, Florida. Yesterday, Horsfield shot a cool three-under 67 with four birdies, one bogey, and thirteen pars posted to his scorecard. Today was a different story for the 16-year-old from Davenport, Florida. During today’s roller coaster round, Horsfield went bogey, triple bogey on his first two holes. His three-under tournament total quickly transformed to a one-over tournament total. Suddenly, the leaderboard opened up and started to look pretty crowded. However, Horsfield quickly bounced back with back-to-back birdies on holes four and five, but gave the strokes back immediately at holes six and seven where he made back-to-back bogeys. Horsfield seemed to get in a grove after hole seven, making pars and birdying holes nine and sixteen. Horsfield's third round of 38-34-72 gives him a total tournament score of 211 and a five shot lead over Alex Gates.
Alex Gates, of Clermont sits alone in second place after a third round score of 73. With a tournament total of 71-72-73-216, Gates will tee it up in the final group five shots off the lead.
Thad Hudgens, of Longwood, and Nick Brothers, of Crystal River, are tied for third at 217. Both will tee it up tomorrow in the final two groups with hopes of catching 16-year-old Sam Horsfield.
The field was cut to 74 players following round two. Both courses played extremely difficult to the best amateurs in the state the first two days, with the par 70 Hills course playing to a 79.6 stroke average and the par 72 Village course playing to a 78.3 stroke average. Clearly a superb venue for championship golf, Jupiter Hills Club was host to the 1987 US Amateur Championship.
Started in 1914, the Florida Amateur Championship is the oldest continuous sporting event in the state as well as the largest amateur event in Florida. Past Amateur champions include Bob Murphy, Jerry Pate, and PGA Tour players David Peoples, Chris Couch, and Barry Cheesman.
